To evaluate how Advanced Placement (AP) courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in twenty-three schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no AP course effects on students' college entrance exam scores (SAT/ACT). As expected, AP course-takers are…

Recent research based on the Dweck's mindset theory has shown that persons with a growth mindset who believe traits such as intelligence are malleable may put forth more effort and have greater academic success than those with a fixed mindset. However, little research has been conducted on mindsets of college students, many of whom enter…

Research shows that students who take advanced mathematics courses perform better on measures of college readiness than students who take less rigorous courses. However, no clear effect has been shown on requiring all students to take more advanced courses. This study examined whether increases in the number and level of mathematics courses…

Profound socio-economic disparities that exist among American religious groups are largely driven by the quantity and quality of education they receive. Furthermore, given the U.S. schooling system is rooted in Protestant ideals, it is possible that students with Protestant commitments have an academic advantage. This article synthesizes…

At the end of compulsory schooling, young adults decide on educational and occupational trajectories that impact their subsequent employability, health and even life expectancy. To understand the antecedents to these decisions, we follow a new approach that considers genetic contributions, which have largely been ignored before. Using genomewide…

School infiltration is an important aspect of family parenting research in recent years. This study reexamines the evaluation mechanism of higher education access path to explore the feelings of schooling winners (also Gaokao winners). Different from stratified education's understanding of family authority, this study proposes to deconstruct the…

The United States must expand the STEM pipeline in order to meet the growing demand of the STEM workforce and maintain our nation's prosperity and competitiveness in the global economy. The urgency of this need has been proclaimed by policymakers, business leaders, politicians, and educators. Despite the growing demand for STEM professionals,…

This study examined the performance, demographics, and contextual factors of students taking the ACT® test with accommodations compared to students taking the ACT without accommodations. We examined the prevalence of accommodations provided and disability categories as well as performance by disability type. We also examined demographic…

In this study, we investigate the growth trajectory of 519 students in a vocational senior high school in Taiwan. The group-based trajectory model identifies 3 subgroups with distinct trajectories of academic achievement in Math and English. This study reveals baseline predictive factors associated with these trajectories as well as relationships…

Expectancy-value theory (EVT) proposes that students' appraisals of success expectancy and task value are the main drivers of their study and career choices. Dimensional comparison theory proposes that these beliefs are themselves affected by students comparing their ability across different domains. However, only a few studies have aimed to…

The match between a student's academic ability and the academic ability of the student's peers has been found to exert influence on student educational aspirations. Research on this has garnered mixed results with some finding that students whose peers have higher ability are more likely to develop a poor self-concept and lower their academic…

To evaluate how Advanced Placement courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in 23 schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no substantial AP course effects on students' plans to enroll in college or on their college entrance exam scores. Yet AP…

Survival analysis is an advanced statistical method to investigate the occurrence and the timing of an important event such as school access, dropout, and graduation in a longitudinal framework. The aim of our study is to provide practical guidelines for empirical researchers in choosing an appropriate survival analysis model. For this goal, this…

This study examined the performance of English learners (ELs) taking the ACT® test with testing supports, as compared to ELs and non-ELs taking the ACT without supports or accommodations. Contextual factors were also explored, including high school experiences and demographic characteristics such as low-income and first-generation college student…

The inaugural "Higher Education Research Digest" was released in 2017 (see ED581669) along with the "Enrollment Management Database," a tool assisting enrollment managers, admissions personnel, and other college administrators with student recruitment, enrollment, and success strategies. For this third edition of the Digest,…