The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost every area of our lives. It meant a break from our lifestyles, transforming everything from face-to-face to online. Among the places where this situation has become more evident are primary schools, secondary schools, and universities, which have had to adopt online teaching in its entirety. Faced with…

Higher education is awash with challenges. While young people today need college more than ever, college attendance across the country has dropped in each of the last eight years, including 300,000 fewer students last year alone. This is happening at a time when almost all new well-paying jobs require postsecondary training and study. As…

The present work describes the development of a new measure of school counselors' perceived self-efficacy regarding their knowledge of information and processes necessary to effectively guide their students through the college transition process. Researchers developed the School Counselor Efficacy for College Knowledge Questionnaire and examined…

This research report is a preliminary assessment of college advising needs in nine target school districts surrounding the Houston Independent School District: "Pasadena," "Galena Park," "Sheldon," "Humble," "Aldine," "Cypress-Fairbanks," "Spring Branch," "Alief," 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…

In South Korea, higher education is widely available to all people. However, few people with disabilities have received a college education. In 1995, the Higher Education Special Admission for Students with Special Needs policy was implemented to promote opportunities for individuals with disabilities to have access to higher education. Since the…

Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some…

In this article Trinity College vice president for enrollment and student success, Angel Pérez addresses the nation's inability to offer consistent college preparation, academic rigor and counseling across varying socioeconomic communities. Research has highlighted the fact that standardized tests do more to keep low-income students out of top…

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the effectiveness of a college access program created to improve college application and acceptance rates for underserved students. The program is targeted toward low-income, first-generation students, many of whom are minorities and reside in a rural area. The schools that the students attended…

Pre-college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing…

This brief is one in a series aimed at providing K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students during and following the novel coronavirus pandemic. It addresses one central question: How can research inform student transitions from high school to college and career, given…

Background/Context: The demands of military family life are great, especially within the context of war. Yet, because less than 1 percent of the population serves, the unique needs and circumstances facing the more than two million children from military families are often absent from our collective consciousness. In the past decade, public…

For students whose families and friends do not have college-going experience to share, applying to college can be challenging. School counselors can fill the gap, but in many schools--especially those serving students most in need--counselors are spread thin. This NASBE policy update explores the ways state boards of education can address the…

To better understand the learning that transpires in advising, we used Anderson et al.'s (2001) revision of Bloom's (1956) taxonomy and Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia's (1964) affective taxonomy to analyze eight student-reported advising outcomes from Smith and Allen (2014). Using the cognitive processes and knowledge domains of Anderson et al.'s…

Many high school students are eligible for college but they do not go, or they attend a less demanding postsecondary institution. Their problems are twofold--either (1) they lack the counseling and support structures necessary to apply to college, or (2) they lack the counseling and support structures that enable them to apply to the kind of…