Postsecondary Enrollment during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Rhode Island

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of the social and economic lives of individuals, families, and communities. It also highlighted and deepened existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Education, too, was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Research has provided ample evidence about the challenges related to learning loss, access, and mental health among students in elementary and secondary schools. Students' achievement, attendance, and grade-level progression declined substantially more than expected during the pandemic (Fuller et al. 2023; Strunk et al. 2023). And students of color, low-income students, and those who attended high-poverty schools experienced substantially slower growth in their test scores during the pandemic as compared to their pre-COVID growth (Peters et al. 2023). This report builds on this emerging evidence, focusing on trends in Rhode Island and bringing granular, longitudinal, student-level administrative data to bear on the following questions: (1) How has postsecondary enrollment and persistence changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) Did students change the kinds of institutions in which they enrolled? (3) How do trends in enrollment and persistence compare across student subgroups (for instance, by race and socioeconomic status) and by institution type? and (4) How do students' high school experiences shape their postsecondary pathways?