Description
Book SynopsisAlthough foster youth have college aspirations similar to their peers, fewer than one in ten ultimately complete a two-year or four-year college degree. What are the major factors that influence their chances of succeeding?
Climbing a Broken Ladder advances our knowledge of what can be done to improve college outcomes for a student group that has largely remained invisible in higher education. Drawing on data from one of the most extensive studies of young people in foster care, Nathanael J. Okpych examines a wide range of factors that contribute to the chances that foster youth enroll in college, persist in college, and ultimately complete a degree. Okpych also investigates how early trauma affects later college outcomes, as well as the impact of a significant child welfare policy that extends the age limit of foster care. The book concludes with data-driven and concrete recommendations for policy and practice to get more foster youth into and through college.
Trade Review"
Climbing a Broken Ladder provides a rigorous collection of observational studies that outline the key challenges foster alumni face in their post-secondary education journeys and speaks to critical solutions that child welfare and higher education authorities should heed. This is a wonderful example of a cross-disciplinary study that yields equal importance to the social work and educational fields."— Angelique Day, University of Washington, Seattle, Co-Founder, National Research Collaborative on Foster Alumni in Higher Education (NRC-FAHE)
"Few studies have used long-term data on former foster youth to illuminate the challenges faced on the path toward college completion in such a balanced and confident way as
Climbing a Broken Ladder. Okpych’s work straddles both social work and educational studies while greatly advancing both fields." — Jacob Paul Gross, University of Louisville
Table of ContentsPart I: Background
Introduction
1. Framework for the Book
2. Description of the Midwest Study
Part II: Findings
3. Exploring College Outcomes
4. College Enrollment Patterns
5. Predictors of College Enrollment
6. Predictors of College Persistence
7. Predictors of Degree Completion
8. Role of Avoidant Attachment on Persistence and Degree Completion
9. Impact of Extended Foster Care on College Outcomes
Part III: Recommendations
10. Policy and Practice Steps to Increase College Enrollment and Completion
Appendix A: Statistics in Plain Language
Appendix B: Making Sense of Odds Ratios
Appendix C: What is Multivariable Regression and Why Do We Need It?
Appendix D: Description of Study Covariates
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
