Dual enrollment (DE)--where students earn college credits during high school--is expanding rapidly. To facilitate DE, institutional actors across K-12 schools and colleges must build or repurpose structures across separate organizations to determine course offerings, assignments, modality, and composition. Yet the organization and implications of…

The purpose of this study is to compare the college enrollment and STEM college major choice rates of graduates of a STEM-focused charter school system to those of students who graduated from traditional public schools in the state of Texas and the USA for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups. In addition, the factors students…

States have introduced a range of policies and strategies aimed at boosting college readiness by strengthening collaborations between secondary and postsecondary education sectors. One popular strategy is Early College High Schools, which allows historically underserved student groups to complete college-level coursework and improve their college…

Background: In the context of Texas of the USA, House Bill 5 signifies a major policy shift requiring entering high school students starting in fall 2014 to choose an endorsement, like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being one of them, to provide students with earlier exposure to a coherent course sequence. As we barely…

In an effort to increase college access and success rates, the state of Texas has expanded dual enrollment programs and Early College High Schools (ECHS) that provide students with the opportunity to begin their collegiate careers while still in high school. More recently, these dual enrollment and ECHS programs have tried to broaden inclusion…

Enrollment rates for Latino male students continue to increase at community colleges; unfortunately, compared to their other racial and/or ethnic male counterparts they are less likely to earn a college credential or degree. This qualitative study explores the narratives of six presidents at Texas community colleges designated as Hispanic-Serving…

In this investigation, we analyzed Hispanic student access and success in health-related degrees by examining enrollment and graduation rates over a period of 13 years. Archival data were obtained from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board consisting of the number of Hispanic students enrolled and number of degrees awarded in the…

The Texas Ten Percent Plan (TTP) provides students in the top 10 percent of their high-school class with automatic admission to any public university in the state, including the two flagship schools, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M. Texas created the policy in 1997 after a federal appellate court ruled that the state's previous…

The University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science began admitting students to its 2-year early college entrance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program in the fall of 1988. This program provided accelerated entry for top students in Texas in the areas of mathematics and science. Approximately 200…

St. Mary's University is the oldest Catholic university in Texas and the Southwest United States. Like many institutions, it is in a highly competitive market. Numerous other colleges and universities (including other private and Catholic institutions) are in the San Antonio area. Along with a decrease in the number of search responses, St. Mary's…

Although the Hispanic population is growing at a much faster rate than other populations, college enrollment rates are relatively low compared to Anglos and African Americans. One of the reasons for the low enrollment rate is that the relatively high dropout rate among Hispanic high school students reduces the number of Hispanic students eligible…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires states to publish high school graduation rates for public schools; the U.S. Department of Education is currently considering a mandate to standardize high school graduation rate reporting. However, no consensus exists among researchers or policymakers about how to measure high school graduation rates. We use…

In today's increasingly diverse society, the legitimacy and strength of the democratic form of government depends on equitable access to graduate and professional education for individuals from all races and ethnicities. Yet, despite recent increases in enrollment, students of color remain severely underrepresented in graduate and professional…

This study examined the extent to which Texas school boards of education made efforts to locally modify student speech policy. Using online policy manuals provided by the Texas Association of School Boards, speech policies for 91 school districts were gathered using a purposive stratified sampling procedure and examined for local modifications to…

The National Center for School Counseling Outcome Research (CSCOR) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst studied exemplary practices of 18 high schools that received recognition for college preparation and placement in 2004 and 2005. Through interviews with key personnel at each of the high schools, the researchers generated a set of ten…