In recent years Tennessee policymakers have focused on improving the college outcomes of high school graduates. For example, the Tennessee Promise scholarship established in 2014 offers two years of community or technical college free to eligible high school graduates (Tennessee Promise, 2015). Given such policy developments, it is important to…

In 2014, the state of California implemented the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) in order to align state assessment and accountability policies with the newly adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS). At the heart of the new performance and accountability system is the Smarter Balanced Assessment. The Smarter…

In 2010, McCracken County, Kentucky implemented the Community Scholarship Program (CSP) to provide graduates of high schools in the county an opportunity to receive a tuition-free community college education. Quantitative data was collected throughout the various stages of student progress through the program. As the first cohort of CSP students…

This study explored postsecondary trends of Houston Independent School District (HISD) high school seniors over the past three years, including students who participated in direct advising sessions through Launch Senior. Three cohorts of students attended HISD schools in ninth through twelfth grades, culminating in either 2017-2018 (Cohort I) or…

One approach to reducing persistent racial/ethnic achievement gaps is to tackle their social-psychological dimensions, including the negative consequences of stereotype threat and other identity threats in school. Initial research suggested that a particularly promising approach is brief self-affirmation writing exercises for 7th grade students;…

Considered a non-academic factor that is not necessarily measured by academic indicators of college and career readiness (e.g., grade point average, college admissions exams scores), critical thinking is an important aspect of 21st century learning and thus should be embedded into secondary school instruction and assessment. In this study,…

This study presents findings from three cohorts of students--the classes of 2003, 2004, and 2005, in the School District of Philadelphia--that were admitted to the district's career and technical education (CTE) schools through a randomized lottery process. This study takes advantage of this so-called "'natural experiment' to compare high…

The goal of this study was to identify variables related to success and resilience in an undergraduate, high school mathematics teacher education program. Over a five-year period, we tracked the academic performance and achievement motivation goals of multiple cohorts of students. Students who successfully completed their degrees had higher grade…

The concept of college readiness is complex because of its many components, and its meaning is further complicated by disparate definitions applied by different postsecondary institutions. The research featured in this study attempts to measure college readiness according to traditional indicators, such as high school GPA and course taking, but…

This paper explores the factors of freshman year college retention by using a unique data set tracking the participation of a cohort of 1,800 students in a public state college system through 2011 from their freshman enrollment at a community college in 2006. The focus is on prevalent factors in the college retention literature, including…

The ACES program is a collaboration between MCPS, Montgomery College (MC), and the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) to create a seamless pathway from high school to college completion. ACES focuses on identifying and supporting students who are underrepresented in higher education, the first in their family to attend college, or both. In…

The significant increase of entrepreneurship education (EE) is a trend in Europe. Entrepreneurship education is supposed to promote general and specific entrepreneurial abilities and improve academic performance. This paper evaluates whether EE influences academic performance, measured by Grade Point Average. The main indicator used for EE is the…

PISA 2012 results indicate that school systems that group students based on ability levels tend to have lower performance than those that do not divide students by ability. One way some in the United States have sought to increase equity of opportunity is to mandate enrollment of students in college-preparatory mathematics, i.e., Algebra 1 in…

Prior academic achievement is often considered the best predictor and therefore the preadmission criteria for highly competitive medical schools. Most studies that advocate this viewpoint analyzed cohorts based on results of a central examination taken by students who come from various pre-university setups and backgrounds. Far less is known about…

This study examined attributes of self-directed learning (SDL) in students, grades 8 through 12, taking online courses through a state-wide online program in the Southeastern United States. The study investigated whether distinct latent classes of SDL exist; whether there was a significant difference in SDL according to gender, ethnicity, and…