The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what…

A random sample of students who took the ACT test in either April or June of 2016 were invited to participate in an online survey via an email invitation (N = 35,0471). To study whether mailing post card invitations to students improves response rates, a portion of these test-takers were randomly assigned to be sent a post card. In addition,…

The current study examined characteristics of natural mentoring relationships (NMRs; i.e. mentoring relationships that develop organically with adults in one's pre-existing social network) among underrepresented college students as contributors to NMR retention across the first year of college. The sample consisted of 209 underrepresented college…

Focusing on a cohort of high school students from a Midwest metropolitan region, this study combines multiple sources of data and uses a multinomial logistic regression to model student postsecondary choices with respect to whether and where to attend college. Specifically, we examined the enrollment patterns by proximity to the home region and…

One key difference between successful and struggling college readers is their use of strategies. The former can understand challenging texts due to their knowledge of how to apply a diverse range of strategies. In contrast, the latter are frequently unaware of when and how to utilize strategies, and, as a result, often cannot comprehend assigned…

Using data from the Wabash National Study, authors examine how students' perceptions of campus climate influence growth in students' social and political activism. The goal of this article is to determine to what extent, if any, students' perceptions of the campus environment affect their orientation toward social/political activism over 4 years…

Funded by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts (CILA) at Wabash College, the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) is a multi-institution, multi-year, longitudinal study designed to identify the academic and non-academic collegiate experiences that foster liberal learning. This article describes how the study was done and…

This study examines high school students' confidence in their planned college major with an emphasis on students planning to study one of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The study draws on responses from the ACT Student Interest Inventory of the Illinois High School Class of 2003, which asks students about…

This study examined how various individual, family, and school level contextual factors impact the likelihood of planning to major in one of the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields for high school students. A binary logistic regression model was developed to determine the extent to which each of the covariates helped to…

Do parents play a significant role in the academic achievement and career decision making process of African American children? Studies have confirmed the importance of the role of parents and have even identified preferred parenting styles as having the best academic achievement (Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987;…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda seeking to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal, and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, it is also…

This study examined the relationship between dual enrollment participation in high school and successful transition to post-secondary institutions for first year students. The sample consisted of a random sample of first-time students enrolled at four-year, two-year, and technical colleges in North Louisiana. Participants completed the National…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda seeking to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal, and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, it is also…

Objective: To identify those factors that influence freshmen application to Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)-accredited undergraduate ATEPs having a secondary admissions process. (All undergraduate ATEPs are now accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE)). Design and…

This report summarizes the following results from Austin Independent School District's student graduating class of 2006: student demographic information, results from their High School Exit Survey responses, their postsecondary enrollment data, and students' academic performance data.