The Condition of Education: High School-to-College Transitions � The Quick and the Ed

The Condition of Education: High School-to-College Transitions � The Quick and the Ed

The Condition of Education: High School-to-College Transitions

by Chad Aldeman

This post is part of a series on the annual Condition of Education put out by the National Center for Education Statistics. See earlier posts on the dramatic increase in Master’s degrees awarded in education, the college wage premium, economic and racial segregation in our schools,student/teacher ratios, enrollment in for-profit colleges, and postsecondary enrollment by gender.
Each year for the past few years, a record number of college freshmen hit campuses all across the country. This is partly due to the baby boom echo, the children of Baby Boomers, but it’s also a function of the percentage of high school graduates who start college immediately after finishing high school. That number is at an all-time high.
In 1972, slightly less than half of all students completing a high school degree (including those earning General Educational Development diplomas) started at some form of postsecondary education the next fall. That number has inched up over the years, so that by 2008, nearly 70 percent did. And, while high-income students in 1972 were 41 percent more likely to enroll in college than their low-income peers, that gap has shrunk to 25.
This gradual rise has important consequences. First, it means the effort to expand college access is more or