A report from the group Education Forward Arizona shows fewer than half of Arizona’s high school students enrolled in some form of college at the end of the 2021 school year.
Their analysis of the data reports a large increase in college enrollments from about one in four to more than half between 2005 and 2010. During the next decade, college enrollments remained above the 50% mark, peaking at 55.3% in 2017.
After a big drop in 2020, most likely due to COVID-19, the number of Arizona grads going to school hit 47.3% in 2021. Education Forward says the decrease was due to fewer kids attending Community College and other 2 year institutions.
The decline is happening among students of all ethnicities. Hispanics represent the largest group of students in the state, college enrollment peaked for them in 2017 at 50% but has since fallen nine points.
White students, the second largest bloc peaked in 2011 at 60% and fell seven points by the end of the 2021 school year.
The biggest drop occurred among black students. They peaked in 2014 with 57% college enrollment but are down ten points.
Native American students had the overall lowest peak of college enrollments at 41% in 2013 and numbers are down nine points. Asian students had the smallest drop, peaking at 80% enrollment in 2019 and are down five points.
When it comes to cities, Scottsdale is on top with nearly three in four students enrolling in college, up a point from 2020. Gilbert, Peoria, and Goodyear are all above the 50% mark. Goodyear students in particular saw an enrollment increase of over four points from 2020 to 2021.
Students in the state’s biggest city, Phoenix, enrolled at a pace below the state average, just 46.7%. Avondale had one of the lowest enrollment rates of any major Valley city, 40.6%, but also had a large annual improvement of 2.4 points from 2020 to 2021.
