It is not surprising that in order to meet the job demands of the future, we need to ensure that students have the knowledge and opportunity to choose from an array of postsecondary options before graduating from high school. Particularly as our society continues to increase in diversity, providing access to college and career choices for all…

Although many summer undergraduate research programs made the decision to delay, cancel, or suspend their summer experiences in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Morehouse College McNair Scholars Program instead offered a completely virtual summer research experience to 14 Scholars with faculty-led remote research. The program…

Emerging evidence demonstrates that integrated programs, which combine academic and socioemotional supports and bridge boundaries between academic and student affairs, can improve college success rates for low-income, first-generation college students. This article explores the organizational value of integrated transition programs across several…

Policy efforts to enhance postsecondary access and completion often emphasize the construct of college readiness (CR). While most research has focused on defining and measuring CR, less has examined the perspectives of first generation students and the urban high school contexts in which many prepare for college. This study utilizes data from an…

This study examines how a specific form of parental support--parental validation--is related to students' college experiences and institutional commitment. Results based on a survey of first-generation and low-income students indicated that parental validation is related to students' social and academic engagement, sense of belonging, and…

The present study explores demographics, pre-university characteristics and multi-year (2003-2013) tracking of a census of 53,077 students who initially declared a STEM major upon entering a research university in the United States Southwest and seeks to predict graduation with a STEM and non-STEM degree. Guided by QuantCrit theory, we use…

Objective: To examine poor sleep quality as a potential mediator between college students' employment hours and depressive symptoms, and to examine if this mediation model might differ across students reporting different levels of financial strain. Participants: The sample was collected through a multi-site study during the Spring of 2019 and…

Targets set by the UK Office for Students require highly academically selective UK universities to enrol a greater percentage of students identified as least likely to participate in higher education. Such students are typically at a disadvantage in terms of levels of academic preparedness and economic, cultural and social capital. Drawing on…

All universities and colleges in the United States were deeply and immediately affected by the sudden appearance of COVID-19. Two-year public community colleges suffered the same fate as their university neighbors: the immediate needs were to close up operations, shift instruction to online and distance modalities and keep students engaged and…

With the disruption of the pandemic, it is important to study first-year college students' learning experiences and its potential effect on education plans. To understand first-year college students' learning experiences after the transition to online instruction during the pandemic, in June 2020, the authors of this study reached out to…

We combine a large multi-site randomized control trial with administrative and survey data to demonstrate that intensive advising during high school and college leads to large increases in bachelor's degree attainment. Novel causal forest methods suggest that these increases are driven primarily by improvements in the quality of initial…

While some of the advice offered in this "Equity Tool" pertains to education environments students encounter after high school (i.e., after P-12), the transition to higher education is often fraught, especially for students of Color (SOCs) and high schools sometimes get blamed for not sufficiently helping students get ready when a better…

Comparative studies around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are still limited. This paper explores the question: how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected higher education students, and which ones have been most impacted? Indonesia and Vietnam are our focus. We leveraged a rich set of data collected online from both countries (n = 2600). We used…

Policymakers in Texas want to understand the funding levels necessary for community colleges to meet their promise of providing an affordable and accessible pathway to a postsecondary certificate or degree. Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest conducted this study to help leaders at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board better…

The "Examination of the Costs of Texas Community Colleges" study examined the funding levels necessary for community colleges to meet their promise of providing an affordable and accessible pathway to a postsecondary certificate or degree. The study involved three types of analyses: a needs analysis, an equity analysis, and a cost…