Can leveraging an innovative approach to gathering information on co-curricular learning and learning outcomes assessment practices lead to impactful change? This question guided the implementation and operationalization of the Spartan Experience Record (SER) at Michigan State University (MSU). The SER both provides undergraduate students with a…

Over the past two decades, U.S. states have widely adopted early literacy policies. These policies have shown short-term success in enhancing K-3 literacy skills. However, the reasons behind their widespread adoption and the factors driving their success are poorly understood. This three-paper dissertation focuses on Michigan's Read by Grade Three…

Physics education research (PER) has used quantitative modeling techniques to explore learning, affect, and other aspects of physics education. However, these studies have rarely examined the predictive output of the models, instead focusing on the inferences or causal relationships observed in various data sets. This research introduces a modern…

In 2018, state boards of education discussed and adopted policies to increase accountability for student data protection and to increase transparency of schoolwide data through data dashboards. This analysis highlights policy changes in state data protection requirements, test administration and security, records retention, and confidentiality…

This exploratory, descriptive study examined trends associated with Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) student stop out, reenrollment, and persistence to a credential upon reenrollment. For the 2006-2017 cohorts, 78% were retained from first to second year. Inferential models suggested that first-year stop out was mainly correlated to students' high…

This publication highlights how state leaders tackle data interoperability with the emergence of data standards for student information, assessment, digital content, and other educational applications. While states are at various maturity levels for interoperability, each state shares goals for interoperability, the drivers for those goals,…

Although the number of international experience requirements (IER) for college students is growing, there is limited research on their impact. The authors present a four-year study of the impact on an IER at the University of Michigan's Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, comparing outcomes for required and non-required cohorts. Evaluation…

This paper examines the effects of requiring and paying for all public high school students to take a college entrance exam, a policy adopted by eleven states since 2001. I show that prior to the policy, for every ten poor students who score college-ready on the ACT or SAT, there are an additional five poor students who would score college-ready…

Beginning at a local two-year college and then transferring to a four-year institution has been one of the most affordable ways for students to earn a bachelor's degree. Yet transfer pathways from two- to four-year institutions are often complex and confusing, and too many students who begin at a community college and aspire to earn a bachelor's…

A variety of factors influence a student's ability to succeed in college and complete a degree program. Students who live on-campus, at least during their freshman year, have been shown to be more likely to complete their degrees than are students who live off-campus. Students who are commuters may have more demands on their time and may have…

This article examines the impacts of the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), a statewide college-preparatory curriculum that applies to the high school graduating class of 2011 and later. Our analyses suggest that the higher expectations embodied in the MMC had slight impact on student outcomes. Looking at student performance in the ACT, the only…

General chemistry is a gateway course that impacts the STEM trajectory of tens of thousands of students each year, and its role in the introductory curriculum as well as its pedagogical design are the center of an ongoing debate. To investigate the role of general chemistry in the curriculum, we report the results of a posthoc analysis of 10 years…

Statistics suggest the prevalence of grade inflation nationwide, and researchers perform many analyses on student grades at both university and college levels. This analysis focuses on a one-credit library instruction course for undergraduate students at a large public university. The studies examine thirty semester GPAs and the percentages of As…

I provide a new, systematic profile of more than 18,000 homeless students in Michigan, utilizing rich administrative data from all test-taking students in grades 3-9 during the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years. These data are part of a larger study of school choice and student mobility in that state. Homelessness is a condition found…

This article explores the promises and pitfalls of using National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data to measure a variety of postsecondary outcomes. We first describe the history of the NSC, the basic structure of its data, and recent research interest in using NSC data. Second, using information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data…