Selectivity and Graduation Rates

By Scott Jaschik. Educators continue to debate "undermatching" -- the idea that many talented low-income students do not even apply to, let alone enroll at, the most competitive institutions to which they could gain admission. In the last two years, many prominent researchers have endorsed the undermatching thesis, which has attracted attention at the White House. But other researchers have published studies that have cast doubt on it. A paper being published today in American Educational Research Journal belongs in that latter group. Read more...