The focus of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of parents located in one middle Tennessee school district regarding the Tennessee Promise scholarship. The perception of the parents regarding the role of the school counselor in assisting families in the college choice process for high school seniors as they prepare for after…

The choices available to high school seniors for post-secondary higher education are numerous. Each choice and destination providing a different education element and outcome for the potential student. Numerous choices exist outside of the standard traditional four-year university recommendation option that is often provided. This quantitative…

In 2020, nearly half of Texas's 385,000 public high school graduates were unprepared for college-level reading or math. Limited research reveals K-12 faculty perceive limited roles and responsibilities in the college process, relying heavily on guidance counselors and college admissions counselors for preparing students for college and careers.…

The training programs that polytechnic students undertake focus on practical and real-world application skills for their future careers. In the process, students need career counseling that strengthens their career decision-making. Web-based career counseling has a great deal of potential for increasing students' career decision-making…

Geography of opportunity research has identified places with few or no college options: so-called "education deserts." This study extends this geography of opportunity research, exploring how geographical constraints affect students' choices, particularly the choice to attend a for-profit college. Using the Education Longitudinal Study…

This chapter presents results from a study exploring the experiences of rural high school graduates and the influences on their reasons for attending postsecondary education. In particular, the results presented here are a compilation of several rural students who intentionally chose to attend a local community college.

Given the responsibility of the government for funding public education, the Office of the Governor of the State of Illinois commissioned the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) to explore how students were making postsecondary education decisions, including the relevant factors that influenced their general…

Workforce development and career and technical education (CTE) have long provided reliable pathways to middle skill jobs and a gateway to the middle class. Given recent changes in middle skills jobs, the education landscape, and federal policy priorities, the role of CTE in the U.S. educational landscape is evolving more rapidly, encompassing a…

This qualitative study examined the process whereby international college students from various countries choose their country of study, type of institution, specific college, and program. It identified and explored the relative importance of each decision-making factor. Fifty-five international students attending four Greater Toronto Area (GTA)…

How have changes in the costs of enrolling for full-time study at public 2-year and 4-year colleges have affected the decisions about whether and where to enroll in college? We exploit local differences in the growth of tuition at community colleges and public 4-year colleges to study the impact of public higher education costs on the…

Intended as a convenient and cost-efficient way for students to earn their first college credits while still in high school, dual-credit, or concurrent enrollment, is transforming many first-year writing (FYW) programs. Many institutions emphasize that dual-credit courses are the same as traditional college courses, yet "[dual-credit] tends…

After Hurricane María, approximately 3,500 students enrolled in on Florida's school district from Puerto Rico. Displaced Puerto Rican high schoolers incurred the transitional costs of forced migration at a time in their educational trajectories when they are formulating their postsecondary plans. While student mobility is not uncommon, prevailing…

ACT is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people achieve education and workplace success. To help fulfill that mission, ACT offers school-day testing programs that provide all students with state- or district-funded access to its college readiness and admissions assessment, removing barriers to testing and opening doors to…

Evidence from behavioral economics suggests that the framing and labeling of choices affect financial decisions. Through a randomized control trial of over six thousand high school seniors, community college students, and adults without a college degree, we identify the existence of both framing and labeling effects in respondents' preferences for…

Despite calls by policymakers and educators to increase college access, various student subgroups are often ignored by the research community. For example, the process through which rural Latinx students choose to enroll in college and the types of colleges they matriculate to is understudied in the literature. This study addresses the limitations…