College options for students with intellectual disabilities continue to grow. However, there is a gap among students and families about available college opportunities. This study provides evidence of a weeklong summer academy that bridges the gap between high school and college. Results showed the summer academy increased participants' awareness…

Canada has a long history of outdoor education (OE) in sectors including summer camps, K-12, and post-secondary education (PSE). However, previous research has demonstrated that OE is sometimes poorly understood in the PSE sector leading to program closures and limited program development. As a result, scholars have called for national and…

College retention is a topic of concern for many leaders of post-secondary institutions. This study explores the multifaceted elements of a summer bridge program aimed at bolstering college retention for minority first-generation students through a combination of mentorship, academic support, and community-building initiatives. The purpose of the…

The American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) partnered with Girls Who Code (GWC) to conduct an independent study evaluating the effectiveness of two GWC summer virtual programs, the Summer Immersion Program (SIP) and the Self-Paced Program (SPP), on promoting the pursuit of Computer Science (CS)-related postsecondary education for high school…

Outdoor education (OE) is a broad term referring to organized outdoor learning . Given Canada's large size, sparse population, varied landscapes and diverse culture , developing a comprehensive understanding of the philosophies, goals and activities of OE in Canada is challenging. While Canada has a long history of OE, scholars struggle to…

The post-basic education sector is critical to the achievement of the SDGs because this sector increase employability, helps build life skills, and most importantly, improves youth development. No doubt, if post-basic education improves, it will help in the actualisation of the seventeen goals of SDG. Findings reveal that Etisalat intervention in…

A reform movement in the United States has focused on STEM education and 21st century soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This spotlight on STEM instruction provided an opportunity to explore how K-14 STEM teacher participants perceived a Design Thinking Instructional Problems (DTIP) approach to…

Student success in postsecondary education depends on academic preparation and on having the nonacademic knowledge, skills, and behaviors to successfully navigate the demands of postsecondary study. While nonacademic competencies are important for all students, rural and high-poverty populations face unique nonacademic challenges, such as access…

The real data on students' postsecondary outcomes are affordable, accessible, and unfortunately underutilized. If harnessed for advising high school students before graduation, these data could significantly change the approach to preparing students for college and career success across the country. How can we get more leaders and stakeholders to…

This practice brief provides an overview of a project designed to support students with disabilities considering postsecondary education. Postsecondary Rewarding Education is Possible (PREP) Academy was developed by individuals from a state vocational rehabilitation agency and a public research university. PREP Academy is a campus-based, weeklong…

A substantial and growing body of research indicates that, all other factors being equal, students who dually enroll are more likely than their non-dually-enrolling peers to finish high school, matriculate in a postsecondary institution and experience greater postsecondary success. Spurred by this, states are increasingly viewing dual enrollment…

This dissertation is a semi-longitudinal investigation of the design, application and evaluation of a novel abstraction of two learning theories---William Demmert, Culture-Based Education and Seymour Papert, Constructionism, to form "Cultural Constructionism." This study was driven by an interest to explore the linkage between cultural…

Research increasingly points to the importance of parental engagement in children's education. Yet, little research has investigated whether prompting parents to be more involved in college processes improves student outcomes. We investigate experimentally whether providing both students and their parents with personalized outreach about tasks…

This report compares the STEM-focused ACE summer program and the regular ACE summer program conducted at AISD during summer 2018. Students in both the regular and the STEM summer camp programs experienced positive STEM engagement; high academic self-confidence; a sense of being prepared for college, job or career in STEM; favorable school and…

Technology-facilitated interventions following high school graduation have shown promise for increasing the likelihood of college matriculation, but we know little about how to fine-tune these tools. I conducted an experiment in which college-intending Tennessee high school graduates received informational messages in distinct behavioral frames:…