Previous work has looked at the relationship between high school preparation and student performance in calculus-based introductory mechanics (physics 1) courses. Here, we extend that work to look at performance in introductory calculus-based electricity and magnetism (physics 2), and we look at the significance of what college math courses have…

This study explored the college access and choice processes of high-achieving African American students who were admitted to University of California (UC) campuses but elected to enroll elsewhere. Employing critical race theory as an interpretive framework, the study found that many of these students were denied access to their priority UC…

The most selective institutions of higher education are recognized by their competitive admissions, low admittance rates, high cost to attend, and the prestige garnered from achievements of their alumni. Hispanics' graduation rates at the most selective institutions of higher education are higher than at less selective institutions. Yet, only 12…

Elite universities are credited as launch points for the widest variety of meaningful careers. Yet, year after year at the most selective universities, nearly half the graduating seniors head to a surprisingly narrow band of professional options. Over the past few decades, this has largely been into the finance and consulting sectors, but…

Although some scholars report that all students are better served by attending more prestigious postsecondary institutions, others have argued that students are better off attending colleges where they are about average in terms of academic ability and suffer worse outcomes if they attend schools that are "out of their league" at which…

There is growing concern that the remedial math courses taken by most community college students unnecessarily divert some students from earning a degree. Anecdotes of students who thought they had completed their math requirements in high school only to have remedial courses delay their progress through college are common. In addition, research…

One of the important arguments by critics of affirmative action is that it actually hurts the students it is supposed to help by subjecting them to the "stigma" of being admitted under policies explicitly seeking campus diversity. Such students, this theory argues, must feel embarrassed and uncomfortable as a result and would prefer to…

The effectiveness of institutional, state, and federal efforts to expand educational participation in California is examined in this third of a three-report series on equal opportunity in California postsecondary education. The purposes of this report are to: (1) review the progress made during the past five years, (2) identify the barriers to…