STEM preparation--especially high school math course-taking--is a key predictor of college entrance. Previous research suggests that high school English learners (ELs) not only take fewer advanced math courses but also enroll in college at much lower rates than non-ELs--a group that includes former ELs. In the present study, we alter the analytic…

Students who enroll in college come from many different, unique communities to pursue a degree. For the intent of this study communities were categorized into four types--city, suburban, town, or rural. The purpose of this study was to understand if there is a relationship between school community type (i.e., city, suburban, town, or rural) where…

Guided by the notion of academic momentum, this study drew data from longitudinal transcript records at a large public 4-year research university and examined factors that specifically contribute to community college transfer students' academic momentum. It also explored how early academic momentum along with students' sociodemographic…

The decline in doctoral program completion has become one of the main challenges in doctoral education worldwide. As concern about this issue grows, the number of studies examining the topic has also increased. Many of these studies, which aim to identify the factors that contribute to high attrition rates, rely on cross-sectional data and often…

This quantitative study examined the influence of the Latinx cultural value of "educación" on high school students' disciplinary behavior and its relationship to college degree expectations and academic achievement. Because student misbehavior is often identified as one factor that may contribute to low academic achievement, the study…

This study examined the factors that statistically predict student's degree attainment within agricultural education as a course of study. The study is based on a population of first year agriculture students (n = 616) at a private four-year college in Southwestern Ohio. The study is correlational design, which employed cross-sectional archival…

Research suggests that high-quality work-based learning (WBL) can be a promising approach to solving the leaky pipeline for undertapped demographic groups such as women and students of color, including for STEM fields Community colleges are especially important vehicles for WBL due to their diverse student populations and their partnerships with…

This study introduces data mining methods to accounting education scholarship to explore the relationship between accounting students' current academic performance (grades), demographic information, pre-university entrance scores and predicted academic performance. It adopts a C4.5 classification algorithm based on decision-tree analysis to…

Focusing on community college transfer students who declared a STEM major at their initial transfer to a four-year research university, this study examined the extent to which students' sociodemographic characteristics and academic factors were related to STEM persistence and attrition. This study tracked multiple cohorts of transfer students…

While the racial and ethnic mix of the U.S. higher education has continued to diversify, men of color have experienced racial/ethnic disparity in college success, including degree attainment. As higher education faculty, staff, and administration search for answers to how to improve college success for men of color, they are seeking new ways to…

Noncognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, social awareness, and academic engagement are widely acknowledged as critical components of human capital, but systematic data collection on such skills in school systems is complicated by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges and resource constraints. This study addresses this issue by…

Background/Context: English learners (ELs) have the potential to bring much-needed multilingual skills to the workforce, and most ELs aspire to graduate high school and earn a post-secondary credential (Gwynne, Pareja, Ehrlich, & Allensworth, 2012; Shi & Watkinson, 2019). But active ELs graduate high school at far lower rates than their…

Special education provides an accessible route for children with intellectual disabilities (ID) to be evaluated and to access services. Understanding the factors that influence special education eligibility can provide valuable insight into the school evaluation and eligibility process. This study used structural equation modeling to examine the…

Despite the abundant amount of studies about bachelor's degree completion in higher education, little research paid attention to the characteristics of students attending non-residential institutions, given that this type of college accounts for approximately half of all the higher education institutions in the United States. Using student records…

According to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN, 2023), each year, thousands of high school graduates leave billions of dollars in federal student aid unclaimed because they do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). To holistically investigate this phenomenon, this dissertation accomplished three goals. The…