Post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and elsewhere were forced to react quickly and boldly when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in early 2020. The pandemic had unforeseen consequences, but it also created opportunities for new approaches to institutional systems and service delivery. This study evaluates the impact of the pandemic on…

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…

Despite the World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century that education is the ultimate support of human rights, and that access and participation remain key catalysts to accelerating equal educational opportunities for all, females continue to trail their male counterparts in educational outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa. This…

Between the fall of 2009 and 2019, total postsecondary instituion enrollment in the United States decreased by 5%, and for those students who do enroll in college, many who lack clear career objectives drop out, making the U.S. the nation with the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world. Students' academic aspiratoins and career…

Using a two-stage, matched design, we found dual enrollment students enrolled in college within one year of their expected high school graduation at higher rates than control students who did not take college classes in high school (OR = 3.06). For students that matriculated within one year after high school, compared to control, treatment…

Using a two-stage, matched design, we found dual enrollment students enrolled in college within one year of their expected high school graduation at higher rates than control students who did not take college classes in high school (OR = 3.06). For students that matriculated within one year after high school, compared to control, treatment…

High school student participation in dual enrollment--a key strategy for increasing equitable access to postsecondary education and improving readiness for college--has been on the rise in California in recent years. Despite the overall increase in participation, however, large gaps between racial/ethnic subgroups persist. Also of concern, English…

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…

Thanks to rapid increases in the state's Hispanic and Asian populations, the number of Texas students classified as English Learners has surged in the past decade, from approximately 830,000 in 2010 to more than 1.1 million today. In the charter sector, change has been even more rapid. In 2010, 16 percent of charter students in Texas were…

This update of an annual report from the Boston Private Industry Council in partnership with the Boston Foundation and Success Boston captures one of the first looks at how the pandemic affected whether Boston Public Schools graduates enrolled in and completed college. On enrollment, the report finds that the percentage of Boston Public Schools…

For colleges of agriculture throughout the US, recruitment and retention of undergraduate students is a matter of existential importance. We analyzed personal statements written by applicants accepted to undergraduate degrees at North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) to determine what pre-university…

This paper evaluates the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program in Los Angeles, a school choice initiative that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left traditional attendance-zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. We study the impacts of ZOC on student achievement and college enrollment using a matched…

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…

In this study, we used data from a cohort of 4,033 Tulsa kindergarten students to investigate the relationship between pre-K enrollment and later college enrollment. Specifically, we tested whether participation in the Tulsa Public Schools universal pre-K program and the Tulsa Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start program predicted enrollment…

The California Community Colleges (CCC) Attendance Decisions Survey was designed to understand the factors influencing prospective and previously enrolled community college students' decisions to attend a California community college in fall 2022. This survey was administered in late summer/early fall 2022 and included responses from all 116 CCC…