Preparing for exams in introductory biology classrooms is a complex metacognitive task. Focusing on lower achieving students (those with entering ACT scores below the median at our institution), we compared the effect of two different assignments distributed ahead of exams by dividing classes in half to receive either terms to define or open-ended…

This ex-post facto quantitative study examined how a comprehensive STEM education program impacts high school students' ACT math and science scores as well as their attitudes toward STEM. Using data from one STEM-designated school, the researcher examined ACT math, science, and STEM results for students who took the ACT in the Spring of 2024,…

Students' motivational beliefs, such as disciplinary intelligence mindsets, can influence their physics performance and persistence. Intelligence mindset beliefs have long been argued to fall along of continuum between fixed and growth mindsets. Those with fixed physics mindsets believe that ability in physics is innate and unchangable, while…

Quantitative metrics are widely employed to determine the probability of an applicant succeeding in a specific program of interest, ranging from undergraduate or graduate admissions to fellowships. The admissions office at the United States Military Academy at West Point uses an internal college entrance examination rank (CEER) assessment…

To examine differences between sequences of secondary science courses on achievement on science high stakes exams, a purposive quantitative research design was utilized in this study. A short survey was sent out to public high schools in the state of Missouri that asked to identify their main science course sequence. In addition, participants were…

The study endeavored to determine if teaching test-taking strategies had an impact on the students' performance on the ACT science subsection exam. Students received test-taking strategies instruction for the ACT science subsection exam. Students were administered a pre-and post-test, confidence survey, and strategies ranking list. The study also…

This report describes ACT test results for Austin Independent School District (AISD) seniors in the 2018-2019 school year. In 2018-2019, the district's average ACT composite score of 23.0 exceeded the state (20.5) and national (20.7) average composite scores.

This study investigated predictors for ACT Science scores, a test used by many universities to rank applicants. This study utilized quantitative research methods using the Montana Office of Public Instruction's GEMS (Growth and Enhancement of Montana Students) data set. All advanced statistical analysis was conducted using Stata software IC/15.…

Here we demonstrate the benefits of a new curriculum for introductory calculus-based physics that motivates classical mechanics using a modified version of Hamiltonian mechanics. This curriculum shifts the initial focus of instruction away from forces and the associated vector mathematics, which are known to be problematic for students, to the…

Over the last decade, the "gender gap" in physics conceptual inventory scores has been extensively studied by the physics education research community. Researchers have identified many factors that influence the overall differences in post-test scores between men and women. More recently, it has been shown that the Force Concept…

Federal law requires that, at a minimum, states assess high school students at least once in English language arts/literacy (ELA), mathematics, and science; these results are used for school accountability. With states' recent transitions to new assessments and accountability systems, Achieve wanted to know more about how these varied assessments,…

General Chemistry is a high impact course at Benedictine University where a large enrollment of ~250 students each year, coupled with low pass rates of a particularly vulnerable student population from a retention point of view (i.e., first-year college students), make it a strategic course on which to focus innovative pedagogical development.…

This study examined the value of using measures of academic "tilt" and vocational interest "tilt" to predict whether students will declare a STEM major during their first term in college. Academic tilt looks at students' relative academic strengths by appropriately comparing their math and science achievement levels to their…

This report brief describes district-level ACT test results for AISD seniors in the 2016-2017 school year.

We have studied the impact of incoming preparation and demographic variables on student performance on the final exam in the standard introductory calculus-based mechanics course at three different institutions. Multivariable regression analysis was used to examine the extent to which exam scores can be predicted by a variety of variables that are…