Despite high aspirations, many students do not complete postsecondary education. Some scholars advocate for providing more college information to increase enrollment and reduce attainment gaps but this approach overlooks what school counselors and students do with information. Based on interviews and participant observations drawn from 20 urban…

Many selective colleges consider the backgrounds of applicants to improve equity in admissions. However, this information is usually not available for all applicants. We examine whether the chances of admission and enrollment changed after 43 colleges gained access to a new tool that standardizes information on educational disadvantage for all…

The importance of information is seldom centered in modern college access, college disparities, and college-going discussions. This article situates information and how it shapes college pursuits and intensifies inequities, particularly for minoritized groups. Specifically, the author unpacks two components from the Iloh Model of College-Going…

The effectiveness of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in teaching and learning is germane to the recent educational innovations in South Africa. The study examined the level of availability and utilisation of ICT facilities by teachers and students in high schools in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa as well as the…

When school librarians justify the purchase of electronic books (e-books) for their collections, they need to understand e-book usage patterns and whether or not e-books are meeting the recreational and informational needs of their students and teachers. Although a sizeable body of research is available examining the circulation and usage of…

Members of the Data Science Program at George Washington University (GWU) designed and implemented a tuition-free two-week summer camp at GWU for high-school students from the Washington Metro Area. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of the Chief Information Officer and his staff were our main partners in the project. The…

This is a conversation with Randy Asher, principal of New York City's Brooklyn Technical High School. Brooklyn Tech is a selective science high school in New York City, founded in 1922 as a school for boys with potential for careers in engineering and applied science. Today, it provides full-time education for both male and female students from…

This researcher sought to examine enablers and inhibitors to English language learner (ELL) students' research process within the framework of Carol C. Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP). At a high school forty-eight ELL students in three classes, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, and a biology teacher participated in the…

The purpose of this study was to learn from educational stakeholders what characteristics they like and dislike when viewing graphs of post-school outcomes data. We conducted six, 1-hour focus groups with teachers, administrators, and parents in which we distributed four stimuli graphs--horizontal grouped bars, horizontal stacked bars, vertical…

Social media are at the heart of the daily communications of adolescents. In many cases, however, adolescents are unaware of the consequences of the long-term availability of their online personal information. Given the rising prevalence of online background checks on potential partners, college applicants, and job candidates, online search…

To meet the constantly changing needs of schools and diverse learners, educators must frequently monitor student learning, revise curricula, and improve instruction. Consequently, it is critical that careful analyses of student performance data are ongoing components of curriculum decision-making processes. The primary purpose of this study is to…

This article investigates the utility and availability of college data to evaluate the impact of high school interventions. It reports results of a pilot study that collected information about the college experiences of graduates from four high schools in the northeast United States. Using these results as a lens, the article examines what…

This paper describes how districts can better use their extensive student databases and other existing data to explore questions of interest. School districts are required to maintain a wealth of student information in electronic data systems and other formats. The meaningfulness of the data depends to a large degree on whether they can understand…

School leaders are familiar with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, but they also need to be legally literate about Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This need is particularly pressing in the wake of significant recent changes in Section 504 as a result of the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act. This case illustrates the…

Accountability policies imply much about high school teachers' abilities and willingness to use state assessment data to improve instruction. This study asked what teacher- and school-level variables best predict how frequently teachers use state assessment data and how much instructional benefit they derive from use of data. Research has…