Academically talented students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have the potential to be successful both in high school and later in college, but their rate of post-secondary enrollment and completion lags behind their peers. Currently, limited information exists on strategies to help these students, often known as twice exceptional or 2e, to…

In this paper -- where we will draw on data from a small scale longitudinal study of young people's post-COVID aspirations and sense of their futures in a de-industrialising city -- we will suggest that Appadurai's (2004) ideas about the 'capacity to aspire' encourages us to shift our focus from the 'aspirations' of individual young people to…

Low interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among high school students in general and women in particular is a highly prevalent phenomenon in many industrialized countries. This study analyses whether study counselling--guiding students to select a major in higher education through self-exploration and fostering their…

The purpose of this study is to compare the immediate college enrollment of students who participated in the community college's dual credit program in high school with students who did not participate in the dual credit program. Data from a local community college's dual credit program is analyzed to understand the effects of participation,…

Background: Despite a well-documented underrepresentation of women in STEM majors and occupations, empirical evidence on whether there really is a "leaky STEM pipeline" is mixed due to a lack of methodological consistency. Studies vary by (1) the definition of STEM, (2) the decision to measure choices alone or to also include…

This research explores the effect of orientation advice (OA), which is an instrument aimed at supporting pupils during their first transition from middle to high school. We investigate whether being 'ambitious' (i.e. rejecting OA and choosing a more challenging track) influences grade 9 retention probability. Data from 28 schools from Piacenza…

Higher education institutions have been grappling with significant enrollment declines and have urgently implemented retention strategies to sustain their student populations amid shifting demographics and economic challenges (American Association of Community Colleges, 2023; Hanover Research, 2021). However, these programs often neglect the…

Emotions play an integral role in learning. It is an effective response to a stimulus which can be experienced felt along a positive-negative continuum. Achievement emotions arise from academic activities, and can activate or de-activate educational motivation responses. Based on Control Value Theory, this study examined how negative achievement…

This paper aims to determine the effect of parental education, as an important measure of social origin, on the expectations of 15 year olds to complete higher education in the Netherlands. More importantly, the paper tests specific explanations for this effect. For the empirical analysis, Dutch data from the PISA 2018 survey were used. The…

Rural youths often feel compelled to leave their home communities to seek new opportunities, especially at the secondary-postsecondary educational transition. These decisions are driven in part by perceived developmental imperatives to leave rural regions given messages that success is best achieved elsewhere. The present study used the framework…

Scholars have argued that, on average, immigrant students are 'optimists' and have higher educational aspirations than non-migrant students after accounting for students' socio-economic background and educational performance. However, ethnic minority groups, which proxy the different origin backgrounds of migrants, may show mixed findings in terms…

Although improvements have been made in terms of enhancing the number of students that enrol in higher education, the long-term educational pathways of adolescents to university studies are understudied. This calls for further research into the mechanisms that underpin the long-term educational pathways of adolescents who study at university…

For many Latinx at-promise youth, college is a critical and high-stakes form of aspirational wealth (Yosso, 2005), one that offers a path to "get out" (Brandehoff, 2020) of their current circumstances and circumvent a life of difficult choices. To get there, one must not only navigate personal and societal barriers, but also navigate…

We study the relationship between locus of control and both educational attainment and college aspirations in adolescence, focusing on the potential channels through which locus of control may influence these outcomes. Even after controlling for a comprehensive set of socio-demographic factors and cognitive skills, there remains a strong…

The purpose of this study is to examine the link among social justice leadership, school climate, cultural capital and academic aspiration in Turkish high schools. The study also aims at analysing the contextual influence of gender and family income on academic aspiration. The participants of the study include a total of 22.802 students from 210…