72% of students whose parents didn’t attend college or another equivalent education continued their education at a post-secondary level, compared to 93% of students whose parents were college-educated, a US Department of Education study reveals.
This study aimed to find if students’ education level was in dependence of their parents educational achievements. Its key finding was that children whose parents had been enrolled in higher education levels were likely to attend higher education themselves, while those whose parents didn’t attend such higher education were likely to drop out.
A group of high school sophomores was tracked and taken data from 2002 to 2012. These students were divided into three groups based on the level of education their parents attained. The main finding of this study was that students whose parents had not attained higher levels of education were most likely to abandon school.
- 93 percent of students whose parents had a bachelor degree were enrolled in post-secondary education.
- 84 percent of students whose parents had at least college education continued their education in post-secondary educational level
- 72 percent of them whose parents didn’t ever attend a college continued at post-secondary education themselves.
Students whose parents didn’t obtain a higher qualification showed also a lower tendency to continue education at the doctoral level or professional programs.
Among students whose parents had not attained a college education, only 4% of them continued at doctorate level or professional programs. Those whose parents had at least some college education were a bit much expected to seek a doctorate or a professional qualification.
Finally, 10% of students whose parents had a bachelor degree continued at doctorate level or professional programs.
Among bachelor graduates in 2007/08, there was no difference in employability three years after they graduated whatever their parents’ education level was.
Regarding the US Department of Education report, the rate of employability of these graduates was between 57 and 59 percent.
Another finding of this study was that there was no significant difference in annual wages of employed graduates with different parental education.
Full time workers earned annually between $43,000 and $45,500 while part-time workers earned around $12,500 to $16,100.