Parental involvement in a child's education is one of the central mechanisms that prepares the child for postsecondary education. Since parental involvement demands considerable resources and experience, it remains unclear whether parents who have some college experience but no postsecondary degree are effective in supporting their child's college…

This study focuses on the disparities between the educational aspirations and expectations of high school students in the U.S., and explores why students do not expect to earn a bachelor's degree despite their aspirations. Using a national dataset and logistic/multinomial logistic regression analyses, the study identified the factors associated…

More college students are reporting adverse mental health concerns that negatively influence their student success than in previous years (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2020; Xiao et al., 2017). Postsecondary literature lacks evidence to support the influence of adolescents' adverse mental health characteristics on future college enrollment…

This study explored factors that influence the postsecondary career decisions of 427 11th and 12th grade students in a guaranteed tuition-based school district in a Midwestern state. Since 2005, this district has had a "Promise" program where eligible students can get up to 100% of their postsecondary tuition paid to attend a college,…

This study extends prior work on the college-going efforts of Latino boys and adolescents (Latinos) by examining the extent to which meeting with a school counselor is related to their college-going aspirations and whether they apply to and ultimately matriculate to college. The study utilizes social capital and social reproduction theories to…

Dual enrollment (DE) is one of the fastest growing programs that support the high school-to-college transition. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence about its impact on either students' college application choices or admission outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach and data from two cohorts of ninth-grade students in one…

As researchers and school stakeholders determine ways to best support Black and Latino adolescent boys from low-income communities in actualizing their postsecondary future ambitions, more attention is needed on the types of futures these boys imagine and how family members influence this process. Guided by "future orientations" and…

I investigated how two U.S.-born Salvadoran eleventh grade boys formulated college-going mindsets at the nexus of family-based cultural influences, adolescent development, masculinity, and academic self-appraisals. With asset-based theories, findings show how immigrant families encouraged college going by shielding their sons from noneducational…

The following study examines how a class-based measure of food security was associated with high school grades and later post-secondary enrollments by self-identified race. We use multilevel regression to analyze data merged among the 2011 Toronto District School Board Student Census, administrative records, and college and university application…

This research examines the impact of a 2-day scientific conference on high school students' confidence in attending university and interest in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. Specifically, this study investigates (1) whether exposure to STEM in grades 10 and 11 significantly increases self-reported…

This qualitative study analyzes the effects that RENEW, a person-centered goal planning model, has on students with disabilities that are in an alternative school setting. Students in sixth through twelfth grade participated in this study to determine if RENEW can affect students' awareness of post-secondary options and assist with post-high…

This study examines the association between college-bound friends and college enrollment using restricted transcript data from the High School Longitudinal Study. Propensity score matching and school fixed effects models suggest that having close college-bound friends is positively associated with enrolling in college. However, Black and Latino…

Among the first to demonstrate that school counselors have a positive impact on student outcomes that is both quantifiable and statistically significant, this study provides a powerful tool for counselor advocacy efforts. Using nationally representative, longitudinal data collected by the US Department of Education, findings show that high school…

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college…

This report is based on data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative, longitudinal study of more than 23,000 ninth-graders in 2009. The cohort was surveyed again in spring 2012 when most students were in eleventh grade. This survey included questions about characteristics that would influence choosing…