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As open enrollment public charter school districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to question how these public charter school districts spend public taxpayer dollars. Although extensive research has addressed how public charter school districts spend money to recruit teachers, complete capital projects, and hire school leaders, no studies have examined how public charter school districts compete with traditional public school districts online to drive traffic and interest in their schools. Using Texas Education Agency and SEMrush data (web metrics, such as organic keywords, organic traffic, and traffic cost) from the 2018-2019 school year, this study compares public charter school district and traditional public school district web metrics to learn more about how charter school districts continue to open and drive enrollment. Results suggest that, when compared to traditional public school districts in Texas, public charter school districts in Texas are less web popular by keyword search (p < 0.00) and traffic (p < 0.00), yet these districts spend more on driving Internet traffic to their websites (p < .00) than traditional public school districts. Implications for research, policy, and competition between open enrollment public charter school districts and traditional public school districts are addressed.

Student fees remain an under-researched aspect of postsecondary education and finance (Kelchen, 2016). This study examines the mandatory and additional fees charged to full-time, in-state undergraduate students by public and private not-for-profit four-year institutions in Texas (n=96). Findings demonstrate the average four-year institution in Texas charges over $1,500 per academic year in mandatory fees, $500 higher than the national average. Moreover, private institutions charge an average of $1,100 less than publics, while fees comprise 6.8% of the total cost of attendance at private and 29.1% at publics. Institutions of higher education compose fee explanations above the 12th -grade reading level and only 5.2% of the sample provided fee explanations in a language other than English, thus further marginalizing non-English speaking language populations in Texas. Implications for policy makers, practitioners, and future research are addressed.

Objective: The objective of this study was to articulate community college student preferences for receiving a text message from their institution. Method: Using a random sampling technique, the researchers identified a group of 13 community college students (6 females, 7 males; 12 students of color) and performed in-depth interviews with these students to learn of their preferences when receiving an informative text message from their institution, such as the time of day, day of the week, and frequency of the text messaging service. Researchers also explored student preferences related to specific syntactic, semantic, and technologic elements of the text message itself. These elements include subject positionality, embedding of hyperlinks, and usage of emojis and slang. Results: From these in-depth interviews, researchers identified a set of themes regarding community college students preferences for institutional text messages: (a) students should be primed to learn what to expect from the text messaging service before it begins, (b) the first text message is critical for student engagement, (c) students want information specific to their needs, (d) the timing and frequency of the text message matters, and (e) students prefer specific syntactic, semantic, and technological elements of a text message. Contributions: This study provides insight for community college practitioners when planning and implementing text message campaigns, as well as grammatical and technological guidance when composing text messages for student audiences.

Although researchers support the notion that college- and university-sponsored mentoring programs effectively academically transition and retain postsecondary students from a variety of sociocultural backgrounds, researchers have not examined how mentoring programs address the 'mentorability' or the 'ability to be mentored' of their mentees. Employing a quantitative content analysis, we examined postsecondary mentoring program websites (n= 187) at public, four-year institutions in Texas (n = 44). Findings suggest only 19% of all mentoring programs address 'mentorability' by defining mentee characteristics and expectations, compared to 37% of all mentoring programs which define mentor characteristics and expectations. Furthermore, only 4% of mentoring program websites included mentee applications, and mentoring programs were four times more likely to address their mentors (1,023 occurrences) than 'mentees/protégés' (237 occurrences), speaking to the lack of focus on mentee 'mentorability.' Implications for practitioners and future research is addressed.

The article presents the discussion on sense of security and activism on college campuses regarding sexual harassment and sexual violence. Topics include educational researchers and practitioners working on college campuses with marginalized being at risk student populations; and providing equal access to opportunities enriching students' educational experiences and their futures.

Hispanic populations have low HPV vaccination rates, although the vaccine is safe and efficacious. We surveyed a low-income Hispanic population to characterize knowledge gaps about the HPV vaccine and understand factors associated with the decision to vaccinate a child to determine how physicians can enhance vaccination rates. Surveys in English and Spanish were distributed to parents of children under age 18. Statistical analysis included logistic regression. Knowledge that the vaccine can prevent invasive cervical cancer most impacted intent to vaccinate. Physician recommendation to vaccinate was far more influential in a parent's decision compared to TV and other sources. Girls are more likely to receive the HPV vaccine over boys. While physician recommendation is critical, they have minimal time for education. Our results suggest that physicians should focus on the vaccine's link to cancer prevention, leaving other knowledge areas for the interdisciplinary care team.