Welfare and Graduation Rates

Welfare and Graduation Rates
                                                          Claudia Angel
                                                              RES/341
                                                        August 1, 2010
                                                            David Lantz

                                                          Introduction
Research in determining if welfare affects high school graduation has led to some very staggering numbers. In the past, we have learned that, generally speaking, being on welfare poses a variety of problems and that it does or can effect a child’s education. There have been past studies that seem to prove this hypothesis and some that are inconclusive. Different variables in studies seem to continually pose a problem; cyclical welfare versus families on welfare consistently is just one of the problems. Team A is trying to determine if the research proves conclusive and what can be learned from it.
Welfare and Graduation Rates
    Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) indicate that 13.8% of a student who is on welfare have overlapping college enrollment (Table 1). When restricted to students who have completed high school or a GED, NLSY data show that 17.0 % of students on welfare are associated with college enrollment.
    Because the unit of analysis examined is regarding, there is the possibility that students may have more than one period of time where they are on welfare in order to make ends meet. As has been documented previously in the past, many welfare recipients cycle in and out of welfare receipt, resulting in multiple periods over time (Bane & Ellwood, 1983 Ellwood, 1986). As is shown in Table 2, more than half (56.9%) the welfare recipients in the NLSY have more than one welfare spell during the period examined.
    These same students, while attending college, also tend to do so in spells. A majority (53.9 %) of those who attend...