A key issue in fostering transition to postsecondary education for students with disabilities is documentation verifying the nature of the disability and supporting the need for services and reasonable accommodations. Documentation guidelines assist postsecondary disability service providers in making decisions about eligibility and reasonable…

Testing aids, including student-prepared testing aids (a.k.a., cheat sheets or crib notes) and open-textbook exams, are common practice in post-secondary assessment. There is a considerable amount of published research that discusses and investigates the impact of these testing aids. However, the findings of this research are contradictory and…

In this study the authors explored factors that influence the degree to which students' campus friends are of a different race or ethnicity. They focused on relationships that were more sustained and that involved greater trust than routine interactions on campus, but were less intimate than best or closest friends. Recent studies show that high…

Certain scientific conclusions are controversial, in that they are rejected by a substantial proportion of nonscientists despite an overwhelming scientific consensus. Science educators are motivated to help students understand the evidence behind the scientific consensus on these matters and to move students' views into alignment with those held…

This study focused on first-semester college students, investigating (a) indirect effects of aggregate alcohol use on grade point average (GPA) through academic effort (skipping class and time on schoolwork) and (b) daily effects of alcohol use on reduced effort. Eighty students reported daily alcohol use and academic effort (skipping class and…

Background: The importance of increasing the number of US college students completing degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) has prompted calls for research to provide a better understanding of factors related to student participation in these majors, including the impact of a student's high-school mathematics…

This paper examines, using regression modelling, whether a statistically significant relationship exists between the time spent by a student using the course website and the student's assessment performance for a large third year university business forecasting course. We utilise the online tracking system in Blackboard, a web-based software…

We investigate the nature of protests by students (age 18 and older) in Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, and Yemen by using subsamples of students from nationally representative and acclaimed public opinion data (the 2006-07 "Arab Barometer"). We find between 22.1% (Jordan) and 54.7% (Yemen) participated in either the signing of petitions, or…

Half of all college students will enroll in remedial coursework but evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. Using a regression-discontinuity design with data from a large urban community college system, we make three contributions. First, we articulate three alternative hypotheses regarding the potential impacts of remediation. Second, in addition…

The importance of higher education has never been clearer. Educational attainment--the number of years a person spends in school--strongly predicts adult earnings, as well as health and civic engagement. Yet relative to other developed nations, educational attainment in the United States is lagging, with young Americans who heretofore led the…

The purpose of this study was to identify campus environmental predictors of American Indian college student involvement. The American Indian research asterisk, or not including American Indian data, has prevailed over student development research for decades. As a result, student affairs professionals have been limited in their ability to develop…

The current study examined the validity of the selection process used for the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) to identify scholarship winners. Namely, this study examined whether students who advanced to higher NMSP recognition levels (Commended Students, Semifinalists, and various levels of award winners) had higher college performance,…

The challenge of introductory finance courses often surprises junior level university students. This paper describes a strategy that effectively motivates students to prepare solutions to problems for each class and to be prepared to check work presented by classmates. Empirically, the participation grade was found to be positively and…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, this issue of "Data Notes" looks at three-year enrollment and attainment outcomes of students who persist through their first year. Additionally, first-year persisters (FYPs) were grouped based on the interaction of several student characteristics; analysis was conducted to…

Nearly one-quarter of students in community colleges leave school during the first year of enrollment for reasons other than transfer or credential completion. Generally, nontraditional community college students drop out within their first year at higher rates than do traditional students. Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges…