Do "no excuses" charter high schools merely help students succeed on standardized tests? Are their students more likely to succeed after they leave school behind? Is it test prep, or true learning? Little prior research is available on this question. Although there is a robust positive correlation between test performance and college…

This article analyses the strategies found in two elite secondary institutions in Buenos Aires designed to legitimise the selection of students aspiring to become members of the elite. The first are personalization strategies where teachers and students work together with the aim of facilitating success in examinations. The second are strategies…

This study is the first in-depth look at Chicago's charter schools by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium). The authors examined four key dimensions of charter high schools in Chicago Public Schools (CPS): (1) school organization and policies; (2) incoming skills and characteristics of charter high school…

Universities' reputations are built in part on graduates' assessments of the quality of education they received. What do these assessments tell us? Are graduates' judgments of quality based on their experiences as students or on their later job satisfaction, that is, on process or on outcomes? The objective of this study was to assess the extent…

In the current study we examined how different experiences of a selective entry examination influenced children's feelings about themselves, school and intelligence as they approached transition to secondary school. Children were recruited from three English schools that use a selective entry examination to stream students into secondary schools…

The SAT is used for two purposes at the University of California. First is "eligibility": Determining whether applicants meet the minimum requirements for admission to the UC system. Second is "admissions selection": At high-demand campuses such as Berkeley, with many more eligible applicants than places available, test scores…

This study explores factors enhancing the likelihood that three demographically disadvantaged groups of selective science high school graduates would complete a university STEM degree 4-6 years later. The target groups are labeled as disadvantaged in terms of STEM pipeline persistence compared to school peers, and include: (1) women, (2) those…

This study examines the relationship between networks that provide high school students with "social capital for college" (SCFC) and their access to selective institutions. It also explores the link between racial disparities in access to selective colleges and the composition of students' SCFC networks. Findings indicate that while…

This report was commissioned jointly by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) and the British Columbia Registrar's Association (BCRA) to create a background document to further dialogue among stakeholders regarding any proposed changes to the secondary school graduation program in BC. The scope of the report includes only…

The goal of equal educational opportunity remains unrealized at most of America's colleges. The children of wealth and privilege fill nearly all the seats at these institutions, while the children of poverty are almost completely absent. Far too often, a young person's educational path is determined not by intellect, but by parental income. That a…

An evaluation of the Princeton University Preparatory Program (PUPP), a college access program for low-income and high-achieving public high school students, yielded favorable findings regarding the perceptions of program alumni. PUPP Alumni Survey respondents (N =126) reported that PUPP had positively impacted their development of academic and…

This report summarizes the findings of focus groups conducted with parents of former and current participants in the Princeton University Preparatory Program (PUPP), a college access and preparation program for low-income and high-achieving students attending public high schools in Princeton, New Jersey, and its surrounding communities. Conducted…

French has played a central role in Congolese education since its independence in 1960. Its dominant position at the postcolonial school is subject to controversy on the national and international level. However, the way that pupils themselves have experienced the role of French at school has not been researched so far. This paper investigates the…

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which the magnitude of disparities in the labor market outcomes of college graduates stemming from socioeconomic background varies according to institutional selectivity. The data used for the study are drawn from the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Longitudinal Study of…

This paper is the first in Pioneer Institute's UMass at a Crossroads series. In the opening study, the authors focus on UMass' significant growth in two areas, academic competitiveness and student enrollment, compared to other New England state universities, MA private universities, national private universities and national public universities.…