In recent years, many states have set ambitious postsecondary completion or attainment goals, driven in part by concerns that other OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations are outpacing the United States in the number of adults holding a postsecondary credential. While the U.S. has made modest gains since 2000 in the…

With a rising demand for a college degree and an increasingly complicated college search, application, and selection process, there are a number of interventions designed to ease the college-going process for adolescents and their families. One such intervention, the College Ambition Program (CAP), is specifically designed to be a whole-school…

The present study provides a controlled study of the effectiveness of an online graduate preparation program, The Virtual Advisor. The effects of the Virtual Advisor were compared to a website control and a wait-list control group in relation to a range of graduate school preparation variables. Students who utilized The Virtual Advisor were…

The present study reports the results of a controlled examination of the effectiveness of an online graduate preparation program, the Virtual Advisor. The effects of the Virtual Advisor were compared to a website preparation group and a wait-list control group. Results indicated that, compared to the control group, students who utilized the…

The effectiveness of Upward Bound (UB), a federally funded program to assist high-ability disadvantaged youth in completing programs in higher education, is addressed in this study. The study sought to determine if participation in UB enhances high school performance and participation in postsecondary education, especially in comparison to non-UB…

In the late 1980s, in response to a number of problems including consistently low academic performance by students and graduates lacking the skills needed by employers, Swansea High School in Swansea, South Carolina, launched a major reform effort designed to transform Swansea into a high-performance high school. During the multi-year reform…

In 1987, Walhalla High School in Walhalla, South Carolina, undertook a major restructuring effort to raise the school's standards and keep pace with the expectations of local high-tech businesses and industry. School and district leaders established an affiliation with the Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work initiative,…