A set of ten students from an urban high school were interviewed regarding experiences in Advanced Placement (AP) and non-Advanced Placement courses in high school. Those participants who took an AP Calculus course described opportunities during high school where cultural capital and social capital lead to a successful experience in college. Those…

This article presents a summary of the findings of a recent study that points to the importance of informal, out of classroom, interactions in effecting change in student attitudes as they pass through the two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, designed as an internationally recognized pre-university programme for students…

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which high school and college/university Advanced Placement English Language and Composition readers value and implement the curricular requirements of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. The participants were 158 readers of the 2010 Advanced Placement English Language and…

This article combines descriptive statistics and interviews with college-bound high school students to explore the connection between increased access and academic quality of Advanced Placement (AP) courses in low-income urban high schools. Results suggest that although moderately more opportunities to take AP courses exist than in previous years,…

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education's College Readiness Reports are designed to provide information on students entering college. The reports encompass the first year of college for students who graduated from high school during the previous academic year, and the College Readiness dashboard provides a closer look at longer-term outcomes…

The Ingenuity program was designed to "provide Baltimore's brightest middle school students with a free, highly accelerated, and challenging mathematics and science curriculum" (Ingenuity Project, 2014). It started in 1993 at two middle schools, one on the east side of Baltimore and the second on the west, but as of SY 2014-15 the…

This study involved identifying, categorizing, and comparing critical incidents related to qualifying dual credit high school students' decisions to enroll or not to enroll in dual credit coursework in either a traditional or early college high school. The purpose of the study was: (a) to identify the reasons qualifying students decide to enroll…

Gendered schooling is growing in the United States, but little research exists on single-sex classes in public elementary schools. This study sought to find out if single-sex classes in two elementary schools made a difference in boys' reading gains in 2008-2009, as judged by scores on the state's annual literacy test. In one school, boys in the…

The completion agenda seeks significant increases in educational attainment, and its goals are quite laudable. The United States is lagging behind other industrialized nations in terms of the proportion of adults holding postsecondary degrees, and states have been challenged to implement policies that ensure improvements in degree completion…

In recent decades, as pressures have mounted to raise K-12 academic standards and move more students into and through college, high schools have provided a growing array of programs that offer college-level content. Frequent claims suggest that these programs raise academic standards, prepare students for college, and shorten the time to a…

Early college high schools are a promising but expensive pathway to college readiness. Most such schools are supported with state funds and/or grants. This descriptive case study presents an early college program, now in its fourth year in a traditional high school, in which the families, high school and local community college shared the entire…

Drawing upon two ethnographic studies of affluent and elite co-educational secondary schools in the United States, Weis and Cipollone spotlight the explicit "class work" of a now highly insecure middle/upper middle class, as they attempt to maintain advantage via entrance to particularly located post-secondary destinations. Affirming the…

As educational leaders struggle to meet state and federal mandates, many students graduate from high school without the skills necessary to meet the demands of a college education. Guided by the tenets of constructivism, this qualitative case study explored college students' perceptions of their college preparedness through math, science, and…

The U.S. has had a proud history of inventions and innovations since colonial times, but the future of its intellectual capital is now at risk. America's size, natural resources and historical role as a superpower are no longer enough to ensure its economic future. In today's global economy, the U.S. is losing many of its previous competitive…

The main goals of this implementation study were to: (1) examine how the grant recipients were implementing the changes set forth in their grant proposals; (2) identify initial barriers to implementation of grant activities; (3) identify catalysts that aided in goal attainment and/or partnership development; and (4) consider the sustainability of…