States have introduced a range of strategies and legislative policies aimed at increasing college matriculation through readiness strategies and initiatives that offer strong collaboration between secondary and postsecondary education. Early college high school (ECHS) models are one-way that colleges, primarily community colleges, can serve…

Based on a case study of two majority-Black public high schools in a highly segregated American school district, the article employs a critical intersectional framework to examine the experiences of ten college-aspiring young Black men as they navigate the college choice process. Findings indicate that working-class Black male students are less…

College preparation resources to support academic and college success have the potential to decrease challenges students often face when preparing for college. TRIO programs, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, were introduced in the 1960s as part of the fight on the war on poverty to make the college experience more accessible to low…

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on college and career preparation opportunities and the ability of students to successfully transition into postsecondary education. The purpose of this letter is to describe how states and local educational agencies (LEAs) can continue to respond to the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by…

This study reports a qualitative grounded-theory investigation that explored school counselor trainees' experiences engaging in psychoeducational group lessons with first-generation college-going (first-in-family) high school students. As part of this semester-long, group-based experiential training, counselor trainees developed and implemented…

Houston school officials noticed their best performing low-income students weren't applying to Ivy League and selective colleges. In response, they created EMERGE, a program that develops and guides talented youths toward a top-college path.

The study examined whether providing college application coaching to high school seniors increased postsecondary enrollment. The program was aimed at students whom school counselors believed were on the verge of not applying to college, despite having tenth-grade test scores that were high enough to warrant applying.The research described in this…

Today, there are more program options in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) than ever before. Because people are living in an age of increasing globalization, advocates of gifted children must understand that involvement in STEM fields is paramount for the children to be competitive in the job market and for the nation to…

This study surveyed college freshmen from two different institutions in order to examine differences between First-Generation College Students and Continuing-Generation College Students. Differences between groups emerged for high school academic preparation, college exploration behaviors, college application behaviors, and college decision-making…

Career Academies are small learning communities established at the high school level that use career strands as an organizing framework for learning and instruction, as well as for engaging the interest and energies of students. Standards common to well-designed Career Academy: (1) Central goal of preparing students for higher education and…

"Planning for College Success" (PCS) is a curriculum model designed by Sharon Downs, M.S., for a course intended to assist deaf and hard of hearing students during their initial introduction to college life. This program allows students to work one-on-one with a counselor to plan for their college success. The program includes short-term goals and…

By offering information, counseling, and tutoring, college outreach programs attempt to smooth the path between high school and higher education for at-risk students. But do these program work? This paper uses longitudinal data from the Education Longitudinal Study to construct two quasi-experiments to assess the effectiveness of college outreach.…

Students' high school experiences often do not prepare them adequately for postsecondary education and the world of work. Special attention should be paid to increasing the rigor, relevance, and engagement of the high school curriculum, including for students who have traditionally faced barriers to successful postsecondary transitions. This Issue…

First in a yearlong series, this article will more closely examine the recommendations made in Association for Career and Technical Education's (ACTE's) postsecondary reform position statement. The first recommendation is to establish postsecondary preparation and expectations for all. Throughout the country, and in each individual community,…

On August 31, 2005, Nebraska state educational and policy leaders participated in the Nebraska Education Forum to discuss ways to improve student transition from high school to postsecondary education and careers. The forum was sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and…