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…

This research was an investigation of the application of genre instruction to the unique purpose teaching Thai secondary students to write personal statements for undergraduate university admission. The goals of this small-scale case study were to 1) investigate the effects of genre-based instruction on students' writing abilities and 2) examine…

As part of the higher education community, we are not merely observers but key players in shaping students' experiences as they transition from high school to higher education. While this is a time of great excitement and possibility, it is also a significant challenge for many young people. How can admissions professionals help students manage…

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…

Students attain cultural knowledge to navigate college admissions, yet few studies investigate when and how students activate this knowledge in a relatively transparent system. Drawing upon 26 Taiwanese student interviews, this study unveils how students strategically use available information to illuminate each step of the admission process. I…

This dissertation is focused on understanding the expectations, beliefs, and motivations of parental involvement during the college choice process. Many high school students are under a lot of stress and pressure influenced by a culture of achievement. This culture has created a competitive college choice process and has intensified the role of…

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…

This article describes the process used to develop a new measure of college knowledge and the findings from an initial study to examine the measure's construct validity. We employed common test construction (item response theory, classical test theory) and factor analytic (exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis) approaches to…

Students in many jurisdictions can study Mathematics at different levels in their final 2 years of secondary education. The levels of Mathematics range from standard (not involving calculus), through basic calculus, to more advanced treatments of calculus and algebra. In this context, some students can elect to study Mathematics at a level below…

We investigated how high school mathematics course placement contributes to inequalities in college preparation for students categorized as "English Learners" (ELs), especially "long-term" English Learners (LTELs). We devised a base-2 enumeration approach that allowed us to process complex transcript data from one school…

One key objective of English medium instruction (EMI) programs in non-Anglophone countries is to improve students' English skills in both academic and professional environments. Despite the high cost and the popularity of the program policy, there remains a lack of empirical studies on the link between attending an EMI program and students'…

The Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the legality of racial preferences, in part thanks to a lawsuit against Harvard College alleging that the school discriminates against Asian-Americans. Proving discrimination at a specific school is an arduous task, requiring access to private, detailed admissions records--as the legal documents in that…

Types of educational information needed by learners, their level of access and librarians' supportive roles in learning are pertinent to the attainment of quality education. This study seeks to identify the types of educational information needed by high school learners and the barriers of access. The study is underpinned by the jurisprudential…

The National Center Test is a test that high school graduates take in order to be matriculated into the majority of universities in Japan. Its English section (NCT), though, is scheduled to be replaced by commercially available private English tests of four skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) due to the fact that NCT currently measures…

Background: Deficient sleep is linked to detrimental outcomes in health and school performance for adolescents. This study characterized sleep patterns in Chinese adolescents preparing for the College Entrance Exam (CEE) and evaluated the association between sleep patterns, self-rated academic performance, and the CEE scores. Methods: A sample of…