The Latino population is the fastest-growing community in the United States yet falls behind in the percentage of students who successfully graduate from college compared to other cultural groups. While trends of Latino students applying to college are on the rise, many cannot successfully obtain a degree due to detrimental barriers. These…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a pre-college summer program at Missouri University of Science and Technology known as Hit the Ground Running (HGR). It used a convergent mixed-methods research design, combining data from semi-structured interviews with HGR participants and institutional data on previous HGR participants…

In the United States, college attrition is a problem affecting the outcomes of our educational and labor market pipelines. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education reported that only 65% of students who enrolled in post-secondary institutions from the graduating class of 2009 persisted or attained a diploma within six years of initial enrollment…

We study whether visits to a college campus during eighth grade affect students' interest in and preparation for college. Two cohorts of eighth graders were randomized within schools to a control condition, in which they received a college informational packet, or a treatment condition, in which they received the same information and visited a…

Many young adults enter college without the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. The purpose of the study reported here was to determine if 4-H helps develop life skills needed for the transition to college and overall college success. An online survey was sent to college-attending 4-H alumni and a comparison group, with a final sample size…

This study describes a program evaluation of a community college adult program for underprepared learners in the eastern lower peninsula of Michigan. The purpose of the program is to make postsecondary education more accessible to those adults who typically would not consider postsecondary education an option. Guided by Cross's adult learning…

Learning communities are a high impact activity that can influence students' likelihood for success. Colorado State University (CSU) created the Key Communities (Key) program, which is open to all students but targets students that have persistently lower graduation and retention rates. The majority of Key students are under-represented…

Part of Carlow University's social justice mission is a commitment to providing access to education. This commitment can lead the institution to admit students who are not prepared for college-level work. As a result, the university recently removed a sequence of developmental classes because it lengthened the time to graduation, and there was no…

KIPP Delta College Preparatory School (KIPP: DCPS), an open-enrollment charter school, opened in 2002 in Helena, Arkansas. Since its opening, KIPP: DCPS students have consistently outperformed their peers in the Helena/West Helena School district, and moreover, recent test scores suggest that white students and minority students are achieving at…

KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. Prior studies (see Tuttle et al. 2013) have consistently found that attending a KIPP middle school positively affects student achievement, but few have addressed longer-term…

KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. Prior studies (see Tuttle et al. 2013) have consistently found that attending a KIPP middle school positively affects student achievement, but few have addressed longer-term…

KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. Prior studies (see Tuttle et al. 2013) have consistently found that attending a KIPP middle school positively affects student achievement, but few have addressed longer-term…

In a society that reaches for silver-bullet solutions, higher education is not immune from widespread attempts to raise graduation rates through scaling one-size-fits-all models at lower costs. Yet people at Big Picture Learning believe any true, long-term solution that will produce more graduates with high-quality degrees must be…

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CRESST conducted a multi-year evaluation of a major school reform project at Alain Leroy Locke High School, historically one of California's lowest performing secondary schools. Beginning in 2007, Locke High School transitioned into a set of smaller, Green Dot Charter High Schools,…

This paper addresses methodological issues arising from an experimental study of North Carolina's Early College High School Initiative, a four-year longitudinal experimental study funded by Institute for Education Sciences. North Carolina implemented the Early College High School (ECHS) Initiative in response to low high school graduation rates.…