Many college-intending students find themselves dealing with the undermatch and summer melt phenomena. Undermatch refers to the situation where academically-successful high-school graduates choose not to go to any college or to go to a local community college not commensurate with their academic achievements. Summer melt describes how students may…

This dissertation consists of three chapters examining issues relevant to current higher education policy debates. In the first chapter, I use surveys, in-depth interviews, and administrative records from a sample of Wisconsin Pell Grant recipients who chose among Wisconsin public colleges and universities to explore whether students' initial…

Most high school reform efforts understandably focus on boosting the success of low-income students who are underachieving academically, but in every school district where students struggle, there are academically capable low-income and minority students who do graduate prepared for college. Yet each year, many of these students choose to attend…

One sees various efforts in developed as well as in developing economies to seek a greater participation of lower-income students in their nation's leading universities. Once lower-income students do enroll in a highly selective institution, what happens to them? How well do they do academically when compared to their more wealthy counterparts?…

In 2008, The James Irvine Foundation launched the Concurrent Courses initiative to make dual enrollment programs--which allow high school students to take college courses and earn college credit--available to low-income youth who struggle academically or who are from populations historically underrepresented in higher education. This work advances…

College access is a top educational priority in the United States as millions of federal and state dollars are funneled into programs to ensure college access for all students, minorities and low-income students in particular (U.S. Department of Education, 2009a; U.S. Department of Education, 2009b). Over 80% of high school students and their…

The impact of the college core curriculum at Banning High School, Wilmington, California, was assessed by comparing the secondary and postsecondary experience of its June 1980 graduates with that of alumni who graduated in 1976 before the program began. The college core curriculum at Banning, which serves a predominantly low-income, ethnic…