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Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher Education

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Title: Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher Education
Language: English
Authors: Kelly, Andrew P., Schneider, Mark, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Source: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. 2011.
Availability: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 36
Publication Date: 2011
Sponsoring Agency: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Document Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools
Higher Education
Descriptors: Control Groups, Higher Education, Graduation Rate, Experimental Groups, Parent Attitudes, Information Utilization, College Choice, Shift Studies, Parent Materials, Parent Education, School Location, Mass Media Effects, Behavioral Science Research, High School Graduates, Statistical Surveys
Abstract: Spurred on by the Obama administration, and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation, the United States has embarked on a "college completion agenda" to increase the number of American adults with postsecondary degrees. While the push to improve consumer information in the higher education market has gained momentum, whether these improvements will lead to increases in degree completion depends on the answer to a basic question: "if consumers are provided with better information on quality and costs, will they use it?" This report aims to answer this question, using an experiment embedded in a survey of parental attitudes about higher education. The authors asked a representative sample of one thousand parents of high-school-age children in five states to choose between two public colleges in their state on the basis of their own judgments and real information that they provided to them. They randomly assigned parents to a control group in which respondents were given some basic information about a pair of colleges (for example, cost and selectivity) or a treatment group that received the same profile plus the graduation rate for each institution. Overall, they found that providing graduation-rate information increased the probability that parents would choose the institution with the higher graduation rate by about 15 percentage points. Perhaps most importantly, parents with less education, lower incomes, and less knowledge of the college application process experienced large and significant information effects, while more advantaged and better-informed parents did not significantly change their preferences. These findings suggest that providing additional information about college quality could lead less-informed and lower-income parents to make decisions that are similar to those made by the savviest consumers in the market. The authors further argue that the findings illustrate why individuals need to develop the means to collect and convey an array of institutional quality measures that allow students and their families to easily distinguish colleges from one another. Providing such information to enhance market efficiency and consumer choice in higher education is a governmental objective that policymakers of all ideological stripes should agree on. An appendix is included. (Contains 11 figures, 3 tables and 26 notes.)
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2011
Accession Number: ED514887
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
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  Data: Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher Education
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  Data: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org
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– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Spurred on by the Obama administration, and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation, the United States has embarked on a "college completion agenda" to increase the number of American adults with postsecondary degrees. While the push to improve consumer information in the higher education market has gained momentum, whether these improvements will lead to increases in degree completion depends on the answer to a basic question: "if consumers are provided with better information on quality and costs, will they use it?" This report aims to answer this question, using an experiment embedded in a survey of parental attitudes about higher education. The authors asked a representative sample of one thousand parents of high-school-age children in five states to choose between two public colleges in their state on the basis of their own judgments and real information that they provided to them. They randomly assigned parents to a control group in which respondents were given some basic information about a pair of colleges (for example, cost and selectivity) or a treatment group that received the same profile plus the graduation rate for each institution. Overall, they found that providing graduation-rate information increased the probability that parents would choose the institution with the higher graduation rate by about 15 percentage points. Perhaps most importantly, parents with less education, lower incomes, and less knowledge of the college application process experienced large and significant information effects, while more advantaged and better-informed parents did not significantly change their preferences. These findings suggest that providing additional information about college quality could lead less-informed and lower-income parents to make decisions that are similar to those made by the savviest consumers in the market. The authors further argue that the findings illustrate why individuals need to develop the means to collect and convey an array of institutional quality measures that allow students and their families to easily distinguish colleges from one another. Providing such information to enhance market efficiency and consumer choice in higher education is a governmental objective that policymakers of all ideological stripes should agree on. An appendix is included. (Contains 11 figures, 3 tables and 26 notes.)
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      – SubjectFull: Control Groups
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Higher Education
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      – SubjectFull: Graduation Rate
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      – SubjectFull: Experimental Groups
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      – SubjectFull: Parent Attitudes
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      – SubjectFull: Information Utilization
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      – SubjectFull: College Choice
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      – SubjectFull: Shift Studies
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      – SubjectFull: School Location
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      – SubjectFull: High School Graduates
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      – SubjectFull: Statistical Surveys
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      – TitleFull: Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher Education
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