College and Career Preparation Activities and Their Influence on Post-High School Education and Work Attainment

Abstract

This study examined students’ participation in college and career preparation activities in high school, and the relationship between participation in these activities and students’ education and work attainment within one year of high school graduation. This study used the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009) dataset and participants included 12,217 public school students with 6,046 (49.49%) boys and 6,171 (50.51%) girls. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. Results indicate that socioeconomic status was the only significant predictor across all post-high school education and work outcomes. Significant predictors of post-high school education/work attainment were found but differed depending on which outcomes (i.e., education and/or work) were being considered.