Given urban school and district administrators' historical challenges with recruiting and retaining a high-quality, racially diverse teacher workforce, there is a need to better understand the factors shaping why graduates return to teach in their home district. This descriptive study examines the high school students who returned to teach in…

Among students in the 2024 ACT-tested graduating class, over 374,000 took the PreACT 8/9® or PreACT test before taking the ACT. This issue brief compares the ACT scores and college enrollment rates for students who took a test from the PreACT Suite of Assessments versus those who did not. The brief also examines average PreACT-to-ACT gain scores…

The purpose of this descriptive, quantitative study is to explore the matriculation rates for first-time, full-time freshmen who were previously enrolled in dual enrollment courses while in high school at one of the 13 public community colleges in Tennessee. Percentages, means, standard deviations, ranges, percentages, and proportions were used to…

Using a dataset of over 16 million students who took the ACT® test, we examined occupation choice trends from 2012 to 2023. Students increasingly were undecided or selected occupations in Finance, Computer and Information Sciences, and Math/Quantitative areas. Students decreasingly chose Pharmacy, Communications, Visual and Performing Arts, and…

This study investigated the value of ACT Composite scores and high school GPA (HSGPA) in predicting first-year college GPA (FYGPA) and degree completion of students with disabilities who took the ACT with accommodations and enrolled at a two-year or four-year public institution in a single state in the southern US. Descriptive analyses found that…

This report provides and overview of the Austin Independent School District's college readiness outcomes for seniors in the 2020 and 2021 graduation cohorts.

ACT retesting occurs when students take the ACT® test multiple times with the goal of improving their scores and postsecondary credentials. In this paper, the author examines preliminary data for the 2022 ACT-tested graduating cohort to better understand the ACT score gains that occur with retesting. The author presents the following six things to…

The problem addressed in this quantitative ex-post facto study was that African American, Latino, and Native American students have lower reading fluency than Caucasian counterparts. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent incorporating more literature written by African American, Latino, and Native American authors had on the…

Academic preparedness is critical when it comes to student success in college, but research on factors such as academic performance indicators and behaviors has shown that many students are not prepared for college. While may studies highlight that college-bound students need help becoming academically prepared for college, fewer studies have…

This study utilized quantitative research methods using the Montana Office of Public Instruction's Growth and Enhancement of Montana Students (GEMS) data set. This quantitative research is important because it provides insight on the following relationships (1) Is there a statistically significant difference among students from different races on…

In the American Education system, high school plays an important role. High school education in the country is impacted by several factors such as peer pressure, parental influence and personal characteristics. There are discrepancies in achievements between Black and White students across the United States. Therefore, this paper will aim at…

Academic achievement in American high schools is increasingly defined in terms of quantifiable values. Despite being designed to produce favorable data, explicit standardized-test preparation has an insignificant impact on scores and is counterproductive to the cultivation of attributes necessary for success in higher education and effective civic…

The research entitled, "The Factors That Affect Retention Rates of African-American Students Pursuing Stem Degrees from Historically Black Colleges and Universities" is a quantitative study that analyzes academic factors, specifically in the first year of college, and their impact on the retention of African-American Science, Technology,…

This report provides an overview of the Austin Independent School District's college readiness outcomes for seniors in the 2018 and 2019 graduation cohorts.

Statewide testing with college admissions exams dates to 2001, when Colorado and Illinois introduced the practice. Such testing expanded in subsequent years, and beginning in 2017--2018, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allowed states to use a college admissions exam to meet accountability requirements for high schools. Some see this option…