The primary audience for this book is first-generation college students. Whether they are in two-year or four-year colleges, I give the readers an example of the power of a parent's dream, the positive and negative outcomes of a student's hard work, the stuff caring teachers and supportive school administrators are made of, and the significance of…

How do youth placed in foster care aspire to and access college? This book chronicles the lives and experiences of 49 college students navigating the challenging terrain of the United States' foster care system. Through in-depth interviews, Johnson provides insight into the harsh realities of how our nation's educational and welfare systems often…

High school and college students are inundated by indicators and rankings supposedly designed to help them decide where to go to college and what to study once they arrive. In "Metrics That Matter," coauthors Zachary Bleemer, Mukul Kumar, Aashish Mehta, Chris Muellerleile, and Christopher Newfield take a critical look at these metrics…

"Study Gods" offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become "study gods" ("xueshen"), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is…

It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how…

What single factor makes for an excellent college education? As it turns out, it's pretty simple: human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive…

This edited volume brings together a state-of-the-art collection of leading and emergent research on the burgeoning topic of science identities. It sets out how science identity can be productively used as a lens in understanding patterns and inequalities in science participation across different educational and international contexts. Its…

This book disrupts the false dichotomy of college versus career by showing how young people and the programs created to serve them integrate the worlds of college and career readiness as students work to learn against the odds and strive toward lives that matter to them. Work-based learning at each stage of the K-college experience is crucial to…

Education, which has been at the heart of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's history and civilizations for centuries, has a large untapped potential to contribute to human capital, well-being, and wealth. The region has invested heavily in education for decades, but it has not been able to reap the benefits of its investments.…

When their children were young, several parents interviewed in this book were told "you can't expect much from your child." As they got older, the kids themselves often heard the same thing: that as children with disabilities, academic success would be elusive, if not impossible, for them. "How Did You Get Here?" clearly…

Nearly 40 percent of the students entering 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions indicated their intention to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in 2012. But the barriers to students realizing their ambitions are reflected in the fact that about half of those with the intention to earn a STEM bachelor's degree and…

Being a "student" has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their families in Kyrgyzstan. "Giving their children education" (dat detyam obrazovaniye)--meaning "higher education"--has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbers of…

This study of the education, training and employment of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK is based on the academic and policy literature and empirical data from five major studies. It sets out the political context to seeking asylum in the UK, explores current policy and practice regarding the education, training and employment of new migrants…

"Minding the Gap" argues that in today's highly competitive, global economy, all young people need a postsecondary education. Yet only one in ten students from the lowest economic quintile in the United States currently earns a postsecondary credential. This timely and instructive book from Jobs for the Future explores policies and…