Undergraduate grade point average (GPA) is a commonly employed measure in educational research, serving as a criterion or as a predictor depending on the research question. Over the decades, researchers have used a variety of reliability coefficients to estimate the reliability of undergraduate GPA, which suggests that there has been no consensus…

Tutoring centres are common in universities in the United States, but there are few published studies that statistically examine the effects of tutoring on student success. This study utilizes multiple regression analysis to model the effect of tutoring attendance on final course grades in Calculus I. Our model predicted that every three visits to…

Concerning the underrepresentation of female students in computer science (CS) classes at the K-12 level and math-intensive STEM fields, this study investigated the relationship between female students earning less credits in CS courses during high school and their STEM major choices. Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of U.S.…

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) curriculum emphasizes writing, collaboration, organization, and reading to strengthen academic skills. High school students enrolled in AVID elective classes receive daily academic support, while enrolled in challenging classes such as Advanced Placement (AP). The purpose of this study was to…

In preparation for online administration of the ACT® test, ACT conducted studies to examine the comparability of scores between online and paper administrations, including a timing study in fall 2013, a mode comparability study in spring 2014, and a second mode comparability study in spring 2015. This report presents major findings from these…

During high school, developing competence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is critically important as preparation to pursue STEM careers, yet students in the United States lag behind other countries, ranking 35th in mathematics and 27th in science achievement internationally. Given the importance of STEM careers as…

We examine whether dual enrolled students display greater levels of college readiness than nonparticipants. Advocates assert that dual enrollment improves students' college readiness, but despite these assertions, few researchers have evaluated this relationship. Moreover, researchers that do consider whether dual enrollment improves college…

This study investigated the relationship among lack of self-control, academic ability, and academic performance for a cohort of freshman engineering students who were, with a few exceptions, extremely high achievers in high school. Structural equation modeling analysis led to the conclusion that lack of self-control in high school, as measured by…

Critical to many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career paths is mathematical modeling--specifically, the creation and adaptation of mathematical models to solve problems in complex settings. Conventional standardized measures of mathematics achievement are not structured to directly assess this type of mathematical…

Achievement in science is a national concern, and graduating students who are college and career ready is a national imperative. In this study, we examine student achievement on the ACT science test as a high school transitioned from teaching biology, chemistry and physics with a teacher-centric pedagogy (the traditional instructional context) to…

This study tests a process model of learning in which trainer and trainee traits are simultaneously considered as endogenous variables of learning outcomes. The article builds on a social view of training and similarity-attraction paradigms. In this context, the authors hypothesize that trainer-trainee similarity in personality (agreeableness)…

In this paper, we assess students' performance in Elements of Statistics, one of the popular courses in general education, using data from UWF (University of West Florida) for fall 2008, fall 2009, and fall 2010 semesters. We analyze associations between students' performance in the course and several performance related factors including: college…

Enrollment practitioners commonly discuss the effect of geographic factors on retention at rural or small-city institutions. This study examined the correlations between geographic characteristics of first-year college students' home location and their retention to the second year at a university located in a small city. The dimension of…

This study explores the relationship between specific advanced mathematics courses and college readiness (as determined by ACT score). The ACT organization has found a consistent relationship between taking a minimum core number of mathematics courses and higher ACT scores (mathematics and composite) (ACT, Inc., 2012c). However, the extent to…

A review of 13 years of research into antecedents of university students' grade point average (GPA) scores generated the following: a comprehensive, conceptual map of known correlates of tertiary GPA; assessment of the magnitude of average, weighted correlations with GPA; and tests of multivariate models of GPA correlates within and across…