This qualitative study extends the research on postsecondary delay by examining the college experiences of six male nontraditional students from the North Texas area who purposefully postponed college education for 3 years after high school graduation to fulfill religious commitments. Unlike the majority of delayers, the participants successfully…

Though the diversification of pathways through higher education is widely recognized, little is known about longer-term patterns of undergraduate participation and attainment. I used sequence analysis to examine college-going across early and middle adulthood in nationally-representative data. Clustering of sequence data revealed four latent…

Jackson, Wigger, and Xiong (2020a, JWX) provide evidence that education spending reductions following the Great Recession had widespread negative impacts on student achievement and attainment. This paper describes our process of duplicating JWX and highlights a variety of tests we employ to investigate the nature and robustness of the relationship…

This report presents findings on the relationship between taking community college dual enrollment courses--in which high school students earn high school and college credits simultaneously--and college outcomes among Florida public high school students. It analyses dual enrollment course-taking by racial/ethnic group (Black, Hispanic, White) and…

Using value-added models, we find that high schools impact students' self-reported socioemotional development (SED) by enhancing social well-being and promoting hard work. Conditional on schools' test score impacts, schools that improve SED reduce school-based arrests, and increase high-school completion, college-going, and college persistence.…

Recent policy and research efforts have focused on simplifying the college-going process, improving transparency around college costs, and helping students make informed decisions. In 2012, the Obama administration released the "shopping sheet," a standardized financial aid offer that is intended to provide students with simplified…

AACRAO partnered with a large public university in the southwestern United States to examine a multi-year data set and to complete a student survey in order to gain insights into variables that contribute to excess credit accumulation at graduation. Until state legislatures began to decrease funding for public colleges and universities, excess…

Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a critical factor influencing the college choice process among families. What is not clear, though, is whether this parental driven factor also takes place at the school level along with school related factors. Using a national sample of 9th grade students drawn from about 900 schools, we found that…

Efforts to understand disparities in educational outcomes between students designated as English Learners (ELs) and their monolingual English-speaking peers have focused on factors that limit ELs' access to college, including quality of high school preparation. Central to quality high school preparation are schools' curricular structures--the…

Nearly 30 years ago, Math Corps--a summer camp for middle school students in Detroit who could benefit from mentoring and positive influences--was started at Wayne State University (WSU). In 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded an Advancing Informal Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) Learning grant to WSU. As part of…

Because the pandemic exacerbated chronic absenteeism in many parts of the country, the need to understand how schools can improve student attendance has never been greater. Accordingly, this study breaks new ground by examining high schools' contributions to attendance after accounting for individual students' prior absenteeism and other…

Understanding the concerns high school students have about college presents opportunities to address college-bound students' needs before they arrive on campus, potentially increasing enrollment and retention. In this study, we investigated the academic, campus, social, and personal concerns of college-bound high school students and how these…

Using the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this study documents that rural and small-town students were significantly less likely to enroll in postsecondary STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree programs, compared with their suburban peers. This study also shows that schools…

The purpose of this study was to examine how school counselors', and principals' primary counseling goals and expectations impact postsecondary enrollment in order to learn what best helps students achieve their postsecondary goals. It was found that school counselors' expectations of students were positively related to students' postsecondary…

Large numbers of young people from underserved populations, including first-generation, low-income, and rural, are clearly capable of high levels of achievement but are failing to do so owing to lack of access and opportunities. The purpose of this study was to determine what characteristics of the Health Science Technology Academy (HSTA), a…