Dual-enrollment programs are a fixture in American secondary education and allow high school students the opportunity to receive college credits while attending high school. However, whether the location of a dual-enrollment course encourages college persistence is not fully understood. Student Integration Theory and Psychological Theory are…

This dissertation uses three empirical papers to examine the relationship between student gender, student's income expectations for the future, and persistence in schooling. First, I use survey data from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) to examine how both children's and parent's earnings expectations for students in 12th grade vary by…

Understanding how to foster belonging and ensure equitable engagement in STEM fields for diverse students is a critical need in education today. Despite substantial growth in the STEM workforce (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023; NSF, 2023a), there remain persistent gender and racial/ethnic gaps in students' access to advanced STEM education,…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted students' educational experiences, raising concerns about their social and emotional development. This longitudinal quantitative study analyzed changes in student perceptions of social and emotional well-being using Panorama Education SEL survey data from Cohort 2023 12th graders at an urban intensive high school…

Using the psychosociocultural approach, the mediating role of perceptions of high school responsiveness on perceived academic abilities, mentorship, and school environment with academic persistence decisions, respectively, was examined. For a sample of 104 Latinx high school students, results revealed a meaningful reduction in the relationships…

This study assesses the impact of five years of community level activities in the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan (PYFMP) on four school-related risk and protective factors including academic failure, low school commitment, school opportunities for prosocial involvement, and school rewards for prosocial involvement. The intervention and…

There are many factors which contribute to college/university retention rates, two of which are a sense of entitlement and a lack of academic coping skills among rising college freshmen. The theoretical foundations of this research is conflict theory in education and social construct theory. This study examines grade inflation and social promotion…

Past research has found that an individual's academic success, including success in English language learning, can be predicted by a person's 'grit'. Grit is a personality trait defined as the combination of perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Other than grit, learner engagement is another factor considered to be highly related to…

We draw on a rehumanizing perspective that covets a student-centered viewpoint around the discipline of mathematics. For Latinx bilinguals, we posit that a translanguaging practice is a vital option by which collective perseverance during problem solving can be sustained and leveraged for meaningful learning. This study explores and examines the…

Ensuring that students are ready for college when they graduate from high school has important implications for students, educators, education policymakers, and other stakeholders. This study focuses on an examination of the relationship between the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 12 mathematics assessment and college…

In this study, the school engagement of high school students was examined in terms of educational motivation and perceived social support. The data was obtained from 826 secondary school students in Düzce in 2017-2018 academic year. The School Engagement Scale, the Educational Motivation Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Scale were used in…

With a steady increase of virtual learning courses taught throughout K-12 education, limited empirical research exists to allow educational leaders and policy makers the ability to accurately identify student demographic characteristics that correlate to the acquisition of virtual course credit (Barbour, 2009). The purpose of this quantitative…

This executive summary report includes results for Austin Partners in Education (APIE) programs in 2019-2020 including math classroom coaching, GEAR UP tutoring, college readiness, and mentoring. It highlights continued academic programs serving students in middle and high school and describes APIE support provided to teachers' instruction. As…

This study explored the impact of attending an Inclusive STEM-focused High School (ISHS) by interviewing 30 students from ISHSs and matched comparison high schools 2 years after graduation. Interviewees were students who in 12th grade reported being first-generation college goers, strongly interest in a STEM career, and planning to go directly to…

We used longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate the relationships among career and technical education (CTE) enrollment, inclusion in general education, and high school and postsecondary outcomes for students with learning disabilities. We replicated earlier findings that students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in a…