Background: Transferring schools frequently happens across the United States from kindergarten to college. While student mobility studies have focused more on elementary and middle school grades, research at the high school level is limited. In addition, studies on transfer during high school related to postsecondary education are even more…

Recent policy efforts have attempted to increase the number of dual enrollment courses offered within Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, and there is evidence to suggest that this practice is widespread. However, there is very little research on student participation in CTE dual enrollment and on its impacts. This study examines…

After years of pandemic, lockdowns, remote learning, and anxiety, it is no surprise that high school students are feeling stressed. But how does that stress affect them as they search for colleges? To answer that, RNL and ZeeMee went straight to the source and polled high school seniors about the stress, anxiety, and worry they felt. The…

College enrollment rates have been on the decline over the past years, with more high school graduates choosing alternative pathways such as getting employed in an entry level job, pursuing a technical or trade training program, starting a small business, and entrepreneurship. This phenomenon may have been exacerbated by major events such as The…

High school exit exams are meant to standardize the quality of public high schools and to ensure that students graduate with a set of basic skills and knowledge. Evidence suggests that a common perverse effect of exit exams is an increase in dropout for students who have difficulty passing tests, with a larger effect on minority students. To…

This study explores and examines the differences in financial resources and access to college between transgender and cisgender students. Using a quantitative criticalist lens, the authors analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS:09) and found that while trans and cisgender students attend college at…

The term "summer melt" denotes a phenomenon when post-secondary students who received an offer of admission and may have paid a deposit when accepting the offer, "fail to enroll at all in the fall after high school graduation". Assessing the extent of summer melt and the success of measures to reduce it has become more relevant…

This Data Point looks first at whether students who planned to go to college also met with a high school counselor about financial aid. The second question considers a different population of students, addressing whether students who enrolled in college also received aid. This analysis does not indicate a causal relationship between meeting with a…

Washington's high school graduation rate has increased over the past decade. In 2022, 82 percent of high school students in the state graduated in four years, a six-percentage point increase over the 2013 graduation rate. This report looks at postsecondary enrollment trends for Washington high school graduates in the classes of 2020 and 2021…

This paper examines the long-term impact of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) on postsecondary education outcomes, with a focus on historically underserved students. MERA aimed to improve educational standards and close achievement gaps through the introduction of MCAS,…

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…

First-generation immigrants (FGIs) are eager to achieve the American dream and acquire the advantages a bachelor's degree affords. FGIs compared to their second-generation, third-generation and native peers fare better educationally. But, this comparison obscures across racial variation within a single-nativity status. As such, it is important to…

Purpose: Immigrant-origin English learners (ELs) are the fastest-growing population in US schools. Most EL research examines the college-going outcomes of this population by focusing on those who are EL-identified in high school; here, we capture both current and former EL-identified students, or "ever-ELs." A subset of bilingual,…

The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the cognitive, noncognitive, and sociodemographic barriers affecting the enrollment of General Educational Development (GED) holders in higher education in Alabama. The researcher sought to understand these barriers, focusing on poor academic performance, negative emotions,…

This study takes a social cognitive approach in examining the relationship between elements of the adolescent self-system (self-efficacy, self-esteem, ethnic-racial identity, and hope) in addition to state-mandated graduation tests, with students' later participation in higher education. The quantitative investigation of 733 tenth-grade White…