Addressing the participation rates in senior secondary mathematics courses in Australian schools remains a critically important issue. In this paper, the authors report on quantitative findings from a study in which all year 11 and year 12 (aged 17-18 years) Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) students in Western Australia were invited…

Although differences in academic motivation may exist across cultures, research on academic motivational goals has been Western-focused and relied on Western originated questionnaire. There is a dearth of studies adopting bottom-up, emic, and in-depth approaches to explore East Asian students' academic motivation. This study describes Chinese…

The purpose of this study was to explore how district funding for 4 years of PSAT administrations for all students in Grades 8-11 impacted Hispanic students at a North Texas school district. Using college admissions data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), the researcher examined overall district-wide college admissions percentages for…

Dual enrollment (DE) is one of the fastest growing programs that support the high school-to-college transition. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence about its impact on either students' college application choices or admission outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach and data from two cohorts of ninth-grade students in one…

The following study examines how a class-based measure of food security was associated with high school grades and later post-secondary enrollments by self-identified race. We use multilevel regression to analyze data merged among the 2011 Toronto District School Board Student Census, administrative records, and college and university application…

Black and Latinx adolescent boys from economically stratified communities face pervasive societal inequities and, therefore, deserve more responsive school supports to determine and actualize postsecondary pathways. For insights into how such students conceptualize their futures and their school's role in facilitating this process, this…

This case study provides a description and in-depth understanding of changes in schooling after the implementation of college entrance reform in Shanghai, based on the observation of classroom activities in four high school classes, and interviews with students and teachers. It found that, first, whereas multiple criteria were taken into…

This paper analyses the determinants of national student mobility under the unified system of admission in Russia and evaluates the barriers which still limit educational mobility. It is argued that even with the Unified State Examination (USE) and the decreased transaction costs of applying to universities, student interregional national mobility…

The Office of Shared Accountability in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) is conducting a multiyear evaluation of the "Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success" (ACES) program. ACES is a collaboration between MCPS, Montgomery College (MC), and the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) to create a seamless pathway from high…

In a 2010 address to the College Board, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan laid out a vision for high school that advances the Obama administration's goal of the U.S. once again leading the world in educational attainment. There is no grade in which the magnitude and complexity of this shift becomes clearer than in senior year. Historically,…

This report reviews Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance in Texas during the 2009-10 school year. Campus-, district-, and state-level examination results for students in Texas public schools are presented, as well as state-level examination results for students in Texas public and…

Astronomy was a required subject in the first American secondary level schools, the academies of the 18th century. When these were supplanted a century later by public high schools, astronomy still was often required, subsumed into courses of Natural Philosophy. Reasons given at that time to support astronomy as a part of general education include…

When The Goldman Sachs Foundation (GSF) made its first strategic social investment decision in 1999, it took note of one of Goldman Sachs' core corporate values: People are its greatest asset. The program's objective was--and is--clear and simple: to increase the number of high-potential young adults from historically underrepresented backgrounds…

English Language Arts class in a predominantly white suburban high school may seem like an unlikely site for transformational pedagogy. Teachers and students speak the same national language and most of the teachers grew up and were educated in working class communities. Despite these roots, it is far too easy for teachers to forget that our…

Part of the third-largest school district in the nation, 77 percent of Chicago's nearly 427,000 public school students are poor, as defined by eligibility for participation in free or reduced-cost lunch programs. Many are members of minorities; many have limited proficiency in English. To make a successful transition to college--even to graduate…