Educators and policymakers are keenly aware of the need to prepare students to compete in an increasingly global society. It is widely accepted that a high school diploma is not sufficient and that secondary schools have a responsibility to prepare students to be college and career ready. This study examined participation in a rigorous secondary…

"12 for Life" is an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. "12 for Life" provides a rigorous STEM curriculum, combined with on-the-job-training, work/life skills development, mentoring, and employment opportunities to high school students…

The use of alternative schools as exclusionary discipline for students found guilty of committing behavioral infractions raises questions about the effectiveness of these schools in producing improved student outcomes. Educators' justifications for alternative placements are highly relevant, because decisions regarding placements are often…

A review of the literature indicates that international undergraduate students need significant support to adapt both academically and socially to American university life; however, there are few studies that evaluate program effectiveness through an examination of students' perceived struggles and needs. Thus, this study summarizes current…

The phenomenon of low fertility has been negatively impacted on the social structure of the educational environment in Taiwan. To increase the learning effectiveness of students became the most important issue for the Universities in Taiwan. Due to the subjective judgment of evaluators and the attributes of influenced factors are always fuzzy, it…

In order to reinstate interest and motivation for learning foreign languages (FLs) other than English, the Swedish government has recently reformed the system for admission to higher education. Upper secondary students who continue with the FL learnt in secondary school are rewarded with extra credits that considerably enhance their grade point…

There has been a steady increase in college enrollment rates in recent decades, which has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in graduation rates. If this discrepancy is partly due to insufficient effort exerted by students, policies that aim at rewarding effort explicitly may succeed in increasing graduation rates. A unique and rich…

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington each have programs designed to address college enrollment gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to low-income middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to college. Using a…

The Federal Work-Study (FWS) program is one of the oldest federal programs intended to promote college access and persistence for low-income students. Since 1964, the program has provided approximately $1 billion annually to cover up to 75 percent of the wages of student employees, who typically work on campus for 10 to 15 hours per week. The FWS…

Underrepresented students have been identified as being less likely to attain a college degree than their majority counterparts. Experiential pedagogies, specifically service-learning (SL), offer students an opportunity to engage in community work and improve skills that might contribute to their educational success in college. The present study…

Strong academic performance in college, as measured by first-year grades, is important for a host of reasons, but perhaps the most critical reason is that students who perform well in their first year of college are more likely to earn a bachelor's degree (Adelman, 2006). Research shows that Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) students, particularly…

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between certain educational strategies and students' personality traits, on the one hand, and students' academic performance, on the other, respectively between the latter and two types of outcomes (i.e. students' academic performance and intentions to drop out of high school). These…

Based on recent studies of self-reflective learning and its effects on various learning outcomes, this study examined the concept of self-reflective learning in the context of the Robust Learning Model (RLM), which is a learning model designed for improving the educational effectiveness of online degree programs. Two models were introduced to…

This study examined the role of TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) programs for students who persist in college. The intent of this study was to determine whether the services provided to participants in SSS helped them achieve higher grade-point averages (GPA), retention rates, and graduation rates. Student Support Services programs are designed…

Satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements have existed in some form in the federal student aid programs for nearly 40 years--and have become increasingly strict--yet only limited research exists regarding their motivations and consequences. In this brief, the authors discuss two recent CAPSEE studies they conducted that examine the…