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Research Progress Update on Student Mobility

Kelsey Martinez, PhD, Researcher
December 11, 2019

I recently finished up the 2019 Longitudinal Intergenerational Poverty Research and am currently working on UDRC 2019 research agenda item #1. This research addresses student mobility within the state of Utah. Specific objectives of this research include examining: 1) post-secondary enrollment after graduation from a Utah public high school, and 2) high school graduate migration to post-secondary institutions within Utah.

This research will employ machine learning algorithms in Python to determine predictors of post-secondary enrollment in Utah and predictors of student migration to a different county or service region for their post-secondary education. Models will include student demographic information (gender, race, and ethnicity) in addition to county of origin, ACT score, median income of county of origin, and rurality of student origin.

The outcomes of this research will illustrate patterns of Utah high school graduate enrollment in post-secondary degree programs and locations where post-secondary enrollment excels and falls short. Furthermore, patterns of student migration within Utah will be identified and may provide insight to workforce or education needs in local economies.