Does Student Effort Respond to Incentives? Evidence from a Guaranteed College Admissions Program

This paper studies the effects of guaranteed college admission on student effort and achievement. In 1997, Texas enacted the “Top Ten Percent” law, which guarantees admission to any public college for students in the top ten percent of their high school class. In practice, eligible students become aware of their admission status at the end of their junior year in high school—more than 1 year prior to attending college. We use data from a large, urban school district and regression discontinuity methods to test for effects on effort. Our preferred estimates show that students who barely qualify for the admissions guarantee earn marginally lower grades and take fewer advanced courses in their senior year compared to students who do not qualify for guaranteed admission and learn their status in the final senior year term. We find qualitatively similar results when limiting our sample to finer bandwidths, although the estimates are imprecise.     

Recruiting and supporting low-income,high-achieving students at flagship universities

We study an intervention designed to overcome multiple hurdles faced by low-income, high-ability college students to determine if and how it affects students’ long-term outcomes. UT-Austin’s Longhorn Opportunity Scholars (LOS) program recruited at impoverished high schools and provided scholarships and enhanced support services to students who enrolled. We use administrative records for Texas public college students and find that LOS had large, positive effects on enrollment in and graduation from UT-Austin, masters’ degree enrollment, and earnings. In particular, our results suggest that high achieving college attendees who went to a targeted high school saw UT-Austin enrollment increase by 71% and earnings 12 years after high school increase by 4.6% (an 82% increase among attendees). A somewhat similar program at Texas A&M called the Century Scholars Program had no effect on enrollment, but other contemporaneous enrollment shifts limit our analysis of other outcomes. The LOS results suggest that well designed, targeted recruitment programs with adequate supports can improve long-run outcomes for low-income students.     

Instructional Strategies to Help Online Students Learn: Feedback from Online Students

Increased enrollment in online programs and courses has prompted a plethora of research on instructional strategies that impact online students’ learning. Most of these strategies came from instructors, and others were solicited from students. While the literature notes that students who have more university experience tend to provide more substantive responses when solicited, there seems to be limited representation of online master’s students’ preferences on what instructional strategies work for them. There is paucity in the literature on how these preferred instructional strategies inform existing theoretical and practical frameworks that could impact online learning performance. This article discusses the Top Ten Instructional Strategies preferred by master’s students who responded to a dissertation survey question - What specific things would you like your online instructors do to help you learn successfully? - and relates these strategies to the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and the Quality Matters Rubric.     

Can you leave high school behind?

In recent years, many states, including California, Texas, and Oregon, have changed admissions policies to increase access to public universities for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. A key concern, however, is how these students will perform. This paper examines the relationship between high school quality and student success in college. Using administrative data from the University of Texas at Austin, we take advantage of the unique policy environment provided by Texas's Top 10% automatic admissions law, which has not only increased the diversity of high schools in the state that send students to the university, but also provides an admission criteria based on a sole observable characteristic: high school class rank. We find that high school characteristics do affect student performance, and these effects seem more pronounced for women and low-income students. In addition, there is little evidence that the effects of high school characteristics decay over students’ time in college.     

High school grades,admissions policies,and the gender gap in college enrollment

The female advantage in college enrollment and completion has generated concern among university officials and sparked debate about gender-conscious college admissions. There are a number of explanations for this increasing gender imbalance on college campuses. This paper focuses on the role played by admissions policies that base decisions solely on applicants’ high school grades. Given that females earn higher grades than males, such policies can contribute to growing female shares in admissions. To exemplify this trend, I use publicly-available data from Texas to show that the Texas Top 10% plan, which guarantees public university admission to students who graduate in the top decile of their high school class, led to an increase in the female share of accepted students. The increase was particularly large among black students, where the female share of admitted students was already highest among the major racial/ethnic groups.     

Student Recruitment into Postsecondary Educational Program

The recruitment of students into educational programs is an area that is underexplored in the literature. This piece capitalizes on two unique features to provide insights. First, the sample comes from a larger experimental evaluation of a summer bridge program that required the eight participating institutions to significantly increase—even more than double—their recruitment from the previous year. Second, because the program was designed for recent high school graduates, the institutions were required to work across educational sectors to recruit students while they were in the spring of their senior year of high school. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, I report that the most successful methods of recruitment involved two components: a personal aspect and multiple exposures to the information. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Pathways to Teaching: Latino Student Choice and Professional Identity Development in a Teacher Training Magnet Program Special Issue: Partnering for Equity

This paper reports on one component of a school-university collaborative in El Paso, Texas, to create pathways to college and the teaching profession for Latino and Latina high school students. As part of the Institute for Educational Inquiry's “Diversity in Teaching and Teacher Education” initiative (1997–2000) at The University of Texas—El Paso, the authors developed a program of mentoring, professional development, college socialization, and research activities with high school students and teachers at Riverside High School's Socratic Institute (SI), an innovative, predominately Latino teacher training magnet school. This article reports on a part of the school-university collaborative that brought university faculty and Latino doctoral students into contact with high school SI students in organized research. Through surveys and semi-structured interviews, Socratic student participants reveal what they know about teaching, how they assess and make sense of teaching practice, and how they take on and articulate their identity and emerging teaching personae. Responses reveal why these Latino students choose teaching as a career, and point to the Socratic Institute as an important pre-pre-service model for the recruitment of Latino/a students to the teaching profession and college.     

Effectiveness of Summer Bridge Programs in Enhancing College Readiness

An alarmingly high percentage of recent high school graduates are not prepared to succeed in college-level courses, and the impact of this educational shortcoming is substantial. Underprepared college students incur a monetary cost of enrolling in remedial courses, and states and taxpayers subsidize much of the overall cost of developmental education. In addition, underprepared students are less likely to graduate from college, thus impacting their earning potential and the nation's economic need for a more highly educated workforce. One approach to reducing the need for developmental education is high school bridge programs. These programs, which usually take place on a college campus, provide interventions that help targeted students aspire to, prepare for, and achieve college enrollment. This article reports on the effectiveness of bridge programs at Texas colleges in the summer of 2007; it covers two community college programs that demonstrated the highest pre- to postprogram student achievement gains of the participating institutions. Findings from this study and previous research suggest that effective bridge programs (a) have very strong relationships with their partner school districts; (b) provide professional development to all program staff; (c) conduct preprogram orientation sessions and closing ceremonies; (d) provide bus transportation; (e) involve parents in the program; (f) provide students with labs to support classroom instruction; (g) provide academic advising and other support services; and (h) implement both formative and summative evaluation methods.     

Establishment of academic standards for early twentieth century Texas high schools: The university of Texas affiliated schools program

During the last quarter of the century several universities including those in Michigan, Illinois, and Texas launched initiatives to ensure that high schools’ academic standards prepared students for admission to the state university. This paper illuminates affiliation programs that foreshadowed the accreditation movement. Not only did affiliation serve the expectations of the universities, it also enabled high schools to emerge from their confused origins into increasingly stronger institutions.     

Applying the Rule Space Model to Develop a Learning Progression for Thermochemistry

We used the Rule Space Model, a cognitive diagnostic model, to measure the learning progression for thermochemistry for senior high school students. We extracted five attributes and proposed their hierarchical relationships to model the construct of thermochemistry at four levels using a hypothesized learning progression. For this study, we developed 24 test items addressing the attributes of exothermic and endothermic reactions, chemical bonds and heat quantity change, reaction heat and enthalpy, thermochemical equations, and Hess’s law. The test was administered to a sample base of 694 senior high school students taught in 3 schools across 2 cities. Results based on the Rule Space Model analysis indicated that (1) the test items developed by the Rule Space Model were of high psychometric quality for good analysis of difficulties, discriminations, reliabilities, and validities; (2) the Rule Space Model analysis classified the students into seven different attribute mastery patterns; and (3) the initial hypothesized learning progression was modified by the attribute mastery patterns and the learning paths to be more precise and detailed.     

A Bridge to Graduation for At-Risk Latino Males: A Case Study

Changing demographics, low Latino graduation rates, and changes to education funding—nationally and locally—challenge society to develop innovative strategies to navigate transformations affecting public education. This article presents findings from a collaborative community-engaged evaluation of a dropout prevention program for at-risk male Latino students. Our mixed-methods evaluation finds that the program has had a positive overall impact on its participants. In particular, program participation was associated with an overall rise in grade point averages, fewer failing grades, and a higher probability of graduation, compared to nonparticipants. With respect to behavioral changes, attendance was not improved over the period of program involvement; however, the number of behavioral referrals decreased dramatically. In addition, students and staff members reported that the program enhanced the students’ academic and career attitudes and aspirations. This work reveals the value of innovative programs and targeted interventions outside the classroom for at-risk students.     

All against all competition: the incorporation of the International Baccalaureate in public high schools in Canada

ABSTRACT

Since the 1980s, education in Canada has been through a process that led to school choice, targeting the improvement of students’ performance through school competition. These policies fostering an education quasi-market became an ideal framework for the expansion of IB schools. Since the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IBDP) offers a differentiated international curriculum and is perceived as a program that contributes to students’ achievements, it has been increasingly adopted in school districts and schools. This paper explores the marketing strategies developed in schools and districts in response to school competition by tracing the incorporation of the IBDP in high schools in different districts in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Based on interviews with school staff, district officials and IB local association representatives, this study analyzes schools’ marketing decisions from a consumer and producer orientation taking into account the macro environment (federal government) and micro-environment (provincial government and districts). Rather than fostering efficiency and improving students’ achievement as intended, marketization policies resulted in an increased focus on the recruitment of high achieving students, which led to a competition between schools, between districts and between other programs in the districts or in other words –an ‘all against all’ competition.     

Engaged environmental science for underserved youth

Abstract

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences has called for targeted efforts to engage underserved youth in environmental education programs that support environmental literacy and contribute to the development of a diverse workforce pipeline for environmental science-related occupations. Evidence suggests that career knowledge among low income and minority youth is more likely to be incompatible with post-secondary educational opportunities than other racial and ethnic groups. One approach to attenuating discordant college and career expectations among underserved youth is building networks for information sharing between secondary and post-secondary students. The purpose of this commentary is to describe the development and implementation of a high school curriculum on environmental science and environmental justice by Texas A&M University in collaboration with community engagement partners, students, and teachers at Furr High School, an innovative XQ Super School in Houston, Texas.     

Rocky Jones: Case study of a high‐achieving black male's motivation to participate in gifted classes

An increased body of research on the recruitment and retention of Black students in gifted programs provides guidance for educators to understand factors that impact Black male under representation in gifted programs. A common concern among high school educators is that schools cannot keep Black males interested in gifted programs. Even in culturally diverse high schools, gifted Black males often do not want to take advanced level classes because they are accused by peers of “acting White”. This case study reveals that while rare, it is not impossible. This article uses a Participation Motivation Expectancy‐Value Model (PMEVM) to explain the motivation of Rocky Jones, a gifted Black male, and his choice to participate in his school's gifted program. Findings from interview and archival data are reported that inform Rocky's participation choice, and implications are drawn to enhance teachers’ efforts to increase Black males’ motivation and representation in gifted education.     

Getting from Here to There: The Role of Geography in Community College Students’ Transfer Decisions

Community colleges have received renewed attention from policymakers seeking to increase college attendance and completion rates because they provide open access to postsecondary education for historically marginalized students. Yet, transfer rates from community colleges to 4-year institutions are low. Inequities in opportunity that are shaped by geography and compounded throughout childhood may restrict higher education opportunities for low-income, first-generation college students. Most studies examining how geography constrains college choice focus on high school students’ initial decisions about higher education, not community college students. We analyze the spatial distribution of community college students’ “choice sets,” the 4-year institutions that they are considering transferring to. Using qualitative interviews and geospatial analysis, we examine how these spatial patterns compare between two community-college systems in Central Texas. We find that students’ choice sets are geographically constrained, but that for many students, these zones are geographically large, suggesting that interventions and targeted outreach from universities could help students identify and select from greater range of options. Our findings have important implications for college access and completion among first-generation college students, and for policies that seek to interrupt patterns of inequity tied to location.     

“NAEYC’s Key Attributes of Quality Preschool Programs” Applied to the Jordanian Kindergarten Context

Jordan’s education system is currently undergoing rigorous and comprehensive reform processes that focus on improving the status of educational policies and experiences for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Kindergarten education in Jordan has been dominated until recently, by the private-sector. For the past decade, the Ministry of Education has taken initiative to provide government-funded kindergarten programs. The main objective of this research was to evaluate program practices implemented by private and public-sector programs and examine their alignment with Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Using NAEYC’s “Top 10 Signs of a Good Kindergarten Classroom” as evaluative guidelines, observational data was collected from 118 classrooms (50-private, 68-public). Demographic data were also obtained from classroom teachers; level of education, specialty, and years of experience. The results of the analysis revealed significant differences in application of the 10 NAEYC guidelines between public and private-sector programs. Ministry of Education kindergarten classroom practices were found to be closely aligned to best practices compared to private-sector programs. Also, teachers with bachelor’s degrees and those with early childhood education backgrounds outperformed their counterparts in the application of Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Years of experience yielded no significant results for this sample of teachers. Reflecting on the results of this study, several recommendations were posed.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING HISPANIC STUDENT RETENTION WITHIN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This study is a correlative predictive study focusing on the identification of factors impacting on the ability of Hispanic students to achieve their educational objectives within the community college environment. The study sample of 698 students was selected from a community college in Southwest Texas with a student enrollment that was 61% Hispanic. Through regression analysis, factors that were significantly related to the completion of the students’ educational objectives were identified. These relationships were identified for the total sample and for each of four subgroups, Hispanics, white nonHispanics, males, and females. The results indicated that positive or negative reasons for withdrawal and the students’ positive perceptions of their educational experiences were significantly related to the ability of all students to complete their objectives. However, there were sufficient differences between the groupings of factors retained for the total sample and the four subgroups to warrant the conclusion that the community college needs to consider each subgroup as a unique population and to develop policies and programs specifically oriented to each subgroup's needs. This specificity of approach was seen as being particularly important for the improved retention of high‐risk subgroups, such as the Hispanic students.     

Do bans on affirmative action hurt minority students? Evidence from the Texas Top 10% Plan

In light of the recent bans on affirmative action in higher education, this paper provides new evidence on the effects of alternative admissions policies on the persistence and college completion of minority students. I find that the change from affirmative action to the Top 10% Plan in Texas decreased both retention and graduation rates of lower-ranked minority students. Results show that both fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation of second-decile minority students decreased, respectively, by 2.4 and 3.3 percentage points. The effect of the change in admissions policy was slightly larger for minority students in the third and lower deciles: fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation decreased, respectively, by 4.9 and 4.2 percentage points. Moreover, I find no evidence in support of the minority “mismatch” hypothesis. These results suggest that most of the increase in the graduation gap between minorities and non-minorities in Texas, a staggering 90%, was driven by the elimination of affirmative action in the 1990s.     

Exploring Top Hat’s Impact on Undergraduate Students’ Belongingness,Engagement, and Self-Confidence: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Evidence suggests that the use of educational technologies may promote positive learning environments and contribute to students’ success. The following mixed methods study examined the impact of Top Hat in a blended learning environment on undergraduate students’ sense of belongingness, engagement, and self-confidence in a Canadian post-secondary institution. A survey study measured students’ sense of belongingness, engagement, and self-confidence before and after the course, which used Top Hat. The results show a significant increase in belongingness and self-confidence, but a decrease in engagement. Contrarily, focus groups revealed that using Top Hat may improve the overall learning experience. Limitations and future recommendations are discussed.