Retention and student success are priorities for many universities. At Midwest Public University (MPU), a pseudonym for four-year, urban, public, first-time, first-year students have been retained at lower rates than the national average for four-year public institutions. However, MPU students with declared majors have been retained at higher…

Freedom School Partners is a six-week summer program that has served the Charlotte, NC area since 2004. The purpose of this report is to present the external evaluation and findings of the six-week program in the summer of 2022. This evaluation is a joint effort between the Centers for Adolescent Literacies (CAL) and the Center for Educational…

The goal of undergraduate chemistry laboratories is to allow students to learn about chemical systems and key laboratory skills. They should then apply this knowledge to solve problems and connect macroscopic observations in the laboratory with those occurring at the submicroscopic level. Unfortunately, these needs are not met through traditional…

Out-of-school time, especially in the summer, offers students an opportunity to explore new passions, build friendships and relationships, and experiment with independence. Taking field trips, visiting museums, and going to camp can all boost students' learning and social development. But engagement in and access to these vital opportunities are…

Summer reading is correlated with improved reading scores and a decrease in summer learning loss. This educational leadership portfolio (ELP) was designed to address summer learning loss as a way to improve reading achievement for elementary students in the Phoenixville Area School District (PASD) in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. More specifically,…

High school students from low-income backgrounds experience academic under-preparedness, financial distress, and socialization challenges when entering college. For these students, challenges may begin in the K-12 setting, where this population is more likely to face limitations in college counseling, lack highly qualified teachers, and have…

Some of the simplest affordances of study abroad became unavailable when students stayed stateside because of the pandemic-induced disruptions to international travel. These ranged from touring city and historical/cultural landmarks, having spontaneous and chance interactions with locals, participating in the performance of traditions and…

In a nationwide initiative to increase computer science Education in K-12, many teachers were recruited to CS teaching positions but without adequate preparation, which can lead to lack of confidence and feelings of isolation [35, 54]. In response to these issues, the purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a newly developed…

This study examined an in-service teacher's enactment of code-meshing and code-switching pedagogies in a clinical summer reading clinic, as a requirement for a reading specialist program. Thus, the enactment of code-meshing pedagogies was based upon embracing the students' use of African American English (AAE) in academic writing contexts and…

Exploring Summer Youth Employment Programs: Increasing Access Through Career Pathways builds the case and provides actionable recommendations for state-led support in the intentional alignment of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) with career pathways and the work-based learning continuum, including through Career Technical Education (CTE).…

Achieving equity in education--that is, ensuring every student has the resources and tools they need to succeed--has become a key issue for the nation's schools. Equity does not apply just to classroom learning, however; it matters in afterschool, summer, and other out-of-school-time (OST) programs, too. Yet while research on equity in the OST…

This study illuminates how medical specialty camps can be an important developmental setting offering opportunities for diverse children and youth to develop traits and qualities perceived as important even later in life. Perhaps most importantly, camp was identified as one of the most influential settings for developing personal and social traits…

The rapid shift to online learning due to COVID-19 provides an opportunity to examine at scale the feasibility and impact of addressing students' cultural and developmental needs within a virtual environment. Given limited knowledge of this type of virtual schooling, this mixed-method study examined third--fifth grade students' experiences…

Objective: Although most community college students intend to transfer to a 4-year college, few ultimately do. We sought to assess how student experiences of the Exploring Transfer (ET) program influenced transfer rates. The ET program was offered by a private, 4-year liberal arts college. Methods: We used data from a cross-sectional survey of…

Ithaca College S-STEM is a Track 1 National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) initiative designed to address the challenges of recruiting and retaining high-achieving, low-income students majoring in physics, mathematics, and computer science. The program focuses on improving retention by fostering a sense of belonging among…