Substantial changes to the undergraduate population at US universities have created a need for the development of a model of academic literacy and a corresponding means of measuring academic readiness that addresses contextualized, communicative English language competence. This paper presents a unified model of academic literacy which treats…

First generation Latino college students are under-performing and continue to have the lowest levels of educational attainment relative to other groups in the United States. This study utilized a positive deviance theoretical framework to uncover the challenges faced by first generation college students, as well as the strategies used to achieve…

The inclusion of college preparation programs promote and forecast academic success in postsecondary studies among individual at-risk, African American urban high school students. Past research has shown ongoing, college acceptance, performance, and graduation gaps between at-risk, African American urban high school students when compared to…

First generation college students are accessing colleges and universities at an increased rate. However, first generation college students, which include a disproportionate number of minorities and low income populations, continue to lag behind their counterparts in graduating from college. More prevalent in the research are factors that cause…

Recent studies have revealed how large shares of college-ready students "undermatch", or enroll in colleges with less competitive admissions processes than they are eligible to attend. Undermatch sits at the nexus of both college access and completion agendas, as undermatching to a less selective institution results in a decreased…

Research regarding homeschooled students and their transition to college has been focused on two distinct areas: their academic performance and success integrating into a university community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the transition experiences of students who were homeschooled prior to attendance at a residential university campus…

Taking online courses has become a delivery mode of choice for many students. This study focused on the impact of college readiness, technological resources, and course design on student success in an online computer literacy course offered in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Recent statistics of student success in…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) are part of the largest and most rapidly expanding population of college students (Burgstahler & Moore, 2009; Garrison-Wade & Lehmann, 2009; Foley 2006; Chew, Jensen, & Rosen, 2009; Thomas, 2000). Current estimations show approximately one and a half million college students have a documented…

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the prior experiences, perceived challenges, and support systems of Grade 12 students at an ECHS. An in-depth investigation corroborated the importance of the social capital the participants generated to overcome the obstacles they encountered. Methodology: Utilizing Moustakas's…

Examining the efficacy of literacy improvement, general education development (GED) completion, and GED completers' perceptions of college readiness and social capital was the purpose of this study. The participant sample (n = 321), derived from the target population (N = 1050), consisted of former participants of Adult Literacy Education…

This research examined the effects of the new English/Language Arts standards, brought about by the Tennessee Diploma Project, on the ACT Reading test scores of high school seniors. The effects on student achievement, perceptions of secondary and postsecondary educators, as well as the effects on the test scores of at-risk students were measured.…

This study assessed the relationship of an Arts Summer Learning Program (Arts Program) to student academic performance and college readiness. A North Texas school district collaborated with a research-based Arts Program in 2010, and a new approach was implemented in the summer school program for low-performing students who had failed courses in…

In the later part of the twentieth century, the continued growth in high school and college dropout rates led to the development of educational reform measures that would address an education model that was seen as applicable to a disproportionate percentage of the nation's students, thereby leaving the majority of schools and their students…

There is an increasing demand for individuals with engineering education and skills of varying fields in everyday life. With the proper education students of high-needs schools can help meet the demand for a highly skilled and educated workforce. Researchers have assumed the supply and demand has not been met within the engineering workforce as a…

President William Jefferson Clinton is often credited with beginning a new era of improving teacher quality. Since the late 1990's, the federal government has presented a number of reforms that have encouraged states to develop methods to address the revolving door of teachers entering and exiting schools yearly. Retaining teachers has been…