In the fall of 2019, the City University of New York (CUNY) Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) provided colleges with updated guidance for designing and delivering evidence-based corequisite courses and set a timeline for the phaseout of traditional, standalone remediation by fall 2022. This CAPR report describes findings from research exploring the…

As a partner with the City University of New York (CUNY) on the Transfer Opportunity Project, MDRC's Center for Applied Behavioral Science (CABS) team used behavioral mapping to help identify the malleable factors (that is, the factors subject to change) that impede student transfer. MDRC and CUNY researchers conducted nearly 50 interviews and…

This dissertation includes three essays that examine the potential of policies, interventions, and curricula in improving transitions to four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. The first essay provides a novel investigation of New York City's adoption of SAT School Day (SSD), which provides universal access to college entrance exams for…

The recent reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act--the principal federal education program supporting career and technical education (CTE)--expressly aims to "align workforce skills with labor market needs." "How Aligned is Career and Technical Education to Local Labor Markets?", co-authored…

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 report presents key findings from "Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement," by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Andrew E. Scanlan, and published by Princeton University Press in 2019. American education has long been plagued by excellence gaps among the young people who make it into the highest levels…

An extensive body of research describes the stark social and academic disparities that characterize large, comprehensive public high schools. Advocates have argued that smaller high schools, with their necessarily more constrained curricula, have the potential to improve student academic outcomes and their equitable distribution. Using propensity…

This article presents findings of a qualitative, interpretive case study of the experiences of 1.5- and 2nd-generation West African immigrants who self-identify as pursuing the American Dream, defined by them as academic attainment and career success. Employing structuration theory, the authors examine the interplay between structures and agency…

Navigating the complicated path through college can be a difficult task. The report analyses the problems students have on graduating on time--such as earning unnecessary credits--which costs them collectively billions of dollars and millions of hours each year. It also proposes a possible solution--Guided Pathways to Success (GPS), which can…

An important component of vocational assessment for handicapped children from kindergarten through adolescence is the measurement of interests. Direct measurements of interests generally provide inadequate information, because of the linear relationship between expressed interests and personal experiences and language development. In indirect…