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Early College High Schools (ECs) aim to increase postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment, specifically among historically minoritized populations. Research outlines the positive outcomes of ECs, yet less research examines the unintended consequences of these consolidated college preparation programs. Through interviews with 13 EC graduates, this qualitative study investigated the social and cultural sacrifices made in exchange for program participation. Using Cultural Reproduction Theory, this study examines the role ECs play in maintaining social hierarchies and perpetuating dominant cultural values. Findings reveal students’ reflections on the costs and long-term impacts of their EC experience. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Career and College Readiness (CCR) generates higher levels of persistence, grit, motivation, and competencies in performing work- or school-related tasks among learners during post-secondary life. One primary limitation defining the present scholarship on CCR is the authentic analysis of the on the ground or field practices high schools perform to increase learners’ CCR competencies. The inadequate research on actual CCR practices in high schools motivated this study. To learn more about how high schools prepare students for post-secondary life, 16 principals from high schools provided detailed narratives on CCR practices in their institutions. Principals completed interviews of one to two hours using Microsoft Teams, supplying the researcher with specific information and examples of how their institutions equip students for future careers and higher education. Manual qualitative thematic analysis of the entire transcript guided the organization and interpretation of the findings, allowing the presentation of meaningful themes supported by a plethora of illustrations. Six themes representing 18 distinct CCR practices emerged, and the themes were rigorous curriculum, content knowledge, key academic behaviors, key cognitive strategies, multiculturalism, and citizenship development. Results partially supported the pervasive CCR model based on Conley’s readiness index. Increasingly, diversity and citizenship learning have defined high schools’ CCR work in preparing learners to become effective local and global citizens. The current investigation paves the way for future observational and field research uncovering whether schools truly prepare students or not, and such preparation varies across community, country, and institutional characteristics.

Though scholars agree that professional development (PD) is a key mechanism for implementing education policies that call for teacher change, and that PD generally needs to be content-focused, active, collaborative, coherent, and sustained, the application of this framework has yielded mixed results. In this qualitative study, we employed structured interviewing methods to explore how district leaders across five states are implementing college- and career- readiness (CCR) standards across the United States by creatively adapting and integrating the features of this PD framework in order to meet the demands of this mandated educational policy. We illustrate a revised model for how 70 district officials are conceptualizing these features of PD to support CCR standards-based learning.

In the past decade, there has been a proliferation of community- and schoolbased college readiness programs designed to increase the participation of students who have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education. However, few of these college readiness programs have been empirically evaluated. This study examines the impact of one such intervention, the College Bound, St. Louis (CB) program. Using propensity weighting and doubly robust modeling, we found CB participants were more likely to reach proficiency on the End of Course exams, to obtain at least a B grade in a number of foundational college courses, to take more AP or honors courses, and to attend a 4-year postsecondary institution than similarly situated non-participants. Future directions for evaluating similar college readiness programs are discussed.

To address the need for enhanced career and college readiness, a classroom guidance curriculum was studied using a pretest–posttest nonequivalent groups quasi‐experimental design. Data from 163 ninth‐grade students enrolled in a low‐performing high school were analyzed via hierarchical linear modeling. The analyses indicated a treatment effect on postsecondary education‐going knowledge and career and college readiness self‐efficacy, accounting for 100% of the variance explained by classroom‐level factors and indicating potential for the classroom guidance curriculum. The findings encourage career and professional school counselors to proactively employ similar classroom guidance programs aimed at encouraging high school students to consider postsecondary education opportunities. Future research could focus on component analyses of the curriculum, broadening the target populations, using mixed‐method designs, and additional validity studies of the dependent measures.

Cynthia Coburn, in her 2016 article in the American Journal of Education—“What’s Policy Got to Do With It?”—states that the field of policy implementation suffers from the propensity to learn the same lessons over and over again. This repetition of mistakes, I argue, stems from a failure to account for predictable patterns in how policies become unpopular. Through an analysis of 52 interviews with state, regional, and district officials in California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, I investigate the decline in the popularity of K–12 standards-based reform. I consolidate existing policy implementation theories and describe three important dimensions—detail, drive, and durability—for understanding how standards and associated policies “succeed” or “fail.” Using these dimensions, I reveal how policy design and implementation choices can strengthen or weaken standards-based education policies.

High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We found students with the same HSGPA or the same ACT score graduate at very different rates based on which high school they attended. Yet, the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. In contrast, the relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak and smaller than high school effects, and the slope of the relationship varies by high school.

We investigated the impacts of a peer-facilitated instructional intervention in mathematics on progress towards readiness for college among 10th graders who facilitated instruction for 9th graders in algebra classrooms in urban secondary schools. A goal of the intervention is to promote readiness for college by placing middle-performing students in the role of instructional facilitators. The program draws on theory that holds that instructional facilitation helps facilitators enhance their content knowledge and develop in metacognitive and social-emotional domains. We used propensity score matching to evaluate the program's impact on facilitators' achievement of outcomes that represent early high school \"on-track for college\" benchmarks, benchmarks for college readiness, and college entry without need for remediation. Acting as a 10th grade instructional facilitator increased students' likelihood of meeting near-term, intermediate, and long-term indicators of college readiness. These results indicate that intensive long-term interventions in early high school that draw on students as resources can having lasting impacts on real-world metrics for college-readiness.

College and career readiness has become a national education policy priority. With more than 9.3 million rural students in the United States, the college and career readiness of rural students is a warranted priority for rural education researchers. Using a combination of Conley’s (2012) college and career readiness model, Perna’s (2006) nested model of college choice, and Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent et al., 2014), we systematically reviewed and analyzed the extant literature on rural students’ college and career readiness. In addition to providing a comprehensive discussion of the prominent themes in the literature, we provide recommendations for future research on rural students’ college and career readiness as well as changes to college and career readiness standards and practices that would better align with the strengths and needs of rural students, schools, and communities.

An important measure of success for a college and career readiness program is the extent to which its participants achieve their higher education and career goals. We examined one such program, Bridge to Employment (BTE), to determine its influence on participants’ educational and career‐related decisions and outcomes after they graduated from high school. The BTE program works with 14‐to‐18‐year‐old students in disadvantaged communities across the globe to increase their awareness and understanding of health careers and higher education opportunities. We interviewed 23 former BTE participants, representing different countries and BTE participation time frames, to provide critical qualitative insights about their experiences, years after the program. Key recommendations for college and career readiness programs include exposing participants to a wide variety of careers, strengthening soft skills, clarifying practical steps to prepare for college and careers, and providing support for interpersonal relationships.