Early College High Schools (ECHS) partner with post-secondary institutions to award students, specifically those from historically marginalized groups, with significant transferrable college credit--tuition free--along with a high school diploma. Utilizing the frameworks of counterspace and counterstory, this study aimed to understand the…

Establishing early academic momentum via credit accumulation is strongly associated with community college student success. Using data from one of the nation's largest and most racially diverse community college systems, our quasi-experimental study examined how different first-semester credit loads influenced persistence. For part-time students…

Early College High Schools (ECs) are growing in popularity as an affordable avenue for students to obtain up to an associate's degree while in high school in Texas. Using Merton's (1966) Anticipatory Socialization Theory, this study investigated how ECs shaped 13 graduates' social behaviors and norms while in high school, and then how they…

Adult English language instruction is the fastest growing segment of U.S. adult basic education population. Supporting adult emergent multilingual students through English as a Second Language or English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, referred to here as ES(O)L, and developmental literacy programs presents a "wicked problem"…

In response to concerns about the additional costs and time-to-degree associated with traditional developmental education programs, several states and postsecondary systems have implemented corequisite reform where academically underprepared students take both a developmental education course and college-level course in the same subject area…

Previous research has identified the important role high school educators play in the postsecondary advancement of racially marginalized students. However, research has yet to examine how educators construct messages to facilitate these students' transition from high school to college. Therefore, this study explores how teachers make sense of…

For linguistically diverse students, the path to college is often defined by language. Depending on assessments and institutional policies, students may be placed into course sequences in developmental English, adult basic education, and/or English as a Second Language courses. The purpose of this study was to better understand developmental…

Early college high schools, which allow underrepresented students to earn up to an associate's degree during 9th through 12th grades, have been lauded for their potential to increase college access and opportunity. Yet little is known about the role of the principal. Using data drawn from 10 administrators in the borderlands of West Texas, this…

Texas House Bill 2223 (2017) was developed to accelerate underprepared students' persistence and successful completion of credit-bearing college-level courses. This new corequisite mandate allows underprepared students to enroll in entry-level college courses and requires co-enrollment in a developmental education course/intervention designed to…

Despite their better-than-average preparation, former dual credit and advanced placement students have placed into developmental education upon entering higher education. In this phenomenological study, six students were randomly selected to be interviewed from a group of 562 who placed into developmental education at one Texas university during a…

This qualitative study examines Latina/o/x parents' perceptions and involvement in the pre-college process from the South Texas border region. Researchers have expressed student success and the likelihood of students pursuing postsecondary education is dependent on the level of parent involvement. As student demographics and enrollment rates…

This article details the efforts that the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) office at a large research university made toward piloting, refining, and scaling corequisite courses for students who require developmental education. House Bill 2223, passed by the Texas Legislature in June of 2017, requires public institutions to increase the percentage of…

Charter schools that target underserved communities, including Latinxs, have proliferated in the U.S., claiming a unique, more autonomous and successful alternative to traditional public schools, often with a promise of increased postsecondary access and preparation. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding their effectiveness on academic…

DE programming in higher education should be designed to increase student success, and well-designed corequisite models have shown great potential as an accelerated option for completion of the first college-level course in math. With the support of a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board grant, Tarleton State University, a member institution…

International students are increasingly enrolling in U.S community colleges as a starting point to their higher education. However, limited research examines the factors contributing to their successful transfer to a 4-year institution and bachelor degree attainment. Utilizing longitudinal transcript data from a large community college district in…