How can youth in different cultural communities forge identities and college pathways without losing ties to their communities? New evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, about how youth navigate across the cultural worlds of their families, schools, peers, and community programs, is advancing research, practice, and policies to open academic pipelines. This book examines the academic pipeline problem, as students, especially ethnic minority, immigrant, and low—income youth, leave school too early. It considers research, practice, and policies relating to opening both pathways and pipeli ... More

How can youth in different cultural communities forge identities and college pathways without losing ties to their communities? New evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, about how youth navigate across the cultural worlds of their families, schools, peers, and community programs, is advancing research, practice, and policies to open academic pipelines. This book examines the academic pipeline problem, as students, especially ethnic minority, immigrant, and low—income youth, leave school too early. It considers research, practice, and policies relating to opening both pathways and pipelines and bridges across the social sciences—developmental and social psychology, sociology, anthropology, and education—by integrating findings on five issues core to this problem. It aligns related models and evidence about how youth develop their identities as they navigate pathways from childhood through school to careers, with a new multi—level theory that addresses these issues. Evidence is drawn from an innovative blend of quantitative and qualitative methods, offering a diversity of cultural examples and breadth of references. Presenting tools to help build a common language among researchers, educators, and policymakers, this book speaks to the rising global awareness for opening higher education to immigrant, ethnic minority, and low—income youth.