Learners from underserved backgrounds tend to show lower levels of college readiness (ACT, 2016a; ACT, 2018). In part to address these disparities, the authors investigated growth in social and emotional (SE) skills in a cohort of largely Hispanic, high-poverty students who participated in GEAR UP. GEAR UP is a discretionary federal grant program…

Interest in study skills, one of the older realms of educational research, is enjoying a resurgence. Several forces in the field have fueled renewed interest in how learners can best use academic, organizational, and time-management skills to master content. As teacher leaders at a high school, the authors remain in contact with many of their…

The purpose of this study was to examine the different perceptions that shape African American male high school students' understanding of their academic experiences that lead to their success or lack of success in school. In addition, the study identified factors that explain the underachievement of African American male students who are…

While many adolescents and young adults experiment with substances (e.g., alcohol, cigarette smoking, marijuana), recent research suggests that rural youth and young adults may be more at risk for substance use than their urban counterparts. This study was designed to examine the longitudinal relationships between rural adolescents' prosocial…

Roads to Success (RTS) is a school and career planning program designed to be implemented for 45 minutes per week in grades 7 through 12. Researchers at Mathematica Policy Research used a random assignment design to estimate the impacts of receiving RTS in grades 7 and 8. More than half of the students in these schools were eligible for free or…