Opportunity gaps between minority and white students and between genders has thus far prevented the concept of an equitable school with equitable opportunities. One important measure of educational equity is participation in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. If both the overall availability of AP courses and achievement within AP courses are…

Over the past 20 years there has been a major focus on increasing educational opportunities for African American students. As part of efforts to increase these opportunities, high schools across the country have focused initiatives on increasing the number of African American students enrolling in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. While the number…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to analyze data around school culture and climate during the authorization process of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Data collected was analyzed to test the hypothesis that the authorization process serves as a "weeding out" of students by causing a significant difference to…

School reformers are often searching for a program that will have a positive and far-reaching effect on a school campus. Researchers and writers have described the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB DP) as a largely positive influence on a school campus, providing a rigorous and standards-based curriculum to IB DP students. However,…

This study investigated high school students' and teachers' perceptions of academic self perception, environmental perceptions, goal valuation, and motivation/self-regulation as factors affecting students' academic achievement. A two-way MANOVA was conducted to determine if high school students' gender and academic programs,…

This study involved identifying, categorizing, and comparing critical incidents related to qualifying dual credit high school students' decisions to enroll or not to enroll in dual credit coursework in either a traditional or early college high school. The purpose of the study was: (a) to identify the reasons qualifying students decide to enroll…

The purpose of this qualitative, explanatory multiple-case study was to examine the perceptions of staff members at two Southern California high schools as they related to the disparate participation in advanced academic programs by ethnic and racial minority and economically disadvantaged students as compared to their White and economically…