First-generation college students (i.e., those whose parents do not hold a bachelor's degree or higher), enter college without the same resources, skills, and knowledge as their non-first-generation counterparts which may lead to disadvantage regarding their chosen field of study in college (Prospero and Vohra-Gupta 2007; Roksa and Levey 2010;…

STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of…

A concerning reality in higher education is the persistent disparity in retention and graduation rates between students of color and White students. These persistent outcome differences are commonly referred to as opportunity or achievement gaps. To address these gaps, higher education institutions are enacting targeted approaches to mitigate or…

Former foster youth are one of the lowest-performing groups at the college level, despite existing support programs at colleges. Former foster youth often age out of the foster care system only to be faced with housing insecurity, food insecurity, and a lack of social capital providing support. Former foster youth student-single parents may face…

Food and housing insecurities among college students are a growing concern, undermining their well-being and academic and social success. This single holistic case study explored how food and housing insecurities impact students at a mid-sized public university in New York using Tinto's (1993) student integration framework. This framework suggests…

This paper analyzes data from Native American students' attainment in a first-semester Spanish language course at an indigenous-serving institution before, during, and after the pandemic. The gap between Native American and non-Native American students increased during the first post-pandemic semester to the point that just one out of 11 Native…

I describe a unit on antiracist mathematics teaching I developed and implemented in an elementary mathematics methods course. It may serve as an example to other mathematics teacher educators on how to incorporate antiracist mathematics teaching in their courses. I report on the unit's components, its impact on the preservice teachers in my…

This dissertation investigates the impact of limited technology access, the quality of remote learning experiences, and racial disparities on SAT math scores among 11th-grade students. The study spans two academic years, 2018/2019 and 2022/2023, offering a longitudinal perspective on the trends in math scores. The research employs a quantitative…

The lack of digital skills among Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college students is a challenge that negatively affects their academic performance, leading to the college's poor throughput rate. This study aimed to evaluate the digital skills and knowledge of TVET college students of Newcastle, South Africa, about their…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented adoption of online learning in community colleges. On one hand, online learning increases access and offers students flexibility and convenience. On the other hand, existing research illustrates online courses increase achievement and equity gaps. Hence, this article contends that online learning in…

Achievement gaps exist along the lines of race, gender, sexuality, social class, and ability status from elementary school to graduate school in the United States. Instructors can help reduce achievement gaps by adopting practices that have been shown to promote the success of students from marginalized groups, so-called "inclusive teaching…

Learning communities for college students have been shown to improve first-year student outcomes and narrow equity gaps, but longer-term data to evaluate whether these benefits persist through multi-year retention and graduation are rare. This is especially important for students in science, technology, engineering and math, who often confront…

Despite some gains, women continue to be underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Using a national longitudinal dataset of 690 participants born in 1991, we tested whether spatial skills, measured in middle childhood, would help explain this gender gap. We modeled the relation between 4th-grade spatial…

The purpose of this mixed method study is to determine the effectiveness of the corequisite model on collegiate mathematics developmental education. Corequisite models are designed to allow students who place into pre-college level courses to complete the prerequisite material and college-level coursework simultaneously in their first semester.…

Socio-demographic gaps in college attainment and completion are troubling, as postsecondary education improves labor market outcomes and facilitates upward socioeconomic mobility. It is important, then, to identify the credible interventions available to policymakers and college and university administrators that might close socio-demographic gaps…