LAUSR

Alternative university admissions models like the recent consideration of high school ranking by universities in Chile offer the promise of increasing access to higher education by considering academic performance in context of opportunities to learn. The intent is to employ this policy without sacrificing predictive validity of college success. This study explores the theory of action of the high school ranking policy, as well as the high school ranking’s ability to predict students’ persistence in higher education system and in Chile’s higher education institutions using logistic regressions with fixed and random effects (intercepts) and country-wide data. The theory of action shows a main focus on access and a less intense emphasis on the goal of predicting academic success. The access goal is addressed through considerations during the admission process, and there are few efforts geared toward recruitment and graduation. Results also suggest that the high school ranking marginally helps predict college persistence at the institutional level, but only among students attending traditional universities. In light of results, it is recommended that traditional institutions keep working collaboratively to provide new admissions processes that are transparent, equitable, efficient and predict college success.