Rural Appalachia encompasses a region of the United States represented by unique cultural strengths and systemic challenges. To meet their students' career and college needs, school counselors working in rural Appalachia must understand the cultural nuances of the region. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology revealed five domains and…

Objective: We wanted to identify factors associated with pre-nursing student retention and success at a small, rural two-year institution in South Carolina. Method: Transcript analysis generated a dataset for pre-nursing students (N = 125). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze high school and university data. Results:…

Dual enrollment programs have been in existence for decades in public high schools in the United States. While there is literature on the academic impact of these programs with a focus on high school and college outcomes, there is a gap in the literature regarding what is known about students' experiences in dual enrollment programs that allow…

The charter school movement encompasses many school models. In Massachusetts in the 2010's, the site of our study, urban charter schools primarily used "No Excuses" practices, whereas nonurban charters had greater model variety. Using randomized admissions lotteries, we estimate the impact of charter schools by locality on college…

Teachers are not provided in-depth professional development opportunities to explore and understand college readiness. This problem has a direct impact on rural schools which are likely to experience increased college readiness barriers. The purpose of this hermeneutic, phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of high school teachers…

This conceptual analysis examines the implementation of a state-funded college and career readiness pilot program at a small, rural all-Black school in Illinois. Drawing from ethnographic data that dates from 2010, I offer a retrospective analysis on individual based intervention programming for college and career readiness. Concerned with how…

School systems across the United States increasingly use performance-based assessments (PBAs) as alternatives to traditional standardized tests, like the SAT, to make post-secondary and workforce readiness (PWR) determinations. However, very little research has been conducted to validate such alternative assessments as valid indicators of a…

This study was an investigation of three rural high schools in western North Carolina to examine the perceptions of community employers, principals, and career and technical education (CTE) directors as to the skill levels of graduates from CTE programs. The study also determined if the skills being taught in secondary schools meet the needs of…

The low number of California Native American students, both rural and urban, graduating A through G ready prompted this study. Using a qualitative and Indigenous research approach, the research questions that guided this study were: (1) What are the perspectives and beliefs about postsecondary education among a group of Native American students at…

The purpose of this basic qualitative study is to examine the perceptions of Language 2 (L2) learners about project-based learning (PBL) at a Midwestern high school to acquire their mathematical concepts in English. L2 learners' insights using a PBL environment to construct their skills for college readiness, higher order thinking, autonomy,…

Texas House Bill 3 established a college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) outcomes bonus, which provides extra funding to districts for each annual graduate demonstrating CCMR under the state accountability system. Some small district and rural district leaders expressed concern about the ability of their graduates to meet the career…

Evidence today shows that there is a skills gap among employable young adults. This study was based on a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program evaluation that was conducted in a rural school district in northwest North Carolina. The study examined the perceptions of the program by CTE high school teachers, CTE community college instructors,…

Students from rural communities undertake postsecondary education at rates lower than their counterparts from urban and suburban communities, and mathematics is a known gatekeeper along the pipeline toward a college degree. This study investigated the mathematics identity formation of students from a rural school who were college-bound to…

This capstone project addresses the crucial task of equipping students from rural and poverty-stricken school districts for success beyond high school. While conventional markers of academic achievement often center around standardized testing, this study takes a wider perspective, emphasizing comprehensive approaches to education. By conducting a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among collective efficacy factors, as measured by the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, and college readiness scores, as reported by American College Testing (ACT), for high schools in the state of Illinois. The 5Essentials have been considered crucial to school success and therefore used to…