Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are at an increased risk for poor outcomes (e.g., dropout, unemployment, mental health problems). These risks are heightened for students placed in juvenile justice and/or alternative placement settings. Increasing college and career readiness (CCR) opportunities may potentially lead to…

This dissertation served as a case study that examined the impact of a districtwide system of support drawn from existing literature and organizational structure and management. The identified framework, the Limelight County College and Career Readiness Intervention (LCRI) Framework, utilized the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle of improvement…

The ability to write informatively is a skill not only required by the U.S. Common Core State Standards but is also essential for preparing students to be successful in college. The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the effects of a self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) informative writing intervention for high school students…

Purpose: College placement assessments in the USA have underperformed in predicting college readiness. This has prompted a wave of reforms to placement practices and policies. Recently, student preparation for placement assessments has come to the forefront as a means for enabling better evaluation of college readiness. In this study, the authors…

Kentucky's Targeted Interventions (TI) program is a statewide intervention intended to prepare non-college-ready high school students for college-level coursework. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we find that TI reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial courses by 8 to 10 percentage points in math. These…

Objective: In 2009, the Kentucky General Assembly found unacceptable and costly the ongoing high numbers of high school students requiring remediation once they enter higher education. The state passed legislation to better align secondary and college education, establishing a diagnostic cycle that would become its Targeted Interventions (TI)…

Background/Context: Students classified as Long-Term English Learners (LTELs) are those who have not gained fluency in the English language, even after being enrolled in the U.S. K-12 educational system for five to seven years (Olsen, 2014). Although LTELs are not consistently tracked across states, we know they constitute a sizeable portion of…

A number of school districts and states have implemented transition intervention programs designed to help high school students graduate ready for college. This study estimates the effectiveness of a transition program implemented statewide in Kentucky for high school seniors called Targeted Interventions (TI). Using 11 years of linked panel data,…

It has been reported that former foster care alumni aspire to attend college and graduate. However, the intent of those aspirations and the reality of those aspirations differ greatly. Many former foster care alumni do not make it to graduation. The purpose of this case study is to explore how an exemplar support program helps their former foster…

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…

Thirty-one percent of all American undergraduate students are Pell Grant eligible, making students from low-income backgrounds a considerable proportion of undergraduate enrollment. Yet, these students are often under supported and languish in college environments that are not built for them, leading to profound achievement gaps both in…

In this paper, we describe a mentoring program designed to help prepare high school seniors at Arizona State University Preparatory Academy for postsecondary education. Specifically, we address the usefulness of 'humanistic mentoring,' a form of mentoring that stresses the importance of reciprocity, mutuality, and empathy in the mentor/mentee…

This causal comparative quantitative study examined if college readiness differences exist between Black and Latino AVID enrolled middle school students in a school district in southern Arizona as compared with Black and Latino middle school students not enrolled in AVID and/or White AVID middle school students. The PSAT 8/9 was the proxy measure…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a federal program designed to promote postsecondary readiness and success among low-income students. Some evidence suggests that this program promotes college enrollment and persistence, but GEAR UP may include a wide variety of services, and it is unclear which ones…

Students with disabilities experience less postschool success than students without disabilities. Until recently, college and career readiness efforts did not appear to include an explicit focus on students with disabilities. Because most U.S. students with disabilities spend time in general education settings, general education teachers need…