In October 1997, information about longer term impacts on students will be available. Two impacts emerge early on from Upward Bound. First, students who participate in the program expect to complete more schooling than similar students who do not. Second, the program has a positive impact on the number of academic courses participants take during high school, The students who benefit most initially are those with lower academic expectations. The program shows no impact in the first year on participants' high school grades.
Many students leave the program in the first year.
Most Upward Bound projects focus on providing a rich and challenging program. During the first year that students participate, Upward Bound bolsters the expectations for continued schooling that they and their parents hold Participants, expected to complete almost 25 more years of school on average than nonparticipants. Both groups of students typically experienced some decline in educational expectations between the time of application to the program and the follow-up survey. The decline, however, was much larger for the control group. According to participants, their parents expected them to complete about .3 more years of schooling than did parents ofchildren in the control group.