First Time/First Generation College-Goers

This report examines college enrollment rates of 2008 Virginia high school graduates using National Student Clearinghouse and Start Department of Education data. The analysis showed that sixty-two percent of graduates enrolled in a degree-granting institution within one-year of graduation; thirty-seven percent enrolled in four-year colleges and twenty-five percent in two-year colleges. The study also found Advanced-Study Diploma graduates had a higher enrollment rate than did Standard Diploma graduates.

This report describes the results of a mixed methods survey of acceleration programs in Florida. It compares Dual Enrollment with AP, IB, and AICE programs. The study found among Florida 11th and 12th graders in the 2006/2007 school year that 7.3% of students enrolled in a college credit or Dual Enrollment course were predominately White females who were not economically disadvantaged, and the majority of students in accelerated programs were enrolled in programs other than Dual Enrollment programs.

This study reviews the alignment of ACT and the American Diploma Project (ADP) national college readiness standards with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English language arts and reading (TEKS ELAR). The study assessed alignment based on both content and cognitive complexity. Findings reveal that the majority of the content in the ACT and ADP standards sets is also in the TEKS ELAR standards, and that the TEKS ELAR standards requires greater cognitive complexity than the ACT and the ADP.

This study compared post-secondary education faculty to student beliefs regarding competencies for post-education employment. Faculty members and international and U.S. students were given quantitative surveys where they were asked to rank-order a list of 17 business skills in order of importance. The authors found students enrolled in business curricula had differing beliefs regarding competencies needed for post-education employment than those held by business faculty. Additionally, business faculty beliefs regarding exit competencies differ from those of surveyed employers.

This paper examines the relationship between previous online education experiences and future success in online educational opportunities among students enrolled in a community college.

This REL technical brief examines the use of Lexile-based assessment to determine the readiness of subgroups of 11th grade Texas students to read books used in first year college English courses. Differences in reading abilities were notable based on ethnicity, gender, SES, at-risk status, Limited English Proficiency status, education track (career and technical education vs. general education), and students receiving special education services.

This paper examines the impact of dual enrollment on college degree attainment for low socioeconomic status (SES) students. The author examined data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, and data from a follow up study completed in 2000 resulting in a sample size of 8,800. The author found dual enrollment increases the probability of attaining a degree within 12-years of completing the 8th grade, and that dual enrollment did not hinder students from low SES backgrounds from attaining a degree.

Dual enrollment and early college high schools have been shown to have a positive association with college completion rates. However, these programs are often among the first to be cut when state funding gets tight. This report outlines how performance-based funding that rewards outcomes such as graduation rates or annual student growth goals is a promising answer to state funding challenges.