In 2021, CapCAN conducted an equity audit to explore opportunities to engage our community to increase educational equity in college access. In preparation for this, we pulled dis-aggregated college access data from MISchoolData.org to examine college readiness and enrollment trends of students who are low-income, students who have an active IEP or 504 plan, and/or students of color. We confirmed that there are high disparities for these particular populations in college readiness and enrollment data, especially for the Class of 2021 that was exacerbated by the pandemic. However, this data is not unique to our community. Statewide, other communities saw trends similar to Ingham and Eaton counties.
Below we examine the college equity data for students who are economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities for both Ingham ISD and Eaton RESA. Our findings show that we still have a lot of work to do to continue to promote postsecondary opportunities for these groups of students.
Ingham ISD
It’s important to note that Ingham ISD percentages show a slight increase in college enrollment (54.2% enrolled in 2020 as compared to 56.8% of graduates enrolled in 2021), but when we look at the numbers, we see that there are over 300 less high school graduates for the class of 2021 than in the Class of 2020 (Class of 2021 had 2,666 graduates, and Class of 2020 had 3,011 graduates), The number of students enrolled in college dropped from 1,631 graduates enrolled in 2020 to 1,513 enrolled in 2021.
Due to this, we will also use the Class of 2019 in the comparison since the number of graduates was closer to the class of 2021 (Class of 2019 had 2,737 graduates of which 1,781 graduates enrolled in college).
When looking at socioeconomic status, we see that there has been a decline in the number of economically disadvantaged graduates enrolling in post secondary education from 2019. 48.7% of the Class of 2019 students who were identified as economically disadvantaged enrolled in college. That number dropped to 43% for the Class of 2021.
Ingham ISD numbers are higher than the State of Michigan average. 47.6% of economically disadvantaged Michigan graduates enrolled in college in 2019 as compared with 38.5% enrolled in 2021. While this is good news that Ingham is above the state enrollment rate, less than half of our economically disadvantaged students in Ingham enrolled in college in 2021.
Students who have a disability have more disparities in college enrollment with 33.2% of the Class of 2019 enrolled in postsecondary education. There was a steep drop in the Class of 2021 with only 25.7% of students with disabilities enrolling in college. This trend is very similar at the state level with 31.6% of students with disabilities enrolling in postsecondary education in 2019, and 23.8% in 2021.
Eaton County
Eaton RESA has shown a steady decline over the past few years in college enrollment, but this was heightened during the pandemic. The Class of 2019, size of 957 students, saw 54% of its graduates enrolled in post-secondary education. This number dropped to 46.8% in 2020 (Class size was 1,115) and 43.3% in 2021 (Class size was 1,037).
Similar to Ingham County (48.7% to 43.0%) and Michigan (47.6% to 38.5%), there is a significant drop in college enrollment of ERESA students who are economically disadvantaged, 33.4% in 2019, and 26% in 2021. This is about 12 percentage points lower than the state average in 2021.
Eaton RESA rate of college enrollment among students with disabilities was at 26.6% in 2019 and declined to 22% in 2021. The 2021 enrollment number is closer to Michigan’s overall enrollment of students with disabilities in 2021 (23.8%), but still falls below the state average
When looking at this data, it is immediately apparent that there were significant drops in college attainment for students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged. CapCAN will continue to monitor the trends in the data using it to empower systems change through our collective partnerships. CapCAN continues to support College Advisers and Counselors in our region to help students navigate the college-going and financial aid process to help address these disparities. CapCAN has also partnered with the school districts to support students with disabilities to understand how to use their IEP for accommodations in college.
If you or a student need assistance in the college-going process, please reach out to your College Adviser, School Counselor, or you can contact us at collegequestions@capcan.org to schedule a one-on-one appointment.