This report provides a portrait of K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. It examines pre-college mathematics and science learning and how that learning affects postsecondary and career outcomes. It also compares U.S. student performance with that of other nations. Data sources include the…

Youth homelessness in the United States is a serious challenge. Recent national research by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago found concerning rates of homelessness among adolescents and young adults ages 13-25. An estimated one in 30 adolescents (ages 13-17) and nearly one in 10 young adults (ages 18-25) experienced some form of…

There is currently a great deal of interest in the potential of reductions in or elimination of the cost of college attendance for students (here referred to as college subsidies) to increase equitable access to higher education. A number of Democratic presidential candidates have advanced proposals for such programs. However, because colleges and…

Research increasingly points to the importance of parental engagement in children's education. Yet, little research has investigated whether prompting parents to be more involved in college processes improves student outcomes. We investigate experimentally whether providing both students and their parents with personalized outreach about tasks…

Hispanic high school graduates have lower college completion rates than academically similar white students. As Hispanic students have been theorized to be more constrained in the college search and selection process, one potential policy lever is to increase the set of colleges to which these students apply and attend. In this paper, we…

Although previous research has shown that homework improves students' academic achievement, the majority of these studies use data on students' homework time from retrospective questionnaires, which may be less accurate than time-diary data. We use data from the combined Child Development Supplement (CDS) and the Transition to Adulthood Survey…

With the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program moving into full force in spring 2018, an average of 915 young unauthorized immigrants will lose their work authorization and protection from deportation each day beginning on March 6, 2018 through March 5, 2020, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI)…

The impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas is estimated. It was found that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically…

This report follows the high school graduating class of 2020 into their first year of college--high school seniors when the pandemic began. The initial impact of the pandemic on college-going pathways and outcomes is a focal point. While the data is concerning, there are successes: (1) Dual enrollment participation continues to increase; (2) More…

We measure college enrollment selectivity gaps by race-ethnicity using a novel method that is sensitive to both the level (2- vs. 4-year) and selectivity of the college in which students enroll. We find that overall Hispanic-White and Black-White enrollment selectivity gaps closed in the United States between 1986 and 2014. This overall closing of…

Much of the literature on university access and participation positions people from disadvantaged backgrounds as those who have not 'traditionally' attended university. Certain student cohorts are presented as lacking the skills or requisite knowledges to achieve academic success, requiring additional assistance from institutions to address these…

Reports abound about the challenges that first-generation, low-income students face on the path to higher education. Yet despite these barriers, millions of low-income, first-generation students persevere. What or who influences their motivation to "stay the course" to higher education? Using self-determination theory as a framework,…

Survival analysis is an advanced statistical method to investigate the occurrence and the timing of an important event such as school access, dropout, and graduation in a longitudinal framework. The aim of our study is to provide practical guidelines for empirical researchers in choosing an appropriate survival analysis model. For this goal, this…

Recent reports reveal that due to many factors, the U.S. has experienced an unprecedented decline in attracting new international students (IIE, 2017) in higher education. In addition to obvious changes in the political climate and competition, national and institutional barriers contribute to this phenomenon. Other countries, specifically…

For as much as we know about the economic benefits of a college degree, California policymakers and educators have little information about the college destinations of high school graduates. To fill this information gap, we assembled a unique data set of three recent cohorts of public high school students matched with college enrollment data from…