The Education Department released a report last week, "Parent Expectations and Planning for College," that offers new insights into the factors influencing whether parents expect their children to enroll at four-year colleges. It suggests that many young people who could succeed at such institutions are not being encouraged by their families or schools to apply. Although other studies have similarly looked at families' expectations that children attend college, the new study, based on a 2003 survey of the parents of about 6,800 students in grades 6 through 12, breaks relatively new ground in teasing out how far parents expect their children to progress in higher education. The parents of nearly two out of three students expected them to earn at least a bachelor's degree, the report says. Some segments of society, however, are much likelier than others to believe their children will enroll in four-year institutions, with expectations varying substantially, based on their incomes and marital statuses and on their children's races, ethnicities, genders, and academic performances. In addition to reaffirming a large body of research that shows a strong correlation between college expectations and parental income and education, the study also found that children from single-parent families appeared to be at a significant disadvantage. They were substantially less likely than those from two-parent families to have parents who expected them to go to college, planned to help pay their college costs, or reported having enough information to begin planning to finance a college education.