Do Students who opt into ACTs Educational Opportunity Service Enroll in College at Higher Rates?

ACT Research & PolicyTechnical BriefJune 2017Do Students Who Opt into ACT’s Educational Opportunity Service (EOS) Enroll in College at Higher Rates?Joann Moore, PhDIntroductionStudents registering to take the ACT can opt into ACT’s Educational Opportunity Service (EOS). EOS provides accredited colleges and scholarship agencies with the names and contact information of students who opt in, so they in turn can provide students with marketing and recruitment materials to help students with their college planning. The service is free to students, whereas colleges pay a small fee for each student name selected.EOS is intended to benefit colleges directly by helping enrollment managers identify students within specific market segments in order to build a diverse and successful student body. EOS is also intended to benefit students who opt into the service indirectly by informing them of college and scholarship opportunities that they may not have previously been aware of or had not considered. The purpose of this study is to examine whether students do indeed benefit indirectly from opting into EOS. Two main research questions pertaining to the relationship between EOS participation and college attendance are addressed in this study:1. Do students who opt into EOS enroll in college at a higher rate than students who do not opt into EOS? 2. Are students who opt into EOS more likely to attend a four-year college (rather than a two-year college) than students who do not opt into EOS? BackgroundMost U.S. high school students aspire to attend a four-year college (ACT, 2016; Kane & Avery, 2004). However, too many of these students fail to take actions toward attending college, such as taking a national admissions test, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), or completing a college application (Kane & Avery, 2004). Students who aspire to attend college but fail to follow through disproportionately consist of students who lack information about college, including low-income, minority, and students whose parents did not attend college (Dynarski & Scott-Clayton, 2006; Plank & Jordan, 2001).Acknowledgement: The author thanks Ty Cruce for his input and review of earlier drafts.Joann Moore is a research scientist in Statistical and Applied Research specializing in prediction of secondary and postsecondary outcomes from academic and non-cognitive factors.www.act.org/policy-advocacyEmail research.policy@act.org for more information. © 2017 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved.R1652 ACT Research & Policy Do Students Who Opt into ACT’s Educational Opportunity Service (EOS) Enroll in College at Higher Rates?Better access to general information about the costs and benefits of a college education can increase students’ chances of pursuing a college education, especially among students who are originally uncertain of their decision to attend (Bettinger, Long, Oreopoulos, & Sanbonmatsu, 2012; Oreopoulos & Dunn, 2013). Students find college-specific information and contact with college staff to be highly relevant and moderately to highly useful in forming their college consideration set (Dawes & Brown, 2002). Finding the right college is also important for student success in college, as students are more likely to persist at a school that is a good match for their preferences (ACT, 2014a). Selecting colleges that are a better fit academically and that better align with one’s preferences also results in a greater likelihood of timely degree completion (Howell, Pender, & Kumar, 2016). One goal of EOS is to expose students to information about colleges that may not be in their consideration set, but may be a good fit both academically and with regard to their preferences. This study will examine whether having access to that information from EOS-participating colleges increases students’ likelihood of enrolling in college directly after high school, and among those who enroll, whether this access increases their likelihood of attending a four-year college as opposed to a two-year college.MethodsSample and Data SourcesThe sample for this study was the ACT-tested graduating class of 2014 (N = 1,845,787). Fifty-seven percent of the U.S. graduating class of 2014 took the ACT, including students from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. (ACT, 2014b). Data from the full ACT-tested graduating class was used to address the first research question about college enrollment. The second research question about the type of college attended was based on 69% (N=1,275,485) of the ACT-tested graduating class who enrolled in college directly after high school. Descriptive statistics for the study sample for each research question are provided in Table 1.The first data source for the study was students’ most recent ACT score report, which comprises information on students’ test scores, background characteristics, high school preparation and extra-curricular activities, and college plans and preferences. The second data sou