Sometimes a treatment, such as receiving a high school diploma, is assigned to students if their scores on two inputs (e.g., math and English test scores) are above established cutoffs. This forms a multidimensional regression discontinuity design (RDD) to analyze the effect of the educational treatment where there are two running variables…

This study examines disruptions to postsecondary education plans in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using nationally representative data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey from August 2020 through March 2021, we investigate the prevalence, forms, reasons, and disparities of education disruption across different…

The social experience of transitioning to a 4-year university varies widely among students. Some attend with few or no prior contacts or acquaintances from their hometown; others attend with a large network of high school alumni. Using a sample (N = 43,240) of undergraduates spanning 7.5 years at a public university, we examine what factors…

High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, while test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We find…

High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We found…

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine changes in stress during first semester among freshmen undergraduates and (2) identify predictors of stress (coping strategies, emotional states, and quality of sleep). Participants: One hundred ninety-seven freshmen students were recruited for a 10-week study during first quarter…

Hierarchical linear models have become a familiar method for accounting for a hierarchical data structure in studies of science and mathematics achievement. This paper illustrates the use of cross-classified random effects models (CCREMs), which are likely less familiar. The defining characteristic of CCREMs is a hierarchical data structure…

Happiness is an important indicator of well-being, and little is known about how it changes in the early adult years. We examined trajectories of happiness from early adulthood to midlife in 2 Canadian longitudinal samples: high school seniors followed from ages 18-43 and university seniors followed from ages 23-37. Happiness increased into the…

Many college and SAT preparation programs are designed to improve the postsecondary success of traditionally marginalized students. In addition to academic preparation, students' social and emotional preparation is important for the transition from high school to college. Mentors can serve as role models and supports to aid students in this…

In this study, we analyzed data for the Illinois high school class of 2003 to determine the impact of dual credit participation on postsecondary attainment. We matched 8,095 dual credit participants to an equal number of nonparticipants within the same high school at the point of postsecondary enrollment using propensity scores calculated through…

Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the Rural Innovative Schools (RIS) Project is the first widespread effort to scale up the early college model by implementing it in comprehensive high schools. This paper will present preliminary findings from the evaluation of this project. The impact study uses a quasi-experimental…

This study investigated whether German learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) acquire additional recoding strategies that they do not need for recoding in the consistent German orthography. Based on the psycholinguistic grain size theory (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005) we expected students with little experience in EFL to use the same…

Using data from the first National study on high school preparation for college calculus success, the Factors Influencing College Success in Mathematics (FICSMath) project, this article connects student high school instructional experiences to college calculus performance. The findings reported here reveal that students were better prepared for…

School counselors are the primary facilitators of college transition for many students, yet little is known about their influence on college-going behavior. Analyzing data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study employs coarsened exact matching and multilevel modeling to examine the effects of student-counselor visits on…

Clustered data (e.g., students within schools) are often analyzed in educational research where data are naturally nested. As a consequence, multilevel modeling (MLM) has commonly been used to study the contextual or group-level (e.g., school) effects on individual outcomes. The current study investigates the use of an alternative procedure to…