Barriers to Bachelor's Degree Completion among College Students with a Disability.

One of the fastest growing groups on college campuses is students with disabilities, but their rates of bachelor's degree completion remain low. We build on research about barriers to degree completion among historically underrepresented groups on college campuses to examine the extent to which academic preparation before college and processes during college contribute to gaps in bachelor's degree completion among four-year college students with a mental or physical disability. Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, we find that students with a mental disability are significantly less likely to complete a bachelor's degree than students without disabilities and students with a physical disability, net of students' family and academic background. Decomposition of the estimated indirect effect of mental disability on degree completion reveals first-year academic performance as the largest contributor. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for understanding the barriers faced by college students with a mental disability.

Cooling Out Undergraduates with Health Impairments: The Freshman Experience.

Students with health impairments represent a growing sector of the college population, but health based disparities in bachelor's degree completion persist. The classes students pass and the grades they receive during the first year of college provide signals of degree progress and academic fit that shape educational expectations, potentially subjecting students to a cooling out process (Clark 1960). Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS 04/09), we compare signals of degree progress and academic fit and changes in educational expectations between students with and without health impairments during the first year of college. We find that net of academic preparation, type of institution, enrollment intensity and first year experiences, students with mental impairments are more likely to lower their educational expectations after the first year of college, due partially to negative signals of academic fit. We find limited evidence that gaps in learning are related to the use of academic accommodations for students with health impairments. Our results suggest that students with mental impairments are disadvantaged in reaching first year benchmarks of degree progress and academic fit and are disproportionately cooled out.

Is the Sky Falling? Grade Inflation and the Signaling Power of Grades.

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they signal academic achievement and non-cognitive skills to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the signaling value of grades, undermining their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. We challenge the 'increases in grade point average' definition of grade inflation and argue that grade inflation must be understood in terms of the signaling power of grades. Analyzing data from four nationally representative samples, we find that in the decades following 1972: (a) grades have risen at high schools and dropped at four-year colleges, in general, and selective four-year institutions, in particular; and (b) the signaling power of grades has attenuated little, if at all.