More college students are reporting adverse mental health concerns that negatively influence their student success than in previous years (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2020; Xiao et al., 2017). Postsecondary literature lacks evidence to support the influence of adolescents' adverse mental health characteristics on future college enrollment…

According to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN, 2023), each year, thousands of high school graduates leave billions of dollars in federal student aid unclaimed because they do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). To holistically investigate this phenomenon, this dissertation accomplished three goals. The…

Social and emotional skills, such as Sustaining Effort and Maintaining Composure, are related to many positive outcomes, including academic performance and life satisfaction, and are often taught through social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between these skills and ACT® test…

The problem addressed in this quantitative ex-post facto study was that African American, Latino, and Native American students have lower reading fluency than Caucasian counterparts. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent incorporating more literature written by African American, Latino, and Native American authors had on the…

Background/Context: School districts across the United States face persistent difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers (García & Weiss, 2019; Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022). Over the last decade, every state in the south has faced a growing teacher shortage, with some facing shortages in all grades and subjects (U.S. Department of…

This study explored factors that influence the postsecondary career decisions of 427 11th and 12th grade students in a guaranteed tuition-based school district in a Midwestern state. Since 2005, this district has had a "Promise" program where eligible students can get up to 100% of their postsecondary tuition paid to attend a college,…

Although differences in academic motivation may exist across cultures, research on academic motivational goals has been Western-focused and relied on Western originated questionnaire. There is a dearth of studies adopting bottom-up, emic, and in-depth approaches to explore East Asian students' academic motivation. This study describes Chinese…

The current quasi-experimental design study explored how students' choice of learning location model (either predominantly remote or hybrid) impacted their outcomes on academic assessments, school day attendance, and chronic absence in the 2020-2021 school year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing the student sample across three middle…

This study explores how public-school teachers who host student teachers in urban, grade 7-12 classrooms (referred to as cooperating teachers or classroom mentors in this study) define their role in preparing pre-service teachers. This study is particularly interested in yielding insight into how participants describe the "practice" of…

The purpose of this study was to explore how district funding for 4 years of PSAT administrations for all students in Grades 8-11 impacted Hispanic students at a North Texas school district. Using college admissions data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), the researcher examined overall district-wide college admissions percentages for…

Expectancy-value theory mostly focuses on how expectancy and value beliefs are associated with academic achievement. Both expectancy and value beliefs are multidimensional and can be further decomposed into general and specific factors. However, few studies have explored the associations of these general and specific factors with academic…

As college-bound high school seniors know, the ACT examination is possibly the single most important assessment students take during their academic careers. ACT scores can determine college entrance, scholarship dollars, and whether students will be placed in remedial courses. Parents pay large sums of money to prepare their children for this…

Despite barriers to educational attainment, low-SES youth often maintain strong academic intentions and performance if they continue to view school as important for obtaining the desired futures they envision for themselves. We undertook three related studies to examine the importance of one aspiration central to the desired futures of many…

This study extends prior work on the college-going efforts of Latino boys and adolescents (Latinos) by examining the extent to which meeting with a school counselor is related to their college-going aspirations and whether they apply to and ultimately matriculate to college. The study utilizes social capital and social reproduction theories to…

This study utilized quantitative research methods using the Montana Office of Public Instruction's Growth and Enhancement of Montana Students (GEMS) data set. This quantitative research is important because it provides insight on the following relationships (1) Is there a statistically significant difference among students from different races on…