The Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS) program has helped thousands of families afford postsecondary education, and is reported to have helped motivate students to set higher goals for themselves, and to pursue postsecondary education in Alaska. Evidence indicates APS recipients are better prepared for college. However, the reach of these…

Despite a growing number of autistic children completing high school and venturing into college and vocational settings, their rates of postsecondary attendance, graduation, and vocational success still lag behind those of their nonautistic counterparts. This study surveyed 162 autistic and nonautistic high school students about internal and…

This paper focuses on the impact COVID-19 has on students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution. Data retrieved from the Latinx student population was limited, which initiated this study. The research study includes a survey that was previously used, prior to the pandemic. Variables focused on are success rates of students attending a Hispanic…

The current study positions high school relationships and resources as assets to college-going Latinx students, examining the potential academic benefits of maintaining high school friendships and participating in support services offered from the high school context. The participants were 165 graduates (86.4% Latinx; 75.6% low-income) from a high…

Universal Free Application for Financial Student Aid (FAFSA) policies are being implemented in states as a way to eliminate financial barriers to college enrollment and completion for underrepresented student groups. High school counselors play a critical role in helping students complete this graduation requirement. Texas adopted a universal…

This study explores the college choice process and experiences of California Latinx students applying to selective, four-year institutions. The literature review reveals existing disparities in outcomes for California Latinx students attending open-access institutions, highlighting the potential for private, selective colleges to increase…

This paper will include details on knowledge and ambition levels found between Latino-ethnic K-5 students located in a Southern Region of Texas from a college going culture presentation. The purpose is to understand how ambition and knowledge about higher education was influenced among Latino-ethnic K-5 students in impoverished areas. A low-income…

Online learning environments are changing the landscape of education, with evidence supporting their efficacy. However, research that focuses entirely on online distance English-language programs is sparse, especially in regards to oral proficiency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an online distance-learning program in…

Underrepresented minority (URM) and economically disadvantaged (ED) high school students are less likely to graduate from high school or enroll in college. This institution began a structured mentorship program focusing on URM and ED students using a surgical simulation lab. The objective was to determine the effect of the mentorship program on…

The elicited imitation task (EIT), in which language learners listen to a series of spoken sentences and repeat each one verbatim, is a commonly used measure of language proficiency in second language acquisition research. The "TOEFL® Essentials"™ test includes an EIT as a holistic measure of speaking proficiency, referred to as the…

Do tuition vouchers and cash subsidies promote educational or labor force outcomes for "non-traditional" students? I use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impacts of a state aid program with an unobserved eligibility cutoff. Eligibility has no impact on degree completion for students with a preference for community…

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…

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…

One of the stated goals of career and technical education (CTE) is to improve the labor market outcomes of participants. One population of students for which concentration CTE may be particularly beneficial is those who determine they will not pursue postsecondary education. By exploring how occupational concentration--defined as earning three or…

The pandemic period of the past two years has altered many aspects of the high school and college experience for students. With more emphasis on hybrid and virtual experiences, how has this impacted the college search process for high school students? What do they value, what do they need to know, and what information have they seen? Ruffalo Noel…