In 2015, Wisconsin began mandating the ACT college entrance exam and the WorkKeys career readiness assessment. With population-level data and several quasi-experimental designs, we assess how this policy affected college attendance. We estimate a positive policy effect for middle/high-income students, no effect for low-income students, and greater…

This study explored the transition from secondary to postsecondary education among a national sample of students who had or had not studied music in high school. Using evidence from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 21,440 American high school students who were ninth graders in the…

Merit aid is an increasingly important component of college scholarships, but policymakers are concerned that merit aid is often given to students who would enroll anyway. As a baseline we use a regression discontinuity (RD) framework to test an institution-level merit aid program at a public research university and find that the merit aid program…

Using consensual qualitative research methodology and being mindful of both challenges and successes, the authors explored diverse students' experiences with higher education. The authors used semistructured interviews with 7 students with racial/ethnic minority backgrounds to investigate the circumstances under which these students decided to…

This paper examines one of the key temporal characteristics evident in public policy frames for widening participation in higher education. It demonstrates that the ambitions of such policies are potentially compromised by temporal notions implicated in a mode of chronocentrism, forecasting the future as a 'minimal departure' from the present.…

This chapter addresses how Latinx students and their families understand the process of going to and choosing to attend a community college.

With the increasing availability of high-quality longitudinal data on students in higher education, scholars' interest in how students proceed through higher education has risen. So far, the research field is diverse in theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Thus, based on 27 studies published in (higher) education research…

Undocumented students face significant barriers in accessing postsecondary education. Previous research has focused on how individuals and schools impacted their experiences of enrolling in college. This critical qualitative study of "testimonios" with 15 undocumented Latina/o students examines how their families shaped and supported…

Despite a growing number of autistic children completing high school and venturing into college and vocational settings, their rates of postsecondary attendance, graduation, and vocational success still lag behind those of their nonautistic counterparts. This study surveyed 162 autistic and nonautistic high school students about internal and…

This study evaluates the implementation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Career-Programme (CP) in secondary schools in Kent, United Kingdom. Launched by the IB and Kent County Council in 2012, the initiative offered students from disadvantaged areas the opportunity to participate in a programme to prepare them for future careers and/or…

There has been widespread concern about widening disparities in parental investments that may be associated with widening gaps in educational attainment. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study examines parents' investments and engagement in the college-going…

This paper aims to identify neighborhood institutional resources (e.g., nonprofit organizations, libraries, and labor market conditions) that promote Mexican-origin high school students' progress in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathway into postsecondary education. A nationally representative, longitudinal sample of…

Students identified as first-generation often intersect with other factors such as enrollment in community colleges, low income, minority ethnic and/or race identities, low expectations of college-going, and less academic preparation (Cataldi et al., 2018; Redford & Mulvaney-Hoyer, 2017). In 2015, national completion rates in the United States…

The purpose of this quasi-mixed methods study was to explore how African American males' psychosocial factors impacted their motivation to pursue a postsecondary education and if differences existed between the demographic variables and external psychosocial factors of African American males who pursued a postsecondary education and those who did…

The impact of employment on academic achievement and college-going is readily evaluated within the literature, primarily through a quantitative lens. In such studies, youth employment is commonly found to negatively affect high school grades, persistence, and the likelihood of attending college. This qualitative study responds to the dominant…