Background: To meet the growing demand for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce and remain competitive in the fields of science and technology over the next decade, the United States is expected to need more than 1 million additional STEM professionals. This would require an annual increase of 34% in undergraduate…

Prior research on the relationship between International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) scores and the university entrance exam scores is limited and varied to a great extent due to the conflicting results in the literature. This study investigates whether there is any relationship between the students' achievement performance in IBDP and…

According to the National Academy of Sciences (2007a), "Without the participation of individuals of all racial/ethnic backgrounds and genders, the increasing demand for workers in STEM fields will not be met, potentially compromising the position of the United States as a global leader" (p. 1). Increasing the participation and…

Rural Mississippi schools often face challenges in providing equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses, particularly in STEM fields. This lack of access limits opportunities for high-achieving students to pursue rigorous STEM coursework and related careers. The AP STEM program aims to improve access to AP STEM courses for high-achieving…

Research on the Advanced Placement (AP) program generally shows that students scoring 4s and 5s on AP exams outperform their non-AP peers in subsequent college courses. However, faculty and academic advisors often suggest that students with AP credit should repeat prerequisite courses in college before attempting advanced coursework. We compared…

This study aims to explain the relationship between student performance in the International General Certificate Secondary Education (IGCSE) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) as well as explore the predictors of the IBDP scores in languages, sciences, and mathematics. A purposive sample of 338 high school students was…

The purpose of this study was to analyze and determine the predictive power of individual and a combination of different indicators that are used to determine college readiness. For this study a logistic regression analysis was conducted due to the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable. The dependent variable for the study was the earning…

This study explores the extent to which student, family, peer, and school factors predict (a) whether students take "Advanced Placement®" ("AP®") courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, and dual enrollment courses and (b) in models limited to course takers, how many courses they completed. Our findings, based on a…

We examined how ACT® Aspire® (from grades 8 to 10), PreACT® (from grade 10), and ACT® test scores (from grades 10 and 11) relate to students' chances of scoring a 3 or higher as well as 4 or higher on selected Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Data for the study was available for 49,220 students from 318 high schools who had taken at least one AP…

High school students' academic preparation (e.g. high school GPA, ACT composite score, AP credits earned) predicts and helps explain their academic performance at college. However, the effects of noncognitive factors on college success is less clear. This study examined the effects of adding high school students' (N = 2279) self-efficacy,…

Research has shown that engaging students in peer feedback can help students revise documents and improve their writing skills. But the mechanistic pathways by which skills develop have remained untested: Does receiving and providing feedback lead to learning because it produces more extensive revision behavior or is such immediate implementation…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how high school academic and non-academic factors are related to college readiness and performance in freshman-level mathematics and science courses and retention in STEM fields. High school academic indicators for college readiness will include performance in high school science and mathematics courses,…

This study explored how adaptive help seeking was related to academic self-efficacy, perfectionism (maladaptive and adaptive), attitudes toward help seeking (perceived benefits and perceived threats), and teacher emotional support among 311 grade 9 students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. Significant bivariate links…

Background/Context: Each year, large shares of students who could do well in Advanced Placement courses and exams--known as AP potential students-- do not participate, particularly students of color and low-income students. There are a number of prevailing reasons, both structural (schools do not offer the courses or teachers do no accurately…

In 2018, in response to the proposed elimination of physics at a predominately Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED) high school, the Northern California/Nevada chapter of the AAPT investigated school demographics and their effect on physics offerings in public high schools in our region. As access was a key issue, the focus was on…