Bridging the Gap: Academic Preparation and Postsecondary Success of First-Generation Students

This report examines the high school preparation and postsecondary persistence of first-generation students—those students whose parents had no education beyond high school—and compares them with students whose parents went to college. The analyses address the following question: were first-generation students who were otherwise equally prepared academically comparable to students whose parents went to college in terms of their postsecondary enrollment and performance and rates of persistence and attainment? The data indicated that, while first-generation status is negatively associated with academic preparation in high school and success in postsecondary education, rigorous preparation in high school substantially narrows the gap in postsecondary outcomes between first-generation students and their peers whose parents graduated from college.

Online Availability

• Browse the Executive Summary of this report.
• Download, view and print the report as a pdf file.
• Download the Table Parameter Files (TPF) files used for this report.