Numerous national and state endeavors have advocated for approaches, funding, and programs focused on expanding the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce of the nation and investing in education to cultivate a more diverse and impactful cohort of students who pursue STEM pathways. Educators, support personnel, and…

Youth of color enrolled in urban public high schools, particularly those students who seek to be the first in their families to graduate from college, frequently encounter barriers to their college readiness and access. This study engaged an analytic approach built with culturally relevant and sustaining theories of education to examine how 10…

This article describes the experience of participants and facilitators engaging in a psychoeducational group counseling intervention designed to enhance college readiness among Latine first-generation college-going students--those for whom neither parent completed college (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017). The group was designed to…

High school graduates must be College and Career Ready to be successful in their future academic and employment pursuits. Employability skills such as communication, leadership, and critical thinking are in high demand from colleges and employers. High school academic success is an indicator the person has the skills and background necessary for…

This article describes an eight-session psychoeducational small-group intervention with two groups of African-American youth in an urban, east coast high school setting. Sessions were designed to enhance the self-efficacy and outcomes expectations related to attending college for first-generation college goers in the twelfth grade. The group…

There are many important questions teachers and administrators need to ask as they grapple with how to ensure high school graduates are college and career ready. What does it mean to prepare students for a world that is rapidly changing--a world in which science and technology are altering how we live, work, play, and interact? If teachers focus…

The moderating effects of motivation, social control, and self-regulation in predicting academic achievement were examined in Grades 11-12 for 3,281 seventh through nine graders. Standardized assessments of college readiness and student self-reported measures of psychosocial factors were used in the study. The results showed that females in Grades…

University participation rates are significantly lower in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in Australia. Specifically, rates differ between-schools and within-schools, where inequalities in opportunities to access university pathway programs exist. The aim of this study was to test whether academic encouragement supported students' school…

Nonacademic skills related to college and career readiness (CCR) have become more prevalent in the literature as proposed conceptual models and frameworks, yet little empirical research exists in their support. We employed latent variable modeling to empirically test a previously proposed six-domain framework of CCR for adolescents with and…

Parental academic involvement is critical in promoting children's long-term academic success and may be especially impactful during middle school. However, longitudinal research is lacking for Mexican-origin youth and has focused mostly on mothers. Mexican-origin mothers and fathers reported their academic involvement during seventh grade, and we…

The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination in South Africa is a standardised assessment whose main function is to determine whether Grade 12 learners have mastered subject knowledge at the culmination of their secondary education. Alongside this, the National Benchmark Test Project (NBTP) was introduced to develop the National Benchmark…

In 2011, under the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), Florida made college placement testing mandatory for 11th-grade students who had scored in the midrange of its standardized 10th-grade assessment. Those with placement test scores below college-ready were assigned in 12th grade to college readiness and success…

The mathematics performance data from 12,738 high school students were examined to determine the relationship between students' racial-ethnic and linguistic background, participation in higher level mathematics courses, and performance on a norm-referenced measure of achievement, explicitly accounting for important urban school context indicators.…

The college and career readiness movement figures prominently in the nation's educational reform and policies, including strategies to increase graduation rates among disadvantaged students in urban schools. As part of a multi-pronged approach to help youth transition to post-secondary education and the workforce, the present study evaluated a new…

Creating effective pathways for students to transition from high school to college or career is immensely important and, although challenging, some have developed promising approaches. This case study examined how formal and informal leaders in an urban high school and district collaborated to implement a college and career academy model,…