Placement into preparatory courses presents a significant challenge related to access and equity in higher education; it connects to conversations around college readiness, particularly in geographical areas that have been underserved, or which have larger minority populations and underprepared students. At the same time, the research points to…

The Post-9/11 Veterans' Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (also known as thePost-9/11 GI Bill, or PGIB) substantially increased the education benefit available to military service members who served after September 10, 2001. In this report, the fifth in the series, the authors examine the demographic and military characteristics of veterans who…

Using student-level data, we analyze the post-secondary enrollment of high school graduates across 29 states from an online charter provider from 2017 to 2020. We estimate the association between virtual charter student characteristics and the likelihood of college enrollment. We find that students who enroll multiple years in the virtual school…

Assembly Bill (AB) 1705 seeks to improve California community college students' progress in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. The law ensures that students begin math in the course that best positions them to complete their calculus requirement. A college has this obligation to all STEM students, regardless of their…

With constantly changing needs in a global economy, more flexibility in educational accountability for states and districts, and a focus on high standards for all students, state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) are increasingly defining what skills, competencies, and knowledge graduates should have by developing a…

Immersive scheduling engages students in one or two subjects at a time over short teaching periods. While there is incipient evidence that immersive delivery can heighten academic outcomes in undergraduate education, much less is known about its effectiveness in pathways or access programs. This exploratory mixed-methods study investigated how a…

This brief examines the experiences of California high school seniors from the graduating class of 2023, offering insights into their preparation, plans, and concerns for college prior to enrollment. Drawing on results from a large-scale survey of seniors, the findings reveal important variation in students' secondary school experiences and their…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is widely offered in American high schools and has been touted as a way to close racial and socioeconomic gaps in educational outcomes. Using administrative data from Michigan, I exploit variation within high schools across time in AP course offerings to identify the relationship between AP course availability,…

This paper investigates patterns of racial/ethnic and gender gaps in post-secondary degree attainment trajectories by the levels of students' pre-college academic preparation. We follow four cohorts of Missouri public high school freshmen for five years beyond on-time graduation among White, Black, and Hispanic male and female students. A…

Assembly Bill (AB) 1705 requires community colleges to ensure that students pursuing calculus-based programs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) begin math in the course that best positions them to complete their calculus requirement. According to the law, a college has this obligation for all STEM students, regardless of their…

The National Rural Education Association's (NREA) "2016-2021 10 Research Priorities" include college enrollment and preparation as well as experiences and persistence patterns for rural populations. Recent years witnessed increases in educational research, practice, and policy, around rural college students, yet these efforts focus…

This study examined the challenges of English learning encountered by Chinese international students in a Malaysian university, as well as the contributing factors and strategies students employ to cope with these challenges. A total of 60 Chinese international students (51.7% male and 48.3% female) participated in this study, with an average stay…

This study focuses on the disparities between the educational aspirations and expectations of high school students in the U.S., and explores why students do not expect to earn a bachelor's degree despite their aspirations. Using a national dataset and logistic/multinomial logistic regression analyses, the study identified the factors associated…

Only a quarter of full-time U.S. students complete their desired goal from community college attendance, with the rate of success even lower for Latinx students. This panel-data regression study looks for evidence regarding the expected influence of increasing the presence of Latinx faculty or administrators on cohort completion rates for all…

This study examined phenomenal gender and racial representation disparities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields -- specifically, a convergent parallel mixed study of the factors contributing to the underrepresentation of women and minorities. The research participants totaled 657 and included college students…