Despite evidence of the benefits of early care and education (ECE) for child development and family employment, the supply of providers is scarce and variable; leading many families with young children to experience limited and inequitable access. To examine the multidetermined nature of access, this study leverages a multidimensional,…

This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012-2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and…

This article aims to show the influence of social capital on the academic achievement of American students. Using data from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this study explored how one of the domains of social capital, the family, makes a difference to educational outcomes in higher…

This research brief is the first in Research & Development's "Career and Technical Education Series." It uses longitudinal data to document how women, racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and those from economically disadvantaged families are represented across the different Career and Technical Education (CTE)…

While abundant studies on college student departure exist, few studies focus on student transfer-out behaviors. One may reasonably believe that transfer students leave their institutions at different times for different reasons. Coupled with the national dataset, this study longitudinally investigated transfer students who left their initial…

Marriages are often characterized by their positive and negative features in terms of whether they elicit feelings of satisfaction and happiness or conflict and negativity. Although research has examined the development of marital happiness, less is known about the development of negativity among married couples. We examined how marital tension…

Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) were used to examine the impact of three personal factors--race/ethnicity, gender, and family income--on self-determination (i.e., autonomy, psychological empowerment, self-realization) and early adulthood outcome constructs. Findings suggest for those with high incidence disabilities,…

High school dropout has been associated with negative outcomes, including increased rates of unemployment, incarceration, and mortality. Dropout rates vary significantly depending on individual and environmental factors. The purpose of our study was to use an ecological perspective to concurrently explore student- and school-level predictors…

Over half of the children in the U.S. experience adversity early in childhood. These experiences, along with conditions in their families and neighborhoods, have profound developmental effects. The bioecological model of development includes these proximal contexts in a theory of development that incorporates the threats and supports present in…

This study explores the relationship between state financial aid policies and postsecondary enrollment for high school graduates (or equivalent diploma holders). Utilizing an event history modeling for a nationally representative sample from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/2000) in addition to state-level policy variables, this…

This study presents longitudinal description of the association between college readiness--as measured by college readiness benchmarks set by the ACT--and a series of postsecondary outcomes of the Illinois High School Class of 2003. In addition to describing how college readiness is distributed among the cohort, this study establishes the college…

Many studies have been conducted to address childhood behavior problems, but much remains unknown regarding the causes and factors that affect internalizing and externalizing problems in children. The purpose of the current research study was to examine the relationships between children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and (a)…

Working from a life course perspective, this study examined the links between mothers' fertility and relationship statuses and children's early school achievement and how these links varied by race/ethnicity and immigration status. Analyses of nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort revealed…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the home literacy environment of a nationally representative sample of preschoolers with disabilities and their subsequent receptive vocabulary and reading comprehension skills using data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study. Results from linear regressions indicated…

Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of mothers, we specify the conditions under which the neighborhood context shapes the experience of mastery. In so doing, we extend the work of others who have shown that neighborhood perceptions influence one's sense of personal control over and above the effects of sociodemographic…