The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between students who entered a Tennessee university for the first time in the fall of 2014 who had earned either Advanced Placement (AP) or dual enrollment credit regarding their college readiness and 1-year college retention. College readiness was defined by students’ American College Testing (ACT) sub scores in English, reading, and mathematics. The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) regulates the minimum sub score for each sub section that a student must obtain to be deemed college ready. College retention was defined by students who enrolled at the university in the fall of 2014 and reenrolled in the fall of 2015 at the same university. The independent variables for this study were AP credits received in AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and dual enrollment credit received in any course. The dependent variables for this study were college readiness as defined by TBR and fall-to-fall retention. A series of chi-square tests of independence were performed to examine the differences in college readiness and fall-to-fall retention between students who had earned AP or dual enrollment credit and those students who had not. The quantitative findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between students who enroll in their first college year with AP English or math credit or dual enrollment credit and first year retention rates when compared to students who do not reenroll with AP English or math credit or dual enrollment credit. There was found to be no difference in students who enrolled with AP English or math credit and students who enrolled with dual enrollment credit regarding their fall-to-fall retention rates. It was also found that AP English credit increased the likelihood that a student would be deemed college ready in both English and reading based on TBR determinations of college readiness. Credit in an AP mathematics course also increased the likelihood that a student would be deemed college ready in math based on TBR determinations of college readiness.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and determine the predictive power of individual and a combination of different indicators that are used to determine college readiness. For this study a logistic regression analysis was conducted due to the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable. The dependent variable for the study was the earning of a post-secondary credential. The independent variables included high school diploma type, Advanced Placement course taken, Advanced Placement test performance, SAT performance, ACT performance, a multidimensional index made up of all the variables, and high school GPA. The study found that high school GPA had the strongest odds ratio, Exp(B), for the participants earning a post-secondary credential (Exp(B) = 6.597), followed by diploma type (Exp(B) = 6.316), taking an Advanced Placement course (Exp(B) = 4.368), earning at least one qualifying Advanced Placement test score (Exp(B) = 3.846), a multidimensional index (Exp(B) = 2.318), ACT score (Exp(B) = 1.161) and SAT score (Exp(B) = 1.003). Future analysis is needed by using live data of student's college performance, stratifying the data to account for differences in post-secondary performance by different racial and socio-economic groups, and studying the effects of the State of Texas' chosen college readiness variables.

While much of the literature regarding college readiness focuses on student-specific factors, such as the individual's academic achievement; scores on college readiness assessments; and high school GPA, more research is needed to understand which school-level factors have the most influence on the percentage of college-ready graduates. The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of various school-level factors (i.e., student demographics, college entrance exam facts, course offerings, and school characteristics) on the percentage of college ready graduates from Texas public high schools serving Grades 9-12 over a 3-year period. A multiple regression analysis conducted for each year's data resulted in three regression models, which identified various predictors (e.g. per-pupil instructional expenditures, teacher years of experience, taking advanced and/or dual credit coursework) of the percentage of college-ready graduates for schools accounting for 91.7%, 79.5%, and 65.6% of the explained variance in 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. Findings from this study provide educational leaders with data that could help them to make better-informed decisions regarding potential college readiness initiatives that, ultimately, could improve student performance.