This dissertation examines the impacts of a last-dollar promise program on high school-to-college enrollments at a very large community college (VLCC) district in Texas. The research intends to add to the current literature on the growing popularity of promise programs at two-year community colleges. Specifically, this quantitative study examines…

Calls for high levels of participation and success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by all Australians exacerbates the need for research into improving participation in mathematics by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Rogoff's three planes of analysis is used to foreground the institutional plane in a low…

Student participation and performance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) have been an education concern in the United States for years. In 2013, Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 5 (HB5) to support increases in STEM awareness, particularly among ethnic minority and female students. To date, no studies have been conducted on the…

Previous scholarship has provided a broad overview of demographic trends in secondary school music enrolment across the United States. However, there exists a gap in the literature in how students with disabilities are represented in school music, and the demographics of students enrolled in experiences outside of band, orchestra, and choir.…

We estimate the impact of one of the largest college-to-student outreach efforts in the nation, the College Board's Student Search Service. In an oversubscribed "order," colleges receive contact information of a randomly chosen subset of PSAT and SAT exam takers who opt into the service and meet colleges' search criteria from a larger…

Our study evaluated the effectiveness of a new tracking policy called self-selection (SS). The purpose of SS was to increase the representation of students of color in advanced mathematics courses at an urban midwestern middle school. We conducted a multinomial logistic regression to determine the effect of the SS on enrollment trends among 2,627…

Rural Mississippi schools often face challenges in providing equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses, particularly in STEM fields. This lack of access limits opportunities for high-achieving students to pursue rigorous STEM coursework and related careers. The AP STEM program aims to improve access to AP STEM courses for high-achieving…

Recent studies of charter school effectiveness have questioned whether charter school networks can produce a lasting impact on students' long-term outcomes. Our study is the first to examine this issue at the network of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools, which primarily serve disadvantaged students of color and constitute the nation's…

The purpose of this study was to examine the demographic characteristics and music achievement of eighth-grade students in the United States using evidence from the 2016 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts (NAEP). Analyzing NAEP data from a nationally representative sample of 4,340 eighth graders attending public and private…

The value of a college degree continues to rise. A bachelor's degree in particular provides unrivaled economic and health benefits not just for the individual earning the degree, but for the entire state. Therefore, it is not surprising to see growing demand for a college education coupled with growing eligibility for California's public…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program and to derive estimates of program costs. We used the Coarsened Exact Matching approach to match AVID students with non-AVID students on 40 baseline characteristics. After matching, we estimated group differences in high-school graduation and…

This exploratory study examines the role community-based organizations have in bridging low-income students of color to postsecondary institutions. Data came from interviews with organization staff, high school students, and college students associated with three distinct community-based organizations located in a mid-size city. The findings…

The Texas Education Agency launched the Grow Your Own (GYO) grant program in 2018 to encourage districts to develop or expand existing high-quality education and training courses for high school students and to support district-employed paraprofessionals (including instructional aides and long-term substitute teachers) to pursue certifications…

The Texas Education Agency launched the Grow Your Own (GYO) grant program in 2018 to encourage districts to develop or expand existing high-quality education and training courses for high school students and to support district-employed paraprofessionals (including instructional aides and long-term substitute teachers) to pursue certifications…

Background/Context: Scholars and practitioners continue to work to identify ways to change structural conditions, school-level policy, and stakeholder mindsets to support minoritized youth in advanced coursework. Open access policies, in which students do not need a previous teacher's approval or a prerequisite grade to enroll in an advanced…