Public schools in America are experiencing a massive decline in student enrollment, resulting in school consolidations and closures across the nation. (Dee, 2023). This decline has many implications, particularly in rural areas, such as Northeast Tennessee. These implications and the public pressure to maintain high graduation rates and academic…

The 11th edition of "Knocking at the College Door" comes at a critical time for the country. Many sectors of the economy face workforce shortages, while higher education faces increasing skepticism about its value. The data and analyses within these pages will likely fuel further concerns for those across higher education as the nation…

Across the United States, Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs have risen in popularity in recent years with the promise of producing biliterate and bicultural students. Many families of both the dominant and minority culture have gravitated towards these choice programs to enrich the school experience for their children. With the success of DLI…

Community colleges face enrollment declines, student performance, and accountability metrics, the need to support nontraditional students' career paths, and constraints imposed by limited resources. Community college leadership would benefit from empirical data on students with nontraditional GED credentials and the effects of remedial education…

This qualitative, improvement science, autoethnographic case study aims to examine a unique perspective on rural research through the lens of place-conscious leadership. With an identified problem of inequity in advanced-level course offerings, which resulted in lost student opportunities and student attrition to neighboring schools, the…

Existing research indicates that underrepresented-in-STEM racially minoritized students with similar academic preparation are less likely than their counterparts to persist in STEM, raising the question of factors that may contribute to racial disparities in STEM participation beyond academic preparation. We extend the current literature by first…

There is currently a heavy emphasis on career-connected learning for high school students in New York City. ExpandED Schools' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Options (ES Options) program predates the newest of these initiatives. Launched in 2019, ES Options combines a credit-bearing STEM apprenticeship in the spring with a…

Teachers working in middle and high school Dual Immersion (DI) programs (Spanish-English) face unique sets of challenges: linguistic equity between the two languages of instruction, attrition due to high linguistic and academic expectations, and preparing DI students for standardized tests in English. In this article, we reflect on our current…

Existing research indicates that racially minoritized students with similar academic preparation are less likely than their represented peers to persist in STEM, raising the question of factors that may contribute to racial disparities in STEM participation beyond academic preparation. We extend the current literature by first examining race-based…

Intra-district choice policy is a mechanism that provides parents the opportunity to apply to send their children to a portfolio of schools within a traditional school district in which the family resides by allowing students to transfer out of their assigned campus based on attendance zone. The impact of such policy has not been examined in the…

Many students enroll in college without proper preparation. Although they may demonstrate they are prepared academically, students who lack the knowledge and awareness of the higher education environment might not succeed in their first year. Although there are standardized exams to evaluate academic preparedness, there are few assessments that…

Researchers and policymakers are interested in the pathway to the STEM workforce given projections about a workforce shortage and the underrepresentation of women and people of color in STEM. These examinations often rely on the STEM pipeline model as a framework for understanding STEM persistence, which uses a STEM degree as a proxy for future…

United States public primary and secondary school attrition rates for African American males were significantly higher than their non-African American peers. The attrition rate disparity persisted through college graduation despite decades long programs and practices to improve African American male graduation rates. The purpose of this…

This qualitative study aims to provide insight into why teacher candidates, interested in pursuing K-12 teaching, made the decision to leave their traditional teacher preparation programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers utilized sociocultural theory as the framework to ground the research. The study finds the educational disruption…

First generation African American students are less likely to enroll in a higher education institution after completing high school compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The problem of perceived barriers that prevent first generation African American college students from degree completion was addressed in this study. First generation…