Disparities in Mathematics performance have been shown across race and gender for decades, although little research has reported the race by gender nexus in terms of disparity. In turn, research done to ameliorate these disparities have assumed that these differences are primarily among student populations who need remedial learning improvement.…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a parsimonious but rigorous model to assist decision-makers to determine critical factors which can lead to higher graduation rates amongst higher education institution (HEI) participants. It predicts the odds of dropout amongst university students, using HEI data from a developing country. This is used as a…

The present study aims to investigate the relationship between university students' school climate and their motivation levels. In this study, whether the school climate and motivation levels differ according to gender and year of study also been examined. The "School Climate Scale for University Students" and "Adult Motivation…

Curriculum-based measurements (CBM) are used in schools to screen students for academic difficulties. Oral reading fluency curriculum-based measures (CBM-R) are the most popular, yet several studies have identified predictive bias in CBM-Rs in relation to key variables (e.g., race, sex). Despite a massive increase in the use of these measures as…

Objective: Community colleges have considerable potential to grow the number of individuals who complete STEM baccalaureate degrees and to broaden access to educational opportunities in STEM. However, efforts to tap this potential have been hampered by nagging questions about whether community colleges prepare students adequately for advanced STEM…

Undergraduate student participation in out-of-class activities yields a range of documented benefits and represents an area of study that can inform efforts to increase persistence in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) majors, particularly for underrepresented groups. This study was designed to explore the impact of selected…

Scale errors are intriguing phenomena in which a child tries to perform an object-specific action on a tiny object. Several viewpoints explaining the developmental mechanisms underlying scale errors exist; however, there is no unified account of how different factors interact and affect scale errors, and the statistical approaches used in the…

Purpose: This study examined how participation in the Service Platoon program of The Mission Continues (TMC) impacts self-reported purpose in life (PIL), interpersonal support (IS), and civic engagement (CE) among military veterans. Methods: An online survey was given to military veterans upon initial registration with TMC and again 12 months…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays, each examining a different topic in labor economics. In Chapter 1, I examine the productivity and selection effects of K-12 teacher tenure by leveraging variation from New Jersey's TEACHNJ Act. This law extended the pre-tenure period from three to four years and allowed districts to dismiss…

Recent estimates show nearly 90% of school districts nationwide offer some form of online credit recovery. Despite its widespread adoption, there is a dearth of research surrounding the suitability of online credit recovery for students. This study examined potential success factors of students enrolled in virtual recovery courses in a school…

Background: The importance of high school completion for jobs and postsecondary opportunities is well- documented. Combined with federal laws where high school graduation rate is a core performance indicator, school systems and states face pressure to actively monitor and assess high school completion. This proposal employs machine learning…

Background: Motivational factors are one active area of research that aims to increase the inclusion of women in physics. One of these factors that has only recently gained traction in physics is intelligence mindset (i.e., the belief that intelligence is either innate and unchangeable or can be developed). We studied 781 students in…

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect size of gender on motivation towards science learning by combining the results of studies, which were conducted to determine the effect of gender on motivation towards science learning, via the meta-analysis method. In this context, master's thesis, doctoral dissertations, and articles, which…

While age effects in reaction time (RT) tasks across the lifespan are well established for level of performance, analogous findings have started appearing also for indicators of intra-individual variability (IIV). Children are not only slower, but also display more variability than younger adults in RT. Yet, little is known about potential…

Despite the fact that third parties are present during a substantial amount of face-to-face interviews, bystander influence on respondents' response behavior is not yet fully understood. We use nine waves of the German Family Panel "pairfam" and apply fixed effects panel regression models to analyze effects of third-party presence on…