To increase educational attainment levels, the process of preparing and applying for college needs to improve. Students need to know when to apply for financial aid, how to choose a college that matches their academic and social preferences, and develop awareness about what happens after college in terms of repaying debt and finding a job. There are many unknowns along the way, which is why so much attention today focuses on improving students’ "college knowledge" to help them navigate this process. But even if we fixed theprocess of college opportunity and all students became perfectly informed consumers, inequality would persist because of education deserts.
Increasingly, research suggests that where students live impacts their likelihood of attending college. Today’s college students are increasingly place-bound, working full-time, and are balancing a number of other responsibilities while taking classes. Their choices are determined by what is nearby, regardless of how much college knowledge they may have about alternative options. For them, it is not very helpful to know that a college hundreds of miles away would be a better academic fit or provide a better financial deal than the one down the road. A more intentional focus on the influence of place on student choices is driving our early understanding of what we term "education deserts," places in all 50 states where potential students confront limited college opportunity.
Read more at Brookings: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2016/04/11-education-deserts-sponsler-hillman