This qualitative study investigates the experiences of students with intellectual disability with peer mentors at a large Midwestern inclusive postsecondary education program (IPSE). Participants were students with intellectual disability and peer mentors associated with the IPSE. Students with intellectual disability are valued as partners in…

Our research team worked with Wake Technical Community College to evaluate an intervention to redesign the delivery of a set of introductory online courses. To obtain unbiased estimates of the treatment effects of the intervention, we conducted a randomized control trial in which students who enrolled in the study courses were assigned randomly to…

The passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act in 2008 extended the expectation of previous legislation (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and Individuals With Disabilities Education Act) regarding general education academic access for students with intellectual disability, from elementary to secondary and now through to…

Postsecondary education programs (PSEs) are becoming increasingly available for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the United States. Positive interactions between young adults and their families and professionals, and collaborative family-professional interactions can enhance transition outcomes for people with…

Background: It is widely recognised internationally that participation in higher education is likely to lead to increased opportunities and resources. However, only a minority of learners from Roma backgrounds continue into post-compulsory education. As important research into inclusion continues, more attention must be paid to the identification…

Background and Context: Post-secondary Computer Science (CS) students' career choices are complex sociocultural decisions, shaped by self-efficacy, belonging, and a multitude of known factors. Prior work has investigated the effect of these factors on career choice, but perspectives that examine norms of career practice are unexplored within…

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…

Across the United States, students have the opportunity to earn a Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) when they graduate from high school. Awarded to students who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages, the SoBL originated to confront English-only ideologies and promote multilingualism. But critics question the impact of the policy on students and…

The use of music therapy techniques has recently extended into the educational realm to help overcome learning difficulties, support emotional management, and assist students to develop necessary social skills. This is known as educational music therapy (EMT). Current educational policies give ever greater importance to the fostering and…

Career academies are specialized educational programs that offer graduates a pathway to acquire the skills, knowledge, and credentials needed to enter the workforce or pursue further education in a specific career field. These programs are designed to improve student engagement, reduce dropout rates, and enhance post-graduation outcomes. The…

This dissertation consists of three papers on education policy. In each paper, I use applied econometric methods and descriptive quantitative analysis to examine topics related to teacher labor markets and postsecondary attainment. The first paper leverages a rich student-teacher-day data set to study the relationship between daily teacher…

Michelle Weise is senior vice president for workforce strategies and chief innovation officer at Strada Education Network. Weise is a higher education expert who specializes in innovation and connections between higher education and the workforce. She built and led Sandbox ColLABorative at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and the higher…

Stakeholders are increasingly calling for improving instruction in STEM by building environments that enable faculty to sustainably change their teaching practices. This study reports one institutional change effort that effectively facilitated faculty's adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIP), which is to organize faculty into…

The federal government has collected data from colleges and universities for more than a century. However, how and what data are collected has evolved over time, as has the purposes for collecting those data. The most systematic collection of data happens through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is required to be…

Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) is one of the widely used online intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) in the USA, but it has rarely been included in meta-analyses of ITS efficacy to help students learn. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of ALEKS on learning. A total of 15 empirical studies were conducted…