Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Education Policy (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Education Reform

Advisor/Mentor

Cheng, Albert A.

Committee Member

Wai, Jonathan

Second Committee Member

McKenzie, Sarah C.

Keywords

Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment or Concurrent Enrollment courses; Asian immigrants; College access; Educational aspirations and expectations; English Language Learners; Immigrants

Abstract

For many years, the United States (U.S.) has been the country with the largest number of immigrants. As a result, policy about immigrant students’ success becomes crucial since it carries not only ethical implications but also economic and societal implications. While there have been other alternatives for students’ success, such as Career and Technical Education (CTE), undeniably, college is still seen as a common pathway to success (e.g., Choi, 2015; Heckman et al., 2018; Turner, 2004). Unfortunately, there are several gaps in the literature on immigrant students’ success and postsecondary outcomes. First, while there is an increasing number of immigrants residing in other southern states, including Arkansas (Bankston III, 2007), the majority of current literature about this topic comes from more populous states such as California, Texas, Florida, and New York (Aguilar, 2010; Flores et al., 2012). Since policies about immigrant students vary from one state to another, evidence from other states is needed for a more comprehensive understanding of immigrant students’ success. Second, past studies tended to aggregate immigrant students into a monolithic group, discounting their diverse postsecondary journeys. This dissertation seeks to examine the nuanced postsecondary outcomes of immigrant students across race and ethnicity groups, urbanicity, or socioeconomic status both at the national and state levels. In Chapter 2, I use nationally representative data of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine the relationship between parental aspirations and adolescents’ educational expectations and how this may have translated into students’ postsecondary outcomes among Asian populations in the U.S. Contrary to the typical portrayal of Asians as a monolithic group, I find that there are not only significant differences in parental characteristics and aspirations across Asian subgroups but also different postsecondary enrollment rates among Asian adolescents. In Chapter 3, I use administrative data from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) from 2007-08 to the 2018-19 academic years and the National Student Clearinghouse (NCS) of over 180,000 students who graduated from Arkansas public schools to examine Arkansas’ English Language Learners (ELLs) postsecondary outcomes. I find that, aligned with evidence from other states, ELLs in Arkansas are less likely to attend postsecondary institutions compared to their non-ELL counterparts, and the trend varies not only by urbanicity or socioeconomic status but across racial and ethnic groups. Since college-level courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) and Concurrent Enrollment (CE) courses are strong predictors of students’ college enrollment and long-term career success (Conger et al., 2023; Ebrahiminejad et al., 2021; Jackson, 2010), in Chapter 4, using the same data source, I examine the relationship between enrollment in AP and CE courses and student postsecondary outcomes. Despite the universal access policy in Arkansas that requires public school districts to provide students free access to these rigorous courses, enrollment in AP or CE courses still varies across students’ demographic backgrounds. Specifically, I find that low-income students, ELLs, and students from other minoritized backgrounds are less likely to enroll in these rigorous courses. I also find different enrollment rates for AP and CE courses across ELLs’ racial and ethnic groups. In Chapter 5, I synthesize my empirical findings and conclude that immigrant students’ experiences and postsecondary education journeys in the U.S. are diverse as immigrant students face various postsecondary enrollment challenges. Therefore, policies that center around these wide-ranging populations should move beyond the broad categorization of immigrant students and be tailored more to immigrant students’ specific needs by considering immigrant students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds, immigration history, family characteristics, and access to resources. Understanding these complexities might help policymakers to improve college access and academic success among immigrant students.

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