In the United States high school students may take college level courses that count for credit in both high school and college, often called dual enrollment. Students may take courses at their high school from certified instructors or at a local college. We investigate possible differences between these two groups of students using student level…

Many countries keep official records of parliamentary debates. In the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Singapore, these transcriptions are referred to as Hansard, providing a rich resource for researchers exploring the historical and contextual background of governmental policy and legislation. This case study draws on the original…

This project explored the everyday use of the social network site Facebook by first-year undergraduate students in their transition to university. I did this by using a longitudinal study over one academic year. A connective ethnographic approach was used, which involved being with and observing the student participants on Facebook and…

This study is designed to give new researchers an understanding of the methodological principles and practices of living educational theory research as a tool for improving professional practice. It draws on Jack Whitehead and Jean McNiff's (2006) approach to living theory methodology to improve educational practice. The study was guided by the…

First-generation college students are viewed as a group of at-risk individuals simply because their parents did not attend college. As a result, these students are at a higher risk of dropping out than other college students if their needs are not met. A number of researchers have conducted studies of first-generation college students in order to…

This study presents a case for applying a transformation (Box and Cox, 1964) of the criterion used in predictive validity studies. The goals of the transformation were to better meet the assumptions of the linear regression model and to reduce the residual variance of fitted (i.e., predicted) values. Using data for the 2008 cohort of first-time,…

There is substantial variability in the degree to which the SAT and high school grade point average (HSGPA) predict first-year college performance at different institutions. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of multilevel modeling as a tool to uncover institutional characteristics that are associated with this variability. In a model that…

Presented at the 23rd Annual Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Conference in Atlanta, GA, in September 2011. Admitted Class Evaluation Service (ACES) is the College Board's free online service that predicts how admitted students will perform at a college or university generally, and how successful students will be in specific…

The current study will explore the validity and potential of using the SAT, in conjunction with HSGPA, to arrive at a predicted FYGPA to improve student retention at four-year postsecondary institutions. Specifically, this study examined whether college students who did not perform as expected (observed FYGPA minus predicted FYGPA) were more…

There is much debate on the merits and pitfalls of standardized tests for college admission, with questions regarding the format (multiple-choice versus constructed response), cognitive complexity, and content of these assessments (achievement versus aptitude) at the forefront of the discussion. This study addressed these questions by…

Presented at the national conference for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2010. This presentation describes an alternative way of presenting the unique information provided by the SAT over HSGPA, namely examining students with discrepant SAT-HSGPA performance.

Presented at the national conference for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2010. This presentation examines the relationship between academic self-beliefs and outcomes.

Presented at the national conference for AERA (American Educational Research Association) . This study examined whether there are distinct differences in the demographic characteristics, HSGPA, first-year college performance, and second-year college retention rates among students who have discrepant CR-W performance.

This "toolkit" provides a process by which institutions can identify and use information resources to enhance the experiences and outcomes of first-year students. The toolkit contains a "Technical Manual" designed for use by the technical personnel who will be conducting the data audit and associated analyses. Administrators who want more…

The use of computer graphic techniques with basic student enrollment statistics is examined to promote understanding of changes in student flow as a function of spatial distribution. Basic initial student enrollment data that serve as input into predictive flow models were modeled at Eastern Kentucky University. The following commercially…