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New data: Higher ed has massive misconceptions about low-income student success

Contrary to a commonly-held belief that low-income students are more likely to struggle in a four-year institution, new data indicates students from low-income households are, in fact, likely to thrive in four-year institutions, according to a new survey.

Higher education institutions are relying on predictive analysis to make decisions about admission and resource allocation, but that process could perpetuate the under-representation of minority and low-income students, according to a survey released by vibeffect at EDUCAUSE [1].

The comprehensive survey includes data from students in 5,000 households, spans 1,000 institutions and covers 260 variables. Four comparison groups are used for analysis:

It reveals that students from low-income households ($35,000 household income and below) have an equal probability of earning a “high-thriving” designation on all dimensions of thriving, and often are equally represented in the highest-thriving group.

(Next page: What the results reveal about supporting low-income students)

Traits and Thriving

Close to 260 variables per student are collected in the national study including the following breakdown:

Challenging a Misconception

Of the students surveyed, 16 percent qualified as low-income students, and 15 percent of this population are considered high-thriving according to vibeffect’s College Optimizer Index (COI), which is part of a scientific model that measures a student’s personal, academic and social levels of thriving at four-year institutions. This is compared to the 11 percent of the students who qualified as high-income ($150,000 household income and above), of which 12 percent qualified as high-thriving.

Measuring race proportions in the overall population and the sub-groups of high-thrivers demonstrated that each race has equal opportunities of thriving; thus confirming that income does not significantly impact a student’s probability of thriving.

“We are releasing this data to challenge the commonly held perception that these individuals have a categorical deficit and cannot thrive in a variety of four-year college ecosystems,“ said Elena M. Cox, CEO of vibeffect. “These low income students, like their peers, want their college to take good care of them during this transitional period in their lives–but more than that, these students want their college to help them become a success story.”

More Findings

According to the survey:

The study also asks low-income high-thrivers currently in college to reflect back on various traits they identified with in high-school as traits that could be supported and encouraging at an earlier stage for more low-income students to be better prepared for college. For example, the low-income high-thrivers in the analysis more strongly identify with the following three traits as describing them before entering college:

For much more detailed analysis, including data on race, gender, work hours, real-world skills, campus touring, and much more, click here [2].