The number of international students enrolling at U.S. higher education institutions has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. U.S. institutions welcome these students as they affirm their academic reputation and their claims to provide a global experience for domestic students. Is this student group being served effectively? The increase…

The purpose of this empirical study is to determine how and to what extent the use of animations impacts auditory acquisition, one of the key learning fields in 6th grade grammar, as measured by students' academic success and completion rates. By using a pre-test and post-test design, this empirical study randomly divided a group of Turkish 6th…

Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do…

Much has been written about the controversy surrounding performance-based school closures, but there has been no rigorous assessment of their impact on student achievement. Does the closure process harm students who are enrolled in a school while it is being phased out? Are future students better-off because a low-performing option has been…

What is the relationship between school spending and student achievement in Michigan? That is the question this paper attempts to answer. The bulk of the research on this question has typically shown that there is little correlation between spending and achievement, but it is possible that Michigan's public schools are an exception to this…

This dissertation comprises a sequential explanatory mixed methods study seeking to understand persistence in engineering based on a student's initial mathematics course and the experience of a student who began in the lowest level mathematics course and completed an engineering degree despite struggling in mathematics courses. The first phase of…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

Recognizing that post-secondary student attainment and achievement is of increasing import for economic success, this study compares the post-secondary performance of students who attended public and private high schools. The results generally indicate that students who attended Catholic high schools had higher college grade-point averages (GPAs),…

Based on the input-process-output-development (IPOD) framework, a survey of current doctoral students and doctoral graduates from six agricultural universities in China found that doctoral students in agriculture have higher graduation delay rates, relatively consistent academic backgrounds, a longer learning input time, and fewer foreign research…

This report presents an annual update on retention, graduation, and transfer activity for students entering Maryland community college as first-time, full-time students, including trend data beginning in 1995. Data presented include student outcomes two, three, and four years after initial enrollment. The first section of this report includes an…

Congress funds District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) through an annual appropriation, which was $40 million in fiscal year 2018. DCTAG provides D.C. residents up to $10,000 per year to attend college. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, included a provision for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review DCTAG.…

On July 31, 2018, President Trump signed into law a bipartisan bill that supports the work of states to prepare students of all ages for career success through career and technical education (CTE) programs. The new law, known as the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, is the long-awaited update of the Carl D.…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the state to calculate a four-year cohort rate. Utah implemented a federally defined cohort graduation rate in 2008. The graduation rate for the 2018 cohort includes all students who started ninth grade in the 2014-15 school year, plus students who transferred into the Utah public education system…

How many international students are reported for academic integrity violations (AIV), what are their demographics, and how do AIV sanctions affect their retention and/or graduation? Descriptive statistical analyses showed that the number of internationals reported for AIVs at an American West Coast public university increased almost six-fold…

We examine the impacts of early college high schools, small schools of choice located on college campuses. These schools provide a no-cost opportunity for students to earn college credit--or a 2-year degree--while in high school. Using rich administrative data on multiple cohorts of students and quasiexperimental methods informed by the…