The academic achievement gap among students educated under similar resources and learning environments has been a critical issue over the past century. Exploring and identifying potential solutions to narrow these gaps is imperative, considering the profound influence these disparities have on a student's prospects. Decades of research have…

Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), Summer Bridge Programs (SBP)across the California State University (CSU) system vary in design and delivery. This mixed-methods study investigated six CSU SBP designs, delivery, and 4-year graduation rates of SBP participants during the 2015 through 2019 years. The qualitative portion of this study consisted…

The current study explores the efforts of one summer youth employment program to provide students with meaningful work experiences and the participants' perceptions of the meaningfulness of their work and its effect on their future orientation. Most of the students in the study were under the age of 18. The Youth Enrichment Services (YES) Summer…

In this study, the relationship between clusters of hope and a psychosocial profile of academic talent development is examined in a sample of 466 academically gifted adolescents. First, cluster analysis is leveraged to examine whether interpretable three- and four-cluster hope solutions can be found in the sample. Second, differences among a group…

This dissertation investigates the experiences and outcomes of students who participated in remote summer bridge programs during the COVID-19 pandemic which was the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years. The study aims to evaluate the impact of these programs on overall student persistence. Student persistence is the participants' attributions,…

Using institutional data from University of California, Merced (UC Merced), this dissertation explores the relationship between enrolling in academic units in the summer term immediately after the first year of college (first-summer) and four-year degree completion at a Hispanic- and Minority-Serving Institution, through the lenses of Academic…

The first year of college or university is a crucial phase which significantly influences students' persistence, academic achievement, and degree completion. The challenges associated with transitioning to college are often amplified for students who are the first in their families to attend college and may be less familiar with the norms and…

COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges for college students, highlighting the need to provide educational contexts that foster well-being. Summer undergraduate research experiences (SUREs) constitute a high-impact practice, yet little systematic knowledge exists about how the first surge of COVID-19 influenced undergraduate researchers'…

Funded through a federal Education Innovation and Research grant, Rural Connect is a regional model of collaborative professional learning (PL) and practice-connected support for rural educators. Through a network of cross-district learning communities that integrate literacy into content-area curriculum, the intervention provides a platform for…

Summer programs have historically been a staple in public school districts' arsenals to help students keep up academically and recover from summer break-related academic setbacks. In addition to academic support, summer programs may have a positive impact on students' physical and mental health, development of interests, and development of social…

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students had their educational experiences disrupted as schools became shuttered and for some students virtual schooling began. When school facilities closed and online began, families had increased responsibilities for their children's education. Subsequently, there is an increase in attention to…

This study follows a mathematical camp for high-school students identified as gifted, and examines it with a socio-cultural lens. Our goal is to examine the identities of students in the camp and the valued actions according to which these identities were authored, both by the students and by their instructors. Data was collected from three rounds…

This study sought to better understand how schools were addressing U.S. state policies targeting summer reading interventions for students not meeting accountability standards. Survey data were gathered from 580 public and private elementary schools in one state (67% response rate) regarding the barriers to offering summer programs,…

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…

Factors that influence the underrepresentation of females in STEM careers begin early in childhood when gender biases and stereotypes emerge. Stereotypes have a psychosocial effect on females that can lead to low self-efficacy and less interest in learning and pursuing STEM careers. This study investigated the effect of a STEM summer camp on K-12…