As increasing emphasis is being placed on student college and career readiness, instructional approaches seek to develop content and skill proficiency. I gathered student perspectives on teacher expectations and instructional opportunities in core content classes in order to determine if expectation bias influences college readiness preparation in the classroom. Student academic self-concept and college readiness were examined alongside beliefs about teacher expectations and instructional opportunities in a conceptual framework for student perceptions. In this qualitative study, I utilized four focus groups of high school students from two cohorts to analyze perceptions across students from mostly on-level core classes and those from mostly advanced core classes. Findings showed students held high expectations of their own current and future performance, as well as perceived teachers generally hold high expectations, though this was shown through the development of relational capacity rather than instructional opportunities to develop college readiness skills or connect to students' future ambitions. The results of the study provide insight to educators seeking to create stronger connections for students between current educational experiences and future postsecondary opportunities.

This dissertation includes three essays that examine the potential of policies, interventions, and curricula in improving transitions to four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. The first essay provides a novel investigation of New York City’s adoption of SAT School Day (SSD), which provides universal access to college entrance exams for high school juniors. I examine the causal impact of the policy on SAT taking and four-year college enrollment patterns for the first three post-policy cohorts. Using a two-way fixed effects differences-in-differences (DID) model, I find that the SSD policy increases SAT-taking rates by 20% but has little impact on four-year enrollment. These findings suggest that increased college entrance test participation alone is not sufficient to increase enrollment to four-year colleges. The second essay provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies on the causal impact of late pre-college advising interventions, which I refer to as LPCAIs. LPCAIs aim to connect juniors and seniors with pre-college advisors to guide them through the complex college application process. The studies use experimental and quasi-experimental designs to identify the causal effect of LPCAIs on postsecondary enrollment outcomes for historically underrepresented students. I find that the offer of an LPCAI, on average, increases postsecondary enrollment and improves institutional choices. However, the in-person advising format accounts for nearly all of the positive impact derived from LPCAIs. Several implications of these findings are discussed, particularly in the context of COVID-19. The third chapter presents a correlational study that uses transcript data from a statewide community college system to estimate how well GPA, credit accumulation, and course taking at community college predict upward transfer and baccalaureate completion. While GPAs and credit accumulation rates in all academic branches are strong, positive predictors of transfer, GPAs in humanities are significantly more predictive of transfer compared to GPAs in non-humanities branches. GPAs and successful credit accumulation rates in humanities courses are also associated with greater likelihoods of baccalaureate completion, conditional on transfer. However, humanities courses are equally valid predictors of baccalaureate completion as courses in other academic branches. In contrast to strong academic performance, taking more courses in humanities, although associated with greater likelihoods of vertical transfer, is associated with lower likelihoods of baccalaureate completion. Taken together, these essays contribute to our understanding of approaches to improve transitions to four-year colleges and universities. They also highlight the importance of academic preparation and advising within transitional pathways.

The purpose of this study was to analyze factors AVID students perceive as important in making financial decisions about paying for college. This study analyzed the factors college-bound students perceive as important in making decisions about paying for college. Trends in higher education include the rising cost of attendance, longer degree completion time, and the lagging purchasing power of federal grant funding. Existing data has delivered student perceptions regarding college access, affordability, and retention. The researcher framed the study using the human investment capital model. This model is grounded in the basic theory that education is an investment that will provide greater social and financial mobility in the future. The human capital theory coupled with benefits of a college education help guide the research and collects data that capture factors students perceive as important about making financial decisions regarding paying for college. From the data, it was evident that AVID students were seeking to maximize their higher education opportunities. Many students applied to as many as seven colleges while examining tradeoffs of college costs, the impact of financial aid offers, and ways to reduce the total costs. The factors students perceived as important in making financial decisions about paying for college could be put into three categories; tradeoffs, offered financial aid, and reducing the total cost. Students reported that the total cost of education was more important than peer and family approval of their school, academic reputation, and time to degree. However, the location of the school and the social and networking opportunities were more important than the total costs of the school. Conclusions from the study are students would rather attend a school that has less prestige and take longer to earn their degree if the total cost was aligned accordingly. Yet, the location and the networking and social experiences were not worth sacrificing for the students. Students were not willing to attend an institution with a less desirable location or fewer social opportunities even if the costs were minimal. The data say that an important factor for AVID students is the amount of financial aid they will receive.

The current neoliberal education system often positions bilingual youth as deficient or lacking in skills. The discourse from some academic research paradigms tends to also take up this deficit orientation, focusing on the issues and needs of Latinx bilingual students, or the pedagogical strategies to “close achievement gaps.” The NYC Department of Education has attempted to address gaps in achievement by offering increased access to college and career readiness programs, positioning access as synonymous to equity. However, access alone does not lead to equity when the systems and norms that prioritize assimilation to the dominant white culture are not being challenged; moreover, increased access will not lead to equity if the voices and experiences of marginalized youth experiencing the transition to college are not amplified. This project will add to the growing body of scholarly work that aims to subvert deficit discourse around bilingual students by inviting them to author their own stories about their experiences in the transition to college. These narratives bring up various aspects of the transition to college: how first-generation Latinx bilingual youth navigate cultural and linguistic expectations in college, how they navigate the white, western, and patriarchal institutional norms of the college going process, sources of support in their educational journeys, what factors influenced their college choices, and how they have experienced college in the context of a global pandemic. This research recognizes bilingual students’ experiences and knowledges as truths, positioning them as knowledge creators. The purpose of this study is to document and explore how first-generation Latinx/ bilingual students experience the transition from high school to college, and how they navigate and question spaces in high school and college fraught with linguistic and cultural erasure. Employing Chicana Feminist epistemologies and post-positive realist perspectives of identity, this study will use pláticas to better understand the experiences of Latinx students as they transition to college, what educators can do to support their transition, and to think about how educators can work alongside Latinx students to fight erasure.

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Community colleges are an increasingly important component of the higher education systems in the United States. Community college as a pathway toward a better educated workforce has been emphasized at a national and state level. Virginia’s policy makers set a goal of producing 100,000 new baccalaureate degrees in the Commonwealth by 2025. Critical to meeting this goal is Virginia’s Community College System. In 2005, Virginia passed the Higher Education Restructuring Act which granted students graduating from Virginia’s community colleges with an associate’s guaranteed admission into any state-funded, four-year institution. Building on this earlier policy, Virginia passed The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011. This act expanded the role of the community college and placed a greater emphasis on articulation policies and baccalaureate attainment. The effectiveness of articulation policies on community college transfer and baccalaureate attainment has been debated in the academic literature. Some have suggested to measure policy effectiveness, academic outcomes and not transfer rates, must be compared before and after policy implementation. To gauge the effectiveness of Virginia’s guaranteed admission policy, this study examined archival student data for native and transfer students who achieved a junior standing at a single four-year state-funded institution. Furthermore, transfer student baccalaureate attainment rates and time to degree baccalaureate completion were compared before and after policy implementation. The study results showed native students graduated in greater percentages and have lower mean time to baccalaureate completion than transfer students; high school and college GPA are predictors of baccalaureate attainment for transfer and native students; transfer student baccalaureate attainment rates and mean time to baccalaureate completions were lower following policy implementation, or simply, fewer bachelor’s degrees were awarded but those completing a baccalaureate did so in less time after policy implementation. The findings of this study suggest transfer students with baccalaureate aspiration are negatively impacted for attending community college prior to transfer and Virginia’s articulation policy at the study institution had little impact on academic outcomes for transfer students following policy implementation. These single institutional results may suggest modification to Virginia’s articulation policy is necessary to improve academic outcomes for community college transfer students.

Recent research suggests that the college-going trajectories of English language learners (ELLs) may be improved by focusing on their academic abilities rather than their English limitations; that ELLs are capable of high-track, college preparatory coursework. Most research draws on feedback or observations of current high school students. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to elicit retrospective perspectives of three Latina college students placed in English as a second language (ESL) during high school. These three former ELLs were able to navigate from ESL courses to higher-track, advanced placement (AP) courses, which prepared them for college. Results suggest that relatively short times spent in ESL may positively influence ELLs’ access to college preparatory coursework and integration with native English speaking (NES) peers who possess college-going social capital. Results also suggest that ELLs’ perceptions of teachers’ high expectations and college-going assistance may provide important social capital facilitating ELLs’ access to higher-tracks and college. / text

Poor post-school outcomes for young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have underscored the need to gain insight into the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in the planning and implementation of transition services. EBPs for effective transition planning and implementation have been documented in the literature but do not appear to be fully utilized in practice to achieve desired student outcomes, reflecting a research-to-practice gap. EBPs have the potential to produce positive outcomes at the high school level, if implemented with fidelity. Special education personnel, especially administrators, play a vital and unique role in transition planning. They can either facilitate or hinder the process. This phenomenological study investigated the perceptions of public school administrators regarding the extent of their awareness of EBPs to ensure the successful transition of students with ASD and associated barriers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 secondary-level public school administrators. Major themes identified through analyzing the qualitative data included (a) a positive vision for students with ASD, (b) characteristics of a good transition program, (c) administrators' roles in the transition process, (d) barriers to EBP implementation, (e) strategies to reduce barriers, and (f) ownership of what administrators can do to remedy the problem. Lastly, the study generated recommendations to assist school districts with improving transition services for students with ASD.

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