Upper secondary education shapes gender segregation in higher education and the labor market. This study shows gendered elective course enrollment patterns in Chilean upper secondary education across seven subjects, examines their consistency across socioeconomic contexts, and identifies school-level moderators. Using national administrative data…

Background: The interactions between behavior, environment and personal factors are the basis of the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, A. 1986. "Social Foundations of Thought and Action." NJ: Prentice Halls). Within this theory, students' behavior and motivation toward an activity is dependent on their feelings, thoughts and beliefs…

Admissions officers practicing holistic admissions judge students' course taking based on what was available to them, yet how representatives learn about students' high school context and subsequently evaluate students' course rigor within it remains underexamined. Using signaling theory and effectively maintaining the inequality framework, we…

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned polling of young people who received results from their key stage 4 (KS4) or 16 to 19 studies in summer 2024, and the parents of young people who received their results in this period, on behalf of the Curriculum and Assessment Review. This polling was designed to gather young people's and parents'…

Background/purpose: Shifts in academic pathways among higher education students have become a critical issue in Oman, raising concerns for both students and institutions. Such shifts are influenced by multiple psychosocial, academic, and institutional factors, resulting in potential educational, psychological, and social costs. The purpose of this…

Gaps in advanced high school coursework by socioeconomic status and geography persist in the United States, even among students with the ability and access to succeed in them. Lack of information on course availability and inaccurate self-perceptions may contribute to these inequities. We report on a large-scale experiment designed to increase…

Students' high school decisions will always impact efforts to achieve gender parity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) at the university level and beyond. Without a comprehensive understanding of gendered disparities in high school course selection, it will be impossible to close completely the gender gap in many STEM…

Guided pathways is arguably the most widespread whole-college community college reform movement in decades. In this report, the authors present findings from a study on the scale of adoption of guided pathways practices across community and technical colleges in three states--Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington--where there are state-level efforts to…

Recent educational policies in the United States have fostered the growth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career-focused courses to support high school students' persistence into these fields in college and beyond. As one key example, federal legislation has embedded new types of "applied STEM" (AS) courses…

Expected earnings matter for college major choices, and majors differ in both their average earnings and the age profile of their earnings. We show that students' family background is strongly related to the earnings paths of the major they choose. Students with more educated parents, especially those who have graduate degrees, choose majors with…

This mixed methods study explores high school seniors' math course-taking decisions and what changes school leaders can take to increase the percentages of students taking four years of math in high school. Through an analysis of district-level administrative data and a survey completed by seniors at a high performing, diverse high school in…

Demand for engineering-interested and proficient high school graduates continues to grow across the nation. However, there remains a severe gap in college participation and employment in engineering fields for students with learning disabilities (SWLDs). One potential way to encourage SWLDs to consider engineering as a profession and promote the…

This study explores the role of self-efficacy in online learning modalities. In particular, the research examines how synchronous and asynchronous online courses affect student learning experiences, depending on the level of self-efficacy. Data were collected from 172 undergraduate students in the United States who have taken both synchronous and…

This research explores the many faces of course completion and non-completion in vocational education and training. By tracking student enrolments via the unique student identifier in the National VET Provider Collection, we gain a greater understanding of how individuals mix and match training types and their movement through VET, enabling…

This document provides technical detail and supporting data for the research findings discussed in 'The student journey in VET: the many faces of completion and non-completion'. The analysis in this technical paper explores: (1) an approach to identifying VET subject enrolment activity that serves a compliance or regulatory purpose; (2)…