First-Generation Students' Persistence at Four-Year Institutions.

Democratic doctrines of the United States continue to support and strengthen higher education participation rates for underrepresented and underprepared populations. In the U.S. Department of Education's Strategic Plan for Fiscal Year ^01^-18 (U.S. Department of Education ^01^), objectives include improving access, affordability, and degree completion by low-income and first-generation students, English learners, individuals with disabilities, and adults without high school diplomas. The current study focuses on the firstgeneration college student population.Federal TRIO programs define first-generation students as those for whom neither of their parents or guardians completed a baccalaureate degree (U.S. Department of Education ^011). A challenging aspect of first-generation students is that they are more likely than their non-first- generation peers to withdraw from college. Nunez and Cuccaro-Alamin (1998) used the 1990-9^ Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study data to investigate the attrition behavior of first-generation students and found that they were less likely to persist than their peers at two- and four-year institutions. In particular, approximately ^^ percent of first-generation students dropped out of four-year public institutions whereas approximately ^^ percent of non-first-generation students did so.Using the 199^-9^ Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study data, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) continued reporting a lower rate of college persistence among first-generation students (Warburton, Bugarin and Nunez ^001). Three years after matriculating at postsecondary education institutions, approximately ^8 percent of first-g? eneration students were still making progress toward bachelor's degrees compared to approximately 77 percent of students whose parents were both college educated. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Chen (^00^) reported a withdrawal propensity for first-generation students: Approximately ^^ percent of first-generation students left their postsecondary institutions without a degree whereas only ^0 percent of students with college-educated parents did so.In recent years, the U.S. Department of Education has been developing a new college rating system. Its design focuses on key critical measures of institutional performance, such as improving access, affordability, and student outcomes. One metric in this new system is the college success of first-generation students. Institutions that enroll greater proportions of first-generation students receive an incentive. Thus, it is imperative for these institutions to retain and graduate more first-generation students. Given the current federal policy climate, it is vital to better understand how first-generation students persist in college. Coupled with the most recent national data set, this study investigated the college withdrawal behavior of first-generation students.FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTSScholars and researchers have long documented how firstgeneration college students differ from their counterparts. Terenzini et al. (199^) found that first-generation students differed from non-first-generation students in fourteen of ^7 pre-college characteristics. One of the greatest differences was that first-generation students were more likely to come from low-income families (Nunez and Cuccaro-Alamin 1998, Terenzini et al. 199^). Nunez and Cuccaro-Alamin (1998) discovered that ^^ percent of first-generation students were from the lowest family income quartile whereas ^ percent of non-first-generation students were. Choy (^001) found that approximately ^^ percent of first-generation students who enrolled at postsecondary institutions in 199^-9^ were from families with annual incomes less than ^^^,000, compared to 18 percent of students with college-educated parents.First-generation students were more likely to be nonCaucasian (Chen ^00^, Lohfink and Paulsen ^00^). …