More college students are reporting adverse mental health concerns that negatively influence their student success than in previous years (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2020; Xiao et al., 2017). Postsecondary literature lacks evidence to support the influence of adolescents' adverse mental health characteristics on future college enrollment…

The purpose of this study was to determine (a) if there is a statistically significant relationship that exists between socioeconomic status of African American students among Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions and (b) to determine if the degree of the relationship differs by institution type, public…

Individuals with disabilities live in higher rates of poverty and are not always able to fully integrate into their communities. Postsecondary education has traditionally been a means to enhance employment opportunities. Currently, students with disabilities are attending community colleges as their primary choice for higher education. Having an…

Using administrative data from Georgia, we provide the first study of the full set of college entrance exam-taking strategies, including who takes the ACT and the SAT (or both), when they take the exams, and how many times they take each exam. We have several main findings. First, one-third of exam takers take both the ACT and SAT. Second, we see…

Graduation from high school is a commonly accepted measurement of academic achievement within the PK-12 education system. Failure to meet this academic milestone is well noted to result in unfavorable outcomes in the transition to, and throughout, adulthood; negatively impacting individuals' health and employment opportunities, while increasing…

Little is known about the effects of need-based financial aid disbursed late into college and how students respond when they approach lifetime limits for receiving aid. I exploit changes to federal Pell Grant eligibility rules that reduced the lifetime availability for grant aid from 9 to 6 full-time-equivalent years to examine these questions.…

This study explores the effect of developmental courses on labor market outcomes and baccalaureate degree attainment using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02; Ingels et al., 2014). Unlike previous research that only compares those needing developmental coursework to college peers who do not need coursework, this study is…

Academic undermatching--students enrolling in colleges that are less academically selective than those for which they qualify--is a barrier hindering college degree attainment. Given the many reasons students undermatch, this phenomenon is likely to continue; yet, we know little about the characteristics that may be related to degree attainment…

Performance funding policies for higher education allocate appropriations to public institutions based on student outcomes such as degree completions. This study investigates whether a special science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) incentive in 13 state performance funding policies leads to greater undergraduate degree…

We describe the challenge of college non-completion in the U.S. and a variety of explanations for the high rate of non-completion. We then provide an overview of the implementation of and evidence from eight specific college completion interventions designed to increase college completion rates through a comprehensive set of services. The eight…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

This multiple case study included fifteen international masters' students and graduates enrolled in four different online universities located in the United States. One over the phone interview and two online questionnaires explored participants' perceptions about online program completion. In this study, a thematic approach assisted in coding…

Most White people have learned to ignore the way that the social construct of race benefits them or harms people of Color, myself included. In this way, people take for granted that race is not real, but rather the invention of White supremacists. Moreover, researchers who are responsible for generating knowledge far too often depend on…

The initiative to implement multiple pathways to graduation aims to increase high school graduation rates. Where these opportunities may be present, there are specific actions district leaders can take to support the implementation of multiple pathways to graduation. Through correlational quantitative research, this study provided the opportunity…

Using an additional decade of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Children and Young Adults (CNLSY), this study replicated and extended Deming's evaluation of Head Start's life cycle skill formation impacts in three ways. Extending the measurement interval for Deming's adulthood outcomes, we found no statistically significant…