This research brief examines race-based disparities in the lifetime earnings of Kentuckians at the same educational attainment level. It relies on data from the 2016-18 American Community Survey to approximate lifetime earnings for full-time workers with at least a high school diploma. It is the third of three research briefs on lifetime earnings…

In 2021, the percentage of Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic adults who completed high school was below the national average. One of the U.S. Department of Education's goals is to ensure that every student has equal access to the high-quality education tools they need to graduate from high school and excel in college and their…

This report is a continuation of work that examined the progress being made by districts to close the achievement gap in Kentucky (Butler and Poquette, 2019) and aims to further investigate the context in which districts are closing the achievement gap. Districts' achievement gap issues vary significantly: the size of districts' achievement gaps…

The purpose of this study was to determine if attaining the college readiness indicators adopted by the Kentucky Board of Education affect postsecondary outcomes. This study evaluated students' overall college credit attainment in the first year of college to determine if attaining the college readiness indicators affects student performance…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted face-to-face instruction in schools across the United States and the world. Using the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS), we analyzed data from three middle schools in a suburban school district in the southeastern United States in order to determine if there were any statistically significant interaction…

Dual credit programs are collaborations between secondary and postsecondary institutions that enable high school students to enroll in college courses and receive simultaneous academic or technical credit that counts toward high school and college completion. Nationally and in Kentucky, dual credit participation is on the rise. The total number of…

Educators have sought to understand and address the disproportional representation of students from certain student subgroups in gifted education. Most gifted identification decisions are made with national comparisons where students must score above a certain percentage of test takers. However, this approach is not always consistent with the…

Self-control has provided a useful framework for understanding both offending behavior and victimization risk. As a theory of victimization, research has established that low self-control is directly related to victimization risk beyond a range of other factors. This finding raises the issue of whether other personality traits are associated with…

This brief examines the varied effects of dual credit on second-year persistence and first-year GPA for underrepresented minority undergraduate students (URM), compared to white or Asian, non-Hispanic undergraduate students. The first brief (ED611821) showed a substantial gap in dual credit between URM and non-URM students, and this brief provides…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the progress being made to close the current achievement gap in Kentucky. Guiding the study is the following research question: Which districts are closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps at rates that exceed expectations? The authors assess districts' progress in closing racial and…

Objective: To examine rural-urban differences in college students' cardiovascular risk perceptions. Participants: College students in rural (n = 61) and urban (n = 57) Kentucky counties were recruited from November 2012 to May 2014. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional study examining rural-urban differences in…

Understanding factors that foster resilience and buffer against the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 is critical to inform efforts to promote adjustment, reduce risk, and improve care, particularly for adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. This prospective longitudinal study addresses this gap by investigating the impact of the…

High-quality correctional education provided to juvenile offenders is crucial in helping these youth transition back into the public school system. The set of guiding principles and best practices for providing high-quality education in the juvenile justice setting are vital to understanding when working with these youths. An update on the…

Likeness, also known as homophily, describes the tendency for individuals to seek out others who are socially similar to themselves. As a society, we are attracted to "like" behaviors, but subconsciously the value placed on likeness can lead to undesirable outcomes including segregation, reduced diversity in peer groups, and narrower…

Promise programs are proliferating across the United States, with wide variation in their design. Using national data on 33 Promise programs affecting single, 2-year colleges, this study examines program effects on first-time, full-time college enrollments of students by race/ethnicity and gender classification. Results suggest Promise programs…