The needs assessment explored how psychosocial adversity influenced high school graduates' college and career readiness, resilience, and social capital. It identified strengths, needs, barriers, and gaps within a K-12 school district and provided recommendations to enhance these themes. The assessment used a two-phase mixed-method design,…

When academic success professionals work collaboratively with faculty, we can better connect the dots between how students present in the classroom and what services are most needed to support student success. If high school students believe academic records are irrelevant, it undermines the need (incentive) to exert effort in studies and academic…

Learners intending to enter some higher education (HE) institutions in South Africa write the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) that are expected to provide a measure of their readiness for HE. A large gap exists between the quantitative literacy competencies of many of these learners and expectations at HE level. In this article I explore the…

As the push and expectation to attend college continues to increase, making the process of getting into college more competitive than ever before, there is a need to interrogate whether and how efforts to create a college-going culture and increase college readiness among students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds,…

As educational stakeholders endeavor to prepare more students for postsecondary success, the construct of college readiness has gained national attention. Scholarly perspectives vary regarding what constitutes readiness, but even less is known about the perceptions of secondary educators tasked with preparing college-ready students. Drawing on…

This article describes the experience of participants and facilitators engaging in a psychoeducational group counseling intervention designed to enhance college readiness among Latine first-generation college-going students--those for whom neither parent completed college (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017). The group was designed to…

The virtual interactive consulting agent system is an online virtual career center that supports freshman students in transition to higher education. This virtual counseling system, based on accumulative empirical knowledge for working students and knowledge about effective career intervention, aims to guide first-year university students in…

With an increase in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in the United States, many of whom have higher intellectual ability, there is a predicted increase in the number of college-bound students. Affected young adults face a "Services Cliff" as they transition into adulthood. Our study examined a nationally represented sample of…

Students from rural communities undertake postsecondary education at rates lower than their counterparts from urban and suburban communities, and mathematics is a known gatekeeper along the pipeline toward a college degree. This study investigated the mathematics identity formation of students from a rural school who were college-bound to…

The High School Graduation Plan (HSBP) is a graduation requirement and a critical component of supporting students' career development throughout their secondary education experience. The Washington Legislature has revised and strengthened HSBP requirements to include the implementation of a universal online HSBP platform that can be readily…

Given the importance of a college degree for both individual and societal economic prosperity, policymakers and educators are focused on strengthening the path to college beyond college entry. In this report, we synthesize the existing literature on four factors key to educational attainment--aspirations and beliefs, academic preparation,…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how high school academic and non-academic factors are related to college readiness and performance in freshman-level mathematics and science courses and retention in STEM fields. High school academic indicators for college readiness will include performance in high school science and mathematics courses,…

These are the appendices for the report "Study of College Transition Messaging in GEAR UP: Impacts on Enrolling and Staying in College." Five appendices are included in the document: (1) Additional Details about College Transition Messaging; (2) Additional Information about How the Study Was Designed and Implemented; (3) Supplemental…

From the first cases of COVID-19 emerging in early February 2020 to the wave of school closings across the country in mid-March, the effects of the pandemic have been felt across the United States. In light of unprecedented changes, ACT's researchers sought to understand how high school students, specifically rising seniors, were being impacted.…

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted several states to adopt or scale new placement methods, since many test-based placement metrics were unavailable. In April 2020, the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) approved a pilot to add high school GPA as a placement method at Tennessee community colleges alongside other measures included in TBR's learning…