Exploring Ethnic and Gender Equity Enrollment and Achievement Patterns in High School CTE Career Pathways in Mississippi

This study, a post hoc observational one, attempted to understand how to continue promoting equitable opportunities in career and technical education (CTE) for the state of Mississippi. We explored the enrollment patterns of Mississippi secondary CTE students by career cluster and career pathways associated with STEM careers over the last five years. Additionally, the enrollment patterns were compared to statewide enrollment patterns by gender and ethnicity. Also, we examined the proficiency results of students on the statewide CTE assessment by gender and ethnicity. Our secondary CTE student enrollment results are like previous reports of underrepresentation of nontraditional students in STEM-related career fields. Additionally, similar results were found when looking at the statewide CTE assessment data. However, there is an indication that CTE and non-CTE leaders effectively recruit underrepresented populations to STEM-related career pathways in the state of Mississippi, but more work is needed to allow access to all students.

Dreaming of College Versus Going to College: Expectations and Enrollment Among Autistic Students

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study 2 to examine relationships between expectations about college education and enrollment patterns among students on the autism spectrum. Results reveal that although more than half of the students reported that they were likely to attend college, among their individualized education programs, only 44% listed postsecondary education as a primary transition goal, and just a third of parents reported expecting that their children would pursue a college education. Furthermore, parental expectations were predicted by cognitive ability, home language, access to the general education curriculum, psychological services, and occupational therapy, while actual enrollment patterns were predicted by a different set of variables: cognitive ability, self-care skills, household responsibilities, conversational skills, access to the general education curriculum, occupational therapy, assistive technology, parent-teacher meetings for postsecondary goal planning, and proportion of White students in school. The predictive patterns suggest practical implications for college-bound students on the spectrum.

Comparative analysis of schooling situations using longitudinal data: improving enrollment patterns of individual children in Honduras

PurposeThis longitudinal study aims to understand the circumstances of and changes in student enrollment in Honduras by comparing geographically and socioeconomically different areas and students' year of school entrance.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was made up of 4,043 students from seven primary schools in a regional city and the capital city. Students' enrollment patterns, schooling and trajectories from entrance to departure, whether as a result of graduating or dropping out, were examined.FindingsThe number of students who graduated without repetition increased, and most of the students accessed primary education at the official entrance age. However, grade repetitions and dropouts were observed in the regional city in particular, and differences were also found in the school departure age by region. In the regional city, continuation of schooling after a change in residence has become more common in recent years. Adopting an automatic promotion policy could be one strategy for reducing grade repetitions and dropouts; however, further discussion is required to prepare a remedial opportunity for students who might otherwise lack the minimum proficiency level.Originality/valueFew studies have examined changes in school enrollment in Honduras from a micro perspective. This study contributes a practical approach to exploring educational trends in the region by explaining how students reached their final grades by tracking trajectories, which has not been observed so far in terms of the accumulated average.

Quantifying the Impact of Student Enrollment Patterns on Academic Success Using a Hidden Markov Model

Simplified classifications have often led to college students being labeled as full-time or part-time students. However, student enrollment patterns can be much more complicated at many universities, as it is common for students to switch between full-time and part-time enrollment each semester based on finances, scheduling, or family needs. While previous studies have identified part-time enrollment as a risk factor to students’ academic success, limited research has examined the impact of enrollment patterns or strategies on academic performance. Unlike traditional methods that use a single-period model to classify students into full-time and part-time categories, in this study, we apply an advanced multi-period dynamic approach using a Hidden Markov Model to distinguish and cluster students’ enrollment strategies into three categories: full-time, part-time, and mixed. We then investigate and compare the academic performance outcomes of each group based on their enrollment strategies while taking into account student type (i.e., first-time-in-college students and transfer students). Analysis of undergraduate student records data collected at the University of Central Florida from 2008 to 2017 shows that the academic performance of first-time-in-college students who apply a mixed enrollment strategy is closer to that of full-time students, as compared to part-time students. Moreover, during their part-time semesters, mixed-enrollment students significantly outperform part-time students. Similarly, analysis of transfer students shows that a mixed-enrollment strategy is correlated with similar graduation rates as the full-time enrollment strategy and more than double the graduation rate associated with part-time enrollment. This finding suggests that part-time students can achieve better overall outcomes by increased engagement through occasional full-time enrollments.

Predictors of transfer behaviours in adult university students

Adult students are critical to addressing the college completion crisis. Retention and completion for adults lags behind students who enter college directly from high school. However, higher education has largely been built around service to younger high school graduates, and institutions are slow to change. A shift in focus to accommodate the needs and interests of adult learners will require additional research regarding the enrollment patterns and behaviours of adult students. This study uses quantitative methods and the Beginning Postsecondary Students 12/14 dataset to consider the role of transfer in the experience of the adult learner, with specific attention to the characteristics, demographics and experiences of adult transfer students as well as the predictors of reverse and lateral transfer behaviour in adult student populations.

Understanding Postsecondary Education Enrollment of First-Generation Students From a Social Cognitive Perspective

Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 were used to describe and compare postsecondary education enrollment patterns of first- and continuing-generation students. Social cognitive career theory was used to explain the processes of educational and career pursuit and attainment, as well as personal, behavioral, and contextual/environmental factors influencing these processes. Postsecondary educational self-efficacy (i.e., a belief or confidence in future educational success) had a significant positive influence on establishing higher postsecondary educational goals for all adolescents. Postsecondary educational self-efficacy and goals, together, also had a substantial positive influence on postsecondary enrollment patterns of both groups. Self-efficacy exerted a stronger total effect for first-generation students. Contextual supports and barriers directly influenced students’ goals but played different roles depending on generational status.

World War II and the Illusion of Equality

As new president Herman Lee Donovan began at UK in 1941, Dean Sarah Blanding left and Sarah Bennett Holmes became Dean of Women. World War II heavily influenced enrollment patterns on campus, and male students left for war while military units began training and living on campus. Women students and faculty obtained unprecedented status and influence on the campus. The number of women faculty increased, and women students, for the first time, fully participated in a coed student government and university marching band. But many, if not most, of the gains quickly disappeared in the postwar return to “normalcy.” Dean Holmes fought hard to keep women students from being pushed aside by returning veterans and continued to be concerned about employment opportunities for women graduates.

Socially-Structured Mobility Networks and School Segregation Dynamics: The Role of Emergent Consideration Sets

This study proposes and applies a novel method for empirically evaluating the role of social structure in the school sorting process. We use administrative records from Baltimore City and suburban Baltimore County public elementary schools (2011-2015) to generate a network of schools based on student transfers. We then apply repeated calculations of the Louvian method of community detection to estimate emergent sets of schools that are likely to be considered by similar parents – which we term emergent consideration sets – and use gravity models to explore the role of social structure, demographics, and geography in observed enrollment patterns. We find that our network-derived emergent consideration sets are better defined by structural boundaries than student composition or proficiency alone. Within consideration sets, students tend to avoid schools with relatively higher levels of free- and reduced-price meal eligibility and flock towards schools with higher proficiency levels. School racial composition, however, plays a much smaller role in predicting movement between schools, in part because structural constraints generate racially homogeneous consideration sets. Together, these findings highlight how regional social and geographic organization shapes school segregation processes and the policies used to combat them.