This article analyzes the structure and outcomes of a unique summer bridge program, Exploring Transfer (ET). Community college students who participate in ET spend six weeks living on the campus of a liberal arts college and enroll in two rigorous courses, similar to those offered during the academic year. To assess the impact of this program, the…

Research has demonstrated the need to prepare higher education faculty for transitioning from in-person to online modality. Researchers note the need to train faculty in course design, building classroom community, and establishing a teaching presence, among other things. This paper describes a professor's participation in a university-funded…

Effective transitions to kindergarten engage families and ease children into new environments. Countdown to Kindergarten (CTK), a program in a southeastern U.S. state that serves more than 1,000 children each year and is grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, partners kindergarten teachers and families to facilitate effective…

We developed a framework for characterizing an institution's quantitative skills/reasoning support ecosystem to consider how various activities contribute to student success in areas connected to students' quantitative preparation. Through discussions with faculty and staff stakeholders at eight selective small liberal arts colleges, we…

Background: In response to the effort to increase minority enrollment in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, STEM summer bridge programs were created to help minorities with the transition from high school to college with the long-term goal of increasing the diversity of professionals in STEM. The goal of this…

Objective: To review the physical activity promotion efforts of Power 5 conference institutions' summer transition programs. Methods: The websites of Power 5 Conference and affiliate member institutions (N = 78) were systematically reviewed and information on summer transition programs pertaining to health were extracted. Results: Most (n = 45,…

Higher education institutions have been grappling with significant enrollment declines and have urgently implemented retention strategies to sustain their student populations amid shifting demographics and economic challenges (American Association of Community Colleges, 2023; Hanover Research, 2021). However, these programs often neglect the…

Background: To address complex challenges of modern society, engineering education needs to help students develop sociotechnical perspectives of engineering. Research has documented efforts to incorporate sociotechnical thinking into undergraduate engineering education, but those perspectives must often compete with more dominant technocentric…

There is a growing demand for a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) trained workforce in the United States. In order to remain globally competitive, the US needs to increase the STEM workforce not only in numbers but also diversity. Colleges and universities throughout the US need to not only gain STEM majors but retain them…

This article challenges the "remedial" and "developmental" framing of summer bridge programs. The study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups to assess 63 students of Color who participated in a 5-week summer bridge program. Through the theoretical concept of counterspace, findings showed that the intentional…

Kindergarten transition programs support successful school transitions for families and may reduce disparities in academic readiness upon school entry. Yet, access and participation in high-quality summer transition programs are lower among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This study examined the impact of a summer kindergarten transition…

Both society- and individual-level factors serve to make persistence through one's university career more difficult, especially for students with disadvantaged financial and academic backgrounds. Using a rich dataset of students at a rural, 4-year university in Pennsylvania, we compare GPA and persistence outcomes of two groups of students in…

Underrepresentation in engineering disciplines remains a significant issue in higher education and the workforce. This paper presents a quantitative analysis comparing the academic success of participants in an engineering-focused Summer Bridge Program (SBP) to non-participants with similar characteristics. The study evaluates first-year…

Despite the substantial efforts made by higher education institutions to reduce dropout rates, a considerable proportion of students still discontinues their initial study program. In view of this situation, the present study aims to investigate whether participation in first-year courses for personal and academic support goes along with a…

Based on the intersection of different systems at school entry, children and families often experience uncertainty about their preparedness and impending shift from other early childhood settings. This study used a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design and investigated the perspectives of parents and caregivers on kindergarten readiness with…