In the 21st century, the exponential growth of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and the corresponding critical need for STEM graduates in the profession have both outpaced the number of STEM graduates joining the workforce. This is a global problem, one to which the U.S. can relate. A literature review of research…

Background: Transferring schools frequently happens across the United States from kindergarten to college. While student mobility studies have focused more on elementary and middle school grades, research at the high school level is limited. In addition, studies on transfer during high school related to postsecondary education are even more…

Although persisters now represent the largest group of non-graduating high school students, they have received little attention in the research literature, leaving unanswered the question of how persisters differ from dropouts in terms of demographic characteristics, academic preparation, and key life outcomes. Using statewide…

School concentrated disadvantage has been linked to poorer academic achievement and psychosocial functioning in prior research. The current study expands upon prior examinations of school concentrated disadvantage by applying a measurement approach first described by Michelmore and Dynarski in 2017, where eligibility for free and reduced-price…

State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in…

This dissertation examines the county-level impacts on college attainment and enrollment, and student-level impacts on success outcomes, from the Garrett County (Maryland) Scholarship Program, an early adopter in the promise scholarship movement since 2006. I conduct a comprehensive review of prior literature on promise programs, which have been…

Considerable research has examined the personal factors and practices associated with transition-age youth with disabilities achieving higher employment rates and greater self-sufficiency as adults, but there is limited evidence on the longer-term effectiveness of these practices and services. This study examines the role of youth's use of…