Background: Overall, high rates of American high school seniors lack writing proficiency (75%) and historically underrepresented minority (URM) populations fare even worse (91% of African American, 89% of Latinx) (U.S. Dept of Education, 2011), which suggests that URM college students enter college with lower writing abilities (Bracco et al.,…

Formal mentoring has been an effective approach to mitigate challenges facing underserved youth and contributes to observable improvements in behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being (Rhodes, 2008). Mentored youth appear to gain improvements in peer and parent relationships and school performance, while also engaging in lower levels of…

Moreno Valley College, a two-year community college in Southern California, experiences an annual migration of cliff swallows. The presence of these birds inspired the development of the undergraduate research program Flying with Swallows. The assessment of the project indicated significant increases in qualitative student outcomes such as…

In 2019, California State University (CSU), Chico was awarded a five-year Teaching Quality Partnership (TQP) grant to implement the Computational Literacy Across Secondary Settings (CLASS) program. The goal of this program was to recruit, prepare, and retain highly qualified individuals into the teaching profession, with a focus on high-need rural…

In September 2011, the Association of American Universities launched a major initiative to improve undergraduate STEM education. The overall objective was to influence the culture of STEM departments at AAU institutions so that faculty members are encouraged and supported to use teaching practices proven by research to be effective in engaging…

In 2013, with a 30% state budget cut after the Great Recession, many of the 450,000 California State University (CSU) students across the 23-campus system were unable to enroll in courses they needed to move closer to graduation; there was a lack of available course sections. In addition to a reduced number of seats available for students, 30% to…

This five-year evaluation examined the effectiveness of a promising middle-school mathematics intervention funded through an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant. Evaluation objectives were to: (1) study the impact of an intervention aimed at increasing the academic achievement of students in Algebra I--a gate-keeping course--as measured…

California allocates $550 million to expanded learning through After School Education and Safety (ASES) state grants, and $140 million of federal money in 21st Century Community Learning Center grants each year; more than all other states combined. Much variability exists in program quality, and research has identified mixed results as to the…

Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences (COSIA) is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project consisting of six three-way partnerships between the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) and an informal science education institution (ISEI) partnered with an institution of higher education (IHE). Together, educators from the ISEI (often…

Despite decades of precollege science education programs, African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans remain critically underrepresented in science and health professions. This report describes college and career outcomes among graduates of the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP), a 5-week summer residential program for low-income…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…