Background: Louisiana State University's (LSU) STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) was established to increase students' persistence in first-year, declared engineering majors (a project priority), in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors (an NSF goal), and in all majors at LSU (an institutional goal). Over 8 years, 3,097 (27%)…

This dissertation investigates several topics in state merit-based financial aid research. The main research content includes three separate studies, primarily using the administrative datasets from the Missouri Department of Higher Education. The first study is an empirical paper that examines the effects of the Missouri Bright Flight Scholarship…

This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation…

Historically, women have been underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields both as college majors and in the professional community. This disturbing trend, observed in many countries, is more serious and evident in American universities and is reflected in the U.S. workforce statistics. In this article, we…

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) measuring the 5-factor personality model was given to 440 science and engineering students in introductory physics classes at a large US university. Science and engineering students showed similar personality characteristics as would be expected from measurements of the general population, with women scoring…

This study examined the role of academic performance factors, and personality traits as measured by the "Hogan Personality Inventory" (Hogan & Hogan, 2007), in the academic success and retention of undergraduate engineering majors. With regard to academic performance, the academic measures of ACT score and high school GPA were…

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends for years. Each August, they release "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" (www.act.org/ newsroom/data/2013), their annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, 54.3% of the 2013 graduating…

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends since 1959. Each August, ACT releases The Condition of College & Career Readiness (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2015), an annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, a record 59% of the 2015 graduating class took…

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends since 1959. Each August, they release "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2014), their annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, 57% of the 2014 graduating class…

"The Condition of Education 2017" is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This year's report includes 50 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary…