More good news about the positive effects scholarships have on the children and families who use them. A recently released Friedman Foundation study found that 97 percent of CSF Baltimore (CSFB) alumni graduated from high school, and 84 percent of CSFB alumni went on to enroll in college. High school graduation and college enrollment rates for students attending the city’s public schools are considerably lower.
The study, conducted by Alex Schuh’s FRONTIER 21 Education Solutions, also found that CSFB parents set high educational goals for their families, with 77 percent reporting they considered attending college “very important” for their children, and another 21 percent said attending college was “somewhat important.”
You can read more at the Friedman Foundation blog and download the full report here.
The Baltimore study results are consistent with research on CSF New York and other CSF partners, as well as other scholarship programs, which tells us that low-income children who attend tuition-based elementary schools are much more likely to graduate from high school and go on to enroll in college.
For example, last summer (2014), we surveyed the cohort of CSF New York alumni who graduated eighth grade in 2010. Seventy-eight (78) percent of the class responded to the survey, which is significantly higher than last year’s response rate of fifty-four (54) percent. We found:
- Of the CSF New York alumni who responded to the survey, 92 percent graduated from high school on time in 2014.
- Of those who graduated, 90 percent are now enrolled in college.
- The remaining high school graduates entered the workforce (2.8 percent) or the military (1.2 percent) or vocational school (0.4 percent) or did not report their plans (5.7 percent).
- Colleges where CSF New York alumni are now enrolled include: Columbia University; Cornell University; Culinary Institute of America; Fordham University; John Jay College; New York University; Smith College, and Villanova University.
