Each year, roughly 30% of first-year students at US baccalaureate institutions do not return for their second year and billions of dollars are spent educating these students. Yet, little quantitative research has analyzed the causes and possible remedies for student attrition. What's more, most of the previous attempts to model attrition at…

The current study explored relations between non-cognitive traits (Grit, Learning Orientation, Performance Orientation), reading skill, and performance across three experiments conducted in the context of two intelligent tutoring systems, iSTART and Writing Pal. Results showed that learning outcomes (comprehension score, holistic essay score) were…

Student persistence in online learning environments has typically been studied at the macro-level (e.g., completion of an online course, number of academic terms completed, etc.). The current examines student persistence in an adaptive learning environment, ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces). Specifically, the study explores the…

Validity evidence to support the use of exam scores for admission to postsecondary institutions is generally provided in the form of correlation coefficients. The measures used to establish the correlations are scores on a particular entrance exam and most typically a student's first-year college grade point average (FYGPA). Correlations…

Student login data is a key resource for gaining insight into their learning experience. However, the scale and the complexity of this data necessitate a thorough exploration to identify potential actionable insights, thus rendering it less valuable compared to student achievement data. To compensate for the underestimation of login data…

No significant body of research examines writing achievement and the specific skills and knowledge in the writing domain for postsecondary (college) students in the U.S., even though many at-risk students lack the prerequisite writing skills required to persist in their education. This paper addresses this gap through a novel…

This study considers the issue of weak literacy development and early school leaving in Malta. In spite of a lack of a direct or indirect causal link between the two, in the case of Malta these issues seem to be almost exclusively specific to children attending the State school. Children from the Church and the Independent sectors are minimally…

The detrimental consequences of mathematics anxiety have repeatedly been evidenced empirically, yet little is known of its influence on secondary school students in Asia. This study thus examined its origins and impact on 294 secondary students in Singapore through interviews and surveys. Results revealed an average anxiety level of 44% and a…

The purpose of this study is to illustrate techniques for correcting a correlation between a predictor of success in college (admission test score or indicator of high school performance) with a measure of success in college (one-year retention or first-year GPA) given the restricted variances in the population used to calculate the correlations.…

Using multi-spell discrete time binary logistic regression, this study examined sequential occurrences of students' departures and returns over the period of six years. The model included time-invariant (gender, ethnicity, parents' educational attainment, family income, timing of matriculation, high school performance, and geographic origin) and…

The effects of various college preparation programs, aptitude scores, and student background characteristics on college retention were studied. The data were obtained from the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988-2000 and NELS:88/2000 Postsecondary Education Transcript Study. The effective sample contained 4,445 first-time freshmen students…

This paper describes the preliminary results from a longitudinal study of student teacher attrition and retention. The sample consisted of 316 students in an initial course in teacher education. Data collection included the following: high school grade point ratio (GPR); SAT scores; other demographic information, such as education of father and…

This study examined the relationship of first-time-in-college (FTIC) freshmen with race, high school grade point average (GPA), and Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and ACT Assessment scores. Data were obtained for 5 years of fall semester FTIC cohorts (n=8,573). The results show: (1) SAT and ACT scores were unrelated to re-enrollment/graduation…

This study examined what combination of students' adjustment, institutional attachment, Scholastic Assessment Test scores, high school class rank, college grade point average (GPA), adaptive style, self-efficacy, and help-seeking would discriminate persisters from nonpersisters after 1 year of college. Researchers investigated the degree of…

An ongoing study was initiated to provide a reliable means of defining and measuring factors affecting students' performance as they move from high school to college, including the reasons why some are more able than others to excel and/or persist. The study provides public high schools, colleges, universities and the Missouri Coordinating Board…