College access programs have been created to provide students of color opportunities to attend college. The Posse Foundation selects promising urban high school students to attend highly selective colleges and universities across the country. College success is dependent on a variety of factors, two of which are successful social and academic…

The purpose of this quantitative dissertation in practice was to explore the academic achievement of students of low socioeconomic status attending the District of Columbia's traditional and selective public high schools, as measured by the annual Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) standardized test scores. The…

Lackluster BA completion rates have made it clear that improving postsecondary outcomes in the U.S. is not simply a matter of raising college enrollment rates. In addition to increasing the number of people who attend college, it is also important to increase the number of people who graduate. Over the years, scholars have identified many factors…

The decisions that students make about their educational attainment have profound impacts on their future economic, demographic, and social outcomes. These decisions, however, do not happen in a vacuum. There is a long tradition of research in sociology, education, and behavioral economics that has studied inequality in educational decision making…

Social capital is an under investigated resource that many students access to increase their human capital. Within disadvantaged communities, social capital is not readily available to African American male adolescents. This narrative inquiry study explored how social capital impacted the academic achievement of young African-American males during…

Research on college choice decisions of high school students has increased over the past forty years but has generally centered on demographic characteristics such as race, gender, or socio-economic status of students. There has been little research on the influences on the college choice decisions of high academically achieving students from…

Talented students from underserved backgrounds face many barriers to attaining higher education. Two of the most significant impediments are the low quality of primary and secondary schools they attend and the lack of access to top-tier universities providing sufficient financial aid and targeted support. Lower levels of educational attainment are…

The undermatch between low-income students' academic achievement and college destinations has become increasingly important in discussions of higher education access and equity. This study investigates whether low-income students are undermatched in their college choice, and if so, what factors are related to the undermatching. Specifically, this…

The use of categorical dependent variables with the classical linear regression model (CLRM) violates many of the model's assumptions and may result in biased estimates (Long, 1997; O'Connell, Goldstein, Rogers, & Peng, 2008). Many dependent variables of interest to educational researchers (e.g., professorial rank, educational attainment) are…

Underachievement of students identified as gifted is a serious problem. Although the literature varies, studies have shown anywhere from 9% to 50% of these students are performing below their ability levels. The purpose of this study was to examine methods to address this problem suggested by such underachieving gifted students. The research…

Military recruiting is thoroughly integrated in American public schools. Federal legislation mandates that every public school receiving federal funding open its doors to military recruiters in the same capacity as any postsecondary university or job organization, lest that school risk losing all federal funds. This investigation examines the…

This study explores how academically talented Black girls read, write and narrate their lived experiences while attending a predominantly white, selective admissions urban high school. Black girls in these types of settings often experience feelings of isolation and silencing, unjust treatment, and underrepresentation in the curriculum (Carter,…

Internationally, higher education has expanded greatly since the closing decades of the twentieth century. China was no exception. This study is intended to examine the status quo of issues relating to equity and access to higher education in the context of educational expansion and differentiation in China. Two research questions are addressed in…