The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University explained, "Across the country, 10- 40% of seemingly college-intending students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, fail to enroll in college the fall after graduation. This phenomenon is known as "summer melt" (Castleman, Page, and Snowdon, 2013). In order…

This paper evaluates the effects of a high school curriculum reform on students' probability to enroll at university and to choose a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) major. The reform increased the difficulty of graduating from high school by increasing the instruction time in core subjects and by raising the graduation…

In some educational settings, the cost of textbooks approaches or even exceeds the cost of tuition. Given limited resources, it is important to better understand the impacts of free open educational resources (OER) on student outcomes. Utilizing digital resources such as OER can substantially reduce costs for students. The purpose of this study…

The "Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes"--funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation--aimed to determine whether students attending high schools with a mature and at least moderately well implemented approach to promoting deeper learning actually experienced greater deeper learning opportunities and outcomes…

This study is a randomized controlled trial that assessed the impact of Early College High Schools on students' high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment, as well as students' high school experiences using extant data and survey data. The study included 10 Early Colleges that enrolled students in Grades 9 to 12 in…

Early College High Schools partner with colleges and universities to provide students with an opportunity to earn an Associate's degree or college credits toward a Bachelor's degree at no or low cost to students. In a recent study, researchers found that attending Early College High Schools improved some high school and postsecondary outcomes for…

This study investigated the effect of cohort participation in a learning community and collaborative learning techniques on the success of first-year engineering students. Student success was measured as gains in knowledge, skills, and attitudes, student engagement, and persistence in engineering. The study group was comprised of students…

Traditionally, modeling student retention has been done by deriving student success predictors and measuring the likelihood of success based on several background factors such as age, race, gender, and other pre-college variables, also known as the input-output model. Increasingly, however, researchers have used mediating factors of the student…

Under-enrollment of girls in primary and secondary is a longstanding and well-documented problem in developing countries. Limited parental and communal resources combine with cultural factors to create a disincentive for parents to send their girls to school and to keep them there throughout the school year and for the full primary and secondary…

High school is an important time in the educational career of students. It is also a time when adolescents face many behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges. Current statistics about the behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges faced by adolescents, and the impact on society through incarceration and dropout, have…

This paper uses data from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS), a nationally representative multisite randomized trial, to quantify variation in effects of Head Start during 2002-2003 on children's cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes relative to the effects of other local alternatives, including parent care. We find that (1) treatment and control…

Despite increases in postsecondary enrollment at American universities and colleges, there are still significant gaps in who matriculates to college and persists through graduation. Low-income students and students of color continue to be underrepresented in institutions of higher education; for many of these students, a lack of awareness of…

The majority of college students are not ready for college-level math courses, which, when completed, have been shown to increase graduation and transfer rates. To address this problem, the Math My Way (MMW) program was developed to integrate module-based curriculum and mastery learning approaches. The program is based on Seidman's retention…

Extending the school day through programs that will supplement core courses, such as offering intensive, after-school tutoring or small-group study sessions in reading and mathematics, is one method districts use to boost school performance and narrow educational achievement gaps between students of different racial and economic backgrounds (Redd…

National statistics continue to show substantial disparities in the postsecondary enrollment and completion rates between more and less advantaged groups. Despite gains made on the part of low-income, first generation, and minority students in the areas of access, persistence, and academic achievement, gaps still exist (Avery & Kane, 2004;…