The low success rates of increasing numbers of underprepared students taking developmental mathematics classes--often minority and economically disadvantaged--are challenging community colleges across the United States. These students, who must start in the lowest levels of precollege mathematics courses, are unlikely to pass the first course and…

This dissertation study employs an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to investigate how emerging adults with psychiatric disabilities plan for and transition to and through college. Special attention is paid to how disclosure of disability status in educational contexts can influence both educational and recovery outcomes. Though more…

International mindedness is a recent and evolving research topic in language education and other fields because of its significance in promoting global relations, ethical leadership, intercultural understanding, global engagement, and world communication. This study explored the conceptions and practices of international mindedness of four English…

In rural areas, a lack of motivation to pursue a postsecondary degree continues to affect Hmong students at the postsecondary education level. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory research was to create a model based on the exploration of the lack of motivation to pursue postsecondary education among Hmong high school students.…

Drawing on a sociocultural view of learning as acculturation into the distinct social language of academic communities, this study reports the developmental impacts of an intervention program designed to prepare students from a comprehensive urban high school for the rigors of college reading and writing. Statistical analysis of students' pre-,…

This study expands understanding of Chinese international undergraduate students' stay inclinations in the United States. It analyzed a sample of 247 Chinese undergraduate students from a public Midwestern research university during Spring 2017. This study compared the differences in stay inclinations between Chinese undergraduate students who…

Films, popular media, and even literacy scholars (see Heath, Finders, Gere, and Gee) persistently portray teachers in classrooms. My project draws attention to teachers who educate in spaces that are simultaneously home and school: homeschooling parents who teach their own children, a group largely ignored in rhetoric and composition scholarship.…

College readiness refers to factors that both prepare students for college and that enable them to succeed in college. According to the research, the elements that lead to college readiness include institutional academic preparation (Conley, 2008; Pike & Saupe, 2002; Schomaker, 2011; Gewerts, 2009; Adelman, 2006; Rogers, 2010; Edmund &…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine the high school counselors' perception of their ability to influence low socioeconomic students' postsecondary enrollment decisions in seven Title I high schools in southern California. Perna and Thomas' Student Success model and the Delivery System of the American School…

Insufficiently understanding the meaning of academic integration or ineffectively responding to the academic integration needs of underprepared, first-year learners at the outset of their post-secondary journeys has resulted in providing fewer college degrees to an increasingly diverse student population at a time when there is a shortage of…

Students from low-income backgrounds are attending institutions of higher education in larger numbers than ever before, but their actual degree attainment rates remain low. While these students may not have parents who attended college and lack pre-college rigor, Mexican-American female students from low-income backgrounds are finding ways to…

The population of United States Latino students is growing at a rapid rate but their academic achievement lags behind white and Asian students. This issue has significant consequences for the nation's economy, as the job market continues to demand more education and better skills. Early College High School programs have the potential to improve…

This study examines how teachers navigate tensions between communicating expectations for college level work and student motivation as they determined summative grades in an AP Environmental Science course. Semi-structured interviews and a think-aloud protocol were conducted while teachers in poverty-impacted urban high schools determined final…

For students to be successful in higher education, compete in 21st century careers and be economically competitive, they will need a greater understanding of mathematics that centers on critical thinking, problem solving, analysis, communication and collaboration (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012; Gasser, 2011; Schornick, 2010). Delivering…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators, which leads to new products and processes that sustain our economy (Hossain & Robinson, 2012). We have been hearing the warnings for several years, that there simply are not enough…