Throughout the United States, dual enrollment programs enable high school students to earn college credit by completing college classes while in high school. In 2015, the State of Ohio expanded grade-level eligibility to participate in the state's dual enrollment program, College Credit Plus, to seventh- and eighth-grade students. The purpose of…

Understanding the effect of middle school students' achievement in academic subjects, future education plans, and the similarity between interests and career plans on subsequent college enrollment helps school counselors, teachers, and parents focus on how to assist students in ways that can increase college-going behavior. The goal of this study…

Out-of-classroom activities can help cultivate interest and literacy in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. To determine how a week-long out-of-classroom experience might impact STEM interest in adolescents, a free summer camp was offered to students entering grades 6-8. During this time, students participated in…

This study focuses on the disparities between the educational aspirations and expectations of high school students in the U.S., and explores why students do not expect to earn a bachelor's degree despite their aspirations. Using a national dataset and logistic/multinomial logistic regression analyses, the study identified the factors associated…

Grade 7 students are not college-ready because they do not have skills for applying, accessing, or identifying their college needs. Students do not know the opportunities and resources available to help gain acceptance into college and feel they cannot apply for college due to financial, academic, career, or personal reasons. Districts fall short…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore Somos Escritoras, a creative space and writing workshop, for Latina adolescent girls (grades 6-8), as a program that supports not only writing and literacy development of girls, but also their college going identities. Design/methodology/approach: This is a case study focused on the experiences of…

Given their lower socioeconomic background and achievement, immigrants and their descendants have been shown to make more ambitious decisions regarding educational transitions. While previous research has extensively analysed transitions within and after compulsory education, research on late transitions is scarce. This study focuses on the…

This study uses administrative health insurance records in Taiwan to examine changes in child mental health treatment around four school milestones including: Primary and middle school entry, high stakes testing for high school, and high stakes testing for college entry. Leveraging age cutoffs for school entry in Taiwan, we compare August-born…

This study, conducted in France, sought to describe the organization of the content of the social representations that high school students in transition construct of work and their own future, taking into account two variables: their type of secondary school and the anticipated length of their post-secondary education. For this purpose, 669…

This case study examines how relationships with staff in a GEAR-UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) pre-college program positively influenced the college-going aspirations of Black ninth-grade students. Critical Race Theory and Possible Selves provide an intersecting analytical framework for understanding the…

Black history knowledge is an important aspect of development for Black youth that has been linked to learning outcomes and to navigating race-based experiences. In the current study, Black history knowledge was measured in a sample of Black youth (ages 14-21). Relationships among Black history knowledge, conceptions of identity, (i.e., racial…

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…

Students with aligned educational and occupational expectations have improved college and labor market outcomes. Despite extensive knowledge about the ways social background and school context contribute to educational expectations, less is known about the role of social intuitions in shaping expectational alignment. Drawing on data from the 2009…

Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 were used to describe and compare postsecondary education enrollment patterns of first- and continuing-generation students. Social cognitive career theory was used to explain the processes of educational and career pursuit and attainment, as well as personal, behavioral, and…

There is a little information about whether and if so how student aspirations for college change over time. We introduce a conceptual model to explain how student aspirations may change over time, utilize panel methods to examine the extent to which this happens during high school, and investigate which factors are associated with such changes. We…