For many years, U.S. employers have stated that today's youth are not prepared for college or equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st Century workforce. As we enter into an age where the American Dream is no longer possible with just a high school diploma, there is an increasing need to prepare students for college and the…

Community colleges are more likely to serve student populations commonly categorized as at-risk, including students attending part-time, students from lower-income groups, or underprepared students. Each year, over 2,000,000 community college students are considered underprepared and enroll in remedial or developmental education courses.…

The role of social capital in the creation of human capital may be a significant factor limiting the college readiness and completion of underrepresented populations. After fifty years of increasing educational intervention programs, underrepresented populations still have the lowest rates of college completion and poverty still hovers around 14%.…

The increased demand for a skilled workforce has placed new challenges on rural school districts. Students are provided the opportunity to obtain the skills required to fill the workforce needs through exemplary career and technical education programs. The purpose of this study was to identify key characteristics of exemplary career and technical…

The landmark theoretical model of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) was developed almost twenty years ago as a critique of American meritocracy and the deficit views of Students of Color (Yosso, 2005). Most research on CCW since that point has been qualitative in nature, specifically in-depth interviews to understand how Students of Color exact…

This research study analyzed the impact of an early college readiness program (ECRP) on students' academic performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading and mathematics assessments in Grades 3, 4, and 5. ECRP is a college readiness system designed to support students to reach postsecondary education. The ECRP…

Rigorous coursework is one of the necessary staples in establishing college readiness. Rural districts are much less likely to offer advanced coursework opportunities to students. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities (Advanced Placement) provided to rural students (in-person…

Hispanics comprise the fastest-growing ethnicity in the United States. One in five college students is Hispanic. While Hispanics are gaining access to higher education, their college completion rate is dismal, compared to Whites and other ethnicities. Hispanics face unique academic and social challenges in college. This phenomenological study was…

This qualitative comparative narrative study determined the perceptions of high school English language arts teachers regarding the impact of incorporating Web 2.0 tools upon student college readiness. This study also examined whether teachers should persist in incorporating Web 2.0 tools in educational experiences as they seek to support students…

According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education & The Southern Regional Education Board (2010), there is a disparity between those who are college-eligible, and those who are actually college-ready. In New Jersey, a large percentage of students who graduate from its public schools are inadequately prepared for the…

This study aimed to investigate and improve the college readiness of students in an innercity public school. Recent statistics on college completion in a prominent city in the U.S. reveal that only 52% of students from inner-city schools graduate with college degrees within six years. This is quite worrisome, considering that 71% of jobs in that…

Historically, school counselors have been the primary facilitators in supporting the career and college transition process for students, but many school counselors do not have the knowledge, resources, or materials to support students in this transition (Belasco, 2013). One way to help support career and college readiness is to develop…

The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine the relationship among student achievement factors, gifted and talented status and post-secondary readiness. The study included a review of archived data obtained from a large district in the southeastern region of Texas consisting of a purposeful sample of AP students' who took an…

This study addresses the following research question: "How do counselors in different school contexts evaluate their students' college readiness and offer post-secondary guidance?" Best practices in school counselor use of time and job duties are well understood and studied. Similar guidelines for best practices in post-secondary…

AutismSpeaks.org estimated that a total of 1.1 million teens with autism will enter adulthood in the next decade (Autism Speaks, n.d.). Unfortunately, research shows many of those individuals will have bleak outcomes in life postsecondary (Lake et al., 2014; Posar & Visconti, 2018). This issue will compound without proper resources and…