While there is a growing body of literature related to the benefits of participation in career and technical education (CTE) in high school, there remains a dearth of causal work in this area. Relying on administrative data from Baltimore City Public Schools, which uses a ranking system with a strict cut score to assign students into CTE-focused…

We evaluate two interventions designed to improve students' postsecondary readiness, as measured by their GPA, self-reported career readiness, and self-reported social emotional constructs, in rural districts. Student Success Planning (SSP) was implemented by 17 rural districts in New York and Ohio and included quarterly meetings between students…

This brief provides an overview of the postsecondary readiness-focused interventions that districts partnering with the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) implemented and evaluated through a randomized controlled trial during the 2021-22 school year. NCRERN districts piloted two interventions aimed at improving…

Middle grades teachers want early adolescents to take responsibility for their own learning and success in school. One way to encourage this is with "interactive homework," which enables students to lead conversations with a parent or family partner about something interesting they are learning in class. An exploratory study tested…

Background: Youth with ADHD are at risk of academic impairments, dropping out of high school, and dysfunction in young adulthood. Interventions delivered early in high school could prevent these harmful outcomes, yet few high school students with ADHD receive treatment due to limited access to intervention providers. This study will test a…

High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, while test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We find…

Objective: Researchers have speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic may expand the academic performance gap experienced by at-risk students. We examined learning experiences during the 2020-2021 school year and the impact the pandemic has had on high school student grade point average (GPA), including predictors of change in GPA from 2019-2020 to…

In 2016, McREL and the University of Southern California (USC) were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund (Award Number U411C150011) to develop a translation of the identity-based motivation (IBM) in vivo program "Pathways to Success" to a digital platform to deliver IBM to middle and…

Background: Student-teacher relationships are associated with the social and emotional climate of a school, a key domain of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model. Few interventions target student-teacher relationships during the critical transition to high school, or incorporate strategies for enhancing equitable relationships. We…

Although high school graduation rates are improving, a large number of students are still not successful. Research has documented that 9th grade is a pivotal year in determining whether a student will graduate or drop out. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to assess the effects of a Tier 1 intervention model (Freshmen Success)…

Adolescent opioid misuse is a public health crisis, particularly among clinical populations of youth 15 with substance misuse histories. Given the negative and often lethal consequences associated with 16 opioid misuse among adolescents, it is essential to identify the risk and protective factors underlying 17 early opioid misuse to inform…

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with academic failure in high school; however the underpinnings of these difficulties are insufficiently understood. This study examined deficits in self-regulated learning in a sample of high school students with ADHD (n=32) compared to demographically similar classmates without ADHD…

Student-teacher relationships that improve over time may help slow or prevent declines in student motivation. In a diverse sample of 1,274 middle and high school students from three schools, this mixed-methods study found that those who improved in developmental relationships with teachers reported greater academic motivation, and more positive…

The current paper explores how students' relationships with their teachers, parents, and friends might differentially impact their academic experience and success, by presenting and integrating the results of two related studies. In the first study, survey methods and structural equation modeling are used to describe the similar and different…

This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation…