Three Essays on Student Pathways Through High School and College

In this dissertation, I provide three essays on education policy focusing on student pathways through high school and college. In the first essay, I examine the impact of initial enrollment in community college on bachelor’s degree attainment compared to initial four-year enrollees. I use nationally representative student-level data from the Educational Longitudinal Study and an instrumental variable approach that leverage the cost of and proximity to two- and four-year schools that students face. In the second essay, I examine how being retained in high schools impacts students’ likelihood of high school graduation, college enrollment and persistence, and early career outcomes. I compare retained students to socially promoted ones in Maryland using a series of strategies, including a linear probability model, propensity score matching, and an instrumental variable approach. In the last chapter, I compare students who initially matriculate to a community college and then transfer to a four-year school to those that begin and persist at a four-year school. I examine their bachelor’s degree attainment using state administrative data from Maryland and multiple strategies, including an IV that exploits variation in the costs college students face over time and across the state. All three essays provide policy- and time-relevant policy implications that can help us better understand how to promote college and career readiness and successful pathways to bachelor's degree attainment.