I conducted a narrative literature review on first-year seminars to provide practitioners and researchers with a current, comprehensive review of the research investigating the effectiveness of this widely used, high-impact practice so that they could use this information to improve the course at their institution. I searched for peer-reviewed…

Inclusive, quality education promotes understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence among individuals and communities. Education holds the potential to reduce the likelihood of conflicts by fostering critical thinking, encouraging open dialogue and creating economic growth opportunities. The world urgently needs to recognize the role of…

Do older community college students build momentum toward graduation differently than their younger peers? One-third of students in community colleges are 25 years of age or older, and these students tend to have lower rates of graduation than their younger peers. Yet, we know little about how the factors that influence college graduation differ…

Higher education in countries like Ghana faces significant challenges, including financial barriers, which usually hinder students' educational progress and graduation rates. While some students usually rely on family support and personal savings, these resources are generally insufficient for covering all educational expenses. Although student…

The long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is an important consideration given the trend of dedicating more resources to these programs. However, long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is not well-understood and recent studies have shown preschool effectiveness can vary across states and programs. A state run prekindergarten program in…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the relationship between federal Pell Grant status, campus diversity statistics, and their influence on graduation rates within higher education. This study focuses on higher education institutions in the state of Texas and adopts a quantitative design that utilizes a regression analysis to…

This dissertation explored the cost and value of 1:1 computing programs in high schools in Texas. The study examines whether the total cost of ownership of these programs can be justified by the student testing gains and graduation rates. It investigates whether student learning outcomes show a definable correlation between positive gains and the…

This study examines the impact of Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) on student success, focusing on four- and six-year graduation rates at Sonoma State University. Using archival data from 2010-2014, the research explores whether LLC participation predicts on-time graduation while accounting for factors such as sex, Pell eligibility, and…

We analyze the effect of Colombia's ambitious "Free Housing" program on children's educational outcomes. The program was generous, giving free housing to beneficiaries in desirable areas. We evaluate the program by leveraging housing lotteries and linking applicants to their children. We find that public housing increases high school…

Do increased expenditures lead to improvements in international students' outcomes? As state subsidies for public higher education institutions remain low, the reliance on out-of-state tuition from international students underscores their importance. Because international students often pay such higher tuition fees, it is worth studying how such…

Undocumented children have a right to a public k-12 education in the United States, however there is no standard approach to higher education. About half of states allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges and universities at in-state rates of tuition (ISRT) and a subset of these also allow them access to state financial aid. This…

In recent years, multiple-measures teaching evaluation systems have become widespread in states and school districts around the United States. Using administrative data from Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and the National Student Clearinghouse, we examine the relationship between exposure to different ratings of teaching effectiveness in high…

The purpose of this study investigated the role of K-12 education in breaking the cycle of poverty in the Southeastern Public School District, focusing on the relationship between school-level poverty and key student outcomes: (a) graduation rates, (b) job placement, and (c) college acceptance. This study assessed the timing of federal-, state-,…

Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs), lasting two or three years, capture about a quarter of higher education enrollment in the world and can play a key role enhancing workforce skills. In this paper, we estimate the program-level contribution of SCPs to student academic and labor market outcomes, and study how and why these contributions…

This paper presents new benefit-cost estimates for the Tulsa universal preschool program. These calculations are based on estimated effects from previous papers of Tulsa pre-K on high school graduation rates and college attendance rates of students who were enrolled in kindergarten in Tulsa Public Schools in the fall of 2006. In this paper,…