Dispelling the 3% Storyline: Systematic Review of Secondary and Postsecondary Education Outcomes for Young People with Foster Care Backgrounds

Background and purpose

Both in practice and research, the desire to better understand the relationship between foster care and education has grown tremendously since the enactment of the groundbreaking 1999 Foster Care Independence Act. However, despite a series of recent empirical inquiries, a ubiquitous narrative persists stating that less than half of young people with experience in foster care (YEFC) finish high school and just 3% earn a college degree (Pecora et al., 2005; Wolanin, 2005). This is partly because information from recent studies is scattered and not always easy to find. Thus, we conducted a systematic review to synthesize information on estimates of secondary and postsecondary education outcomes for YEFC.

Methods

We used the PRISMA method to conduct our systematic review. Informed by existing literature and expert input, we searched ten academic databases and white literature to identify relevant publications. This yielded 3,527 publications. We used six inclusion criteria to screen in studies: (1) published after 2000, (2) study participants in care after 2000, (3) study participants were in foster care on/after their 13th birthday, (4) study used a representative sample of YEFC, (5) study reported a secondary completion (high school diploma and GED) up to at least age 21, postsecondary enrollment up to at least age 21, and/or postsecondary completion up to at least age 25. After deduplication, 2,802 unique publications were reviewed by two reviewers to screen-in 74 publications. A second more thorough round of review was conducted by four reviewers to arrive at 17 publications that met all inclusion criteria. Both rounds utilized a blind review process. Conflicting assessments were resolved based on careful reexamination of the publication.

Results

Most publications were based on studies that had representative regional samples from a single state or multiple states, although two publications were national in scope. For secondary completion (based on 8 publications), rates ranged from 69% to 85%. For postsecondary enrollment (based on 13 publications), rates ranged from 29% to 64%, with the lower rates reported by studies that only assessed enrollment by age 21. Rates of postsecondary completion (based on 6 publications) came exclusively from regional studies and ranged from 8% to 11%. Just 3 publications reported differences by race for at least one outcome. One study did not find significant (p<.05) differences, and two studies found Asian/Pacific Islander youth had higher rates of postsecondary enrollment and completion, respectively, than youth of other racial identities.

Implications and Conclusions

Based on best available evidence, rates of secondary completion, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary completion are higher than commonly repeated statistics largely based on dated studies without representative samples. Importantly, of the included studies, few report outcome differences by race, which should be an important focus for future research. Findings show that many YEFC enroll in postsecondary education despite ongoing barriers. However, completion rates remain low, which shows the need to identify and implement practice and policy solutions that will improve college readiness and remove barriers while YEFC pursue higher education.