Objective/Research Question: Community college "Promise" programs have proliferated recently, particularly in areas with many low-income, academically struggling students. Many Promise programs restrict eligibility by high school performance but set eligibility thresholds quite low. As such they function as "low-bar" merit…

School district provided transportation is one way to support student attendance and achievement. By removing the obstacle of getting to school, school districts provide the opportunity for students to learn in school. In a secondary database analysis of 2018-2019 data, this study triangulates student achievement, attendance, and transportation to…

Albeit college success predictors such as hs-GPA, SAT I, and SAT II have been widely addressed in the literature, most of the studies have covered total scores and cognitive factors while barely investigating the potential interaction of demographic factors (e.g., STEM versus Non-STEM) and specific academic domains that might drive academic…

This study examined the effect of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) Scholarship on college cohort retention, college cohort completion, and college cohort time to completion--important student performance markers in an era of fiscal accountability. Over the six-year span (2006 - 2012) of this one year, renewable) full-tuition…

Dual enrollment, where students take college classes while in high school, is a promising strategy to increase postsecondary access and attainment. Dual enrollment may be particularly important for rural students, who often have limited access to advanced coursework and are less likely to attend college. However, little is known about how dual…

We examine how gaps between students' chosen target grades and actual midcourse grades relate to their exam studying intentions and subsequent grade improvements. We further investigate whether those relationships are moderated by students' academic ability (as measured by high school averages) and implicit theory of intelligence or mindset (as…

This study provides an initial analysis of the validity of the SAT to predict the academic performance of students attending higher education institutions outside of the U.S. The results from these three institutions (located in India, Scotland [United Kingdom], and Lebanon, respectively) provide evidence that the SAT is indeed a strong predictor…

The College Credit Plus (CCP) program, adopted and implemented by the state of Ohio in the 2015-2016 school year, presents some unique opportunities for examining the impact of accelerated college credit on preparing students for success in college. This study attempts to examine three of these unique features to examine the relationship that the…

Research shows a decline in U.S. adolescent mental health over several decades. It also suggests that higher levels of life satisfaction lead to better mental health outcomes in this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate correlations between adolescent life satisfaction and eight developmental attributes that can be fostered by…

Students' social, emotional, and behavioural (SEB) needs are associated with their academics and school behaviours, and teachers are in proximal roles to address students' needs. However, it is unclear how teacher-student understanding of SEB needs relate to students' academic achievement and behaviours. Based on 264 ninth-grade student-teacher…

Does a student's high school grade point average (HSGPA) of 2.5 or greater determine or predict a successful post-secondary enrollment? For this research, historical data from the 2015-2021 cohorts of Upward Bound Catonsville (UBC) scholars were retrieved from the UBC Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) Blumen Database report. To ensure…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused schools nationwide to open the 2019-2020 school year with educational options for students and parents. Distance learning has become increasingly popular with the ability to learn anytime and anywhere. Traditional learning provides face-to-face instruction with the ability for collaboration among students. This…

Unlike organized activities such as sports and arts, civic activities in adolescence (e.g., volunteering, student government) have been less studied in relation to school success and almost all existing evidence consists of cross-sectional findings. In a longitudinal study, 1035 pupils (64% females, 20% nonwhite, M[subscript age] = 14.21 years)…

More knowledge is needed regarding the student factors that impact academic reading and success in college beyond traditional measures of college readiness. This study examined the contributions of student factors specified by the Proficient Academic Reader framework--reading literacy skills, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading…

This dissertation investigates whether dual credit students' academic performance in subsequent university courses is comparable to that of non-dual-credit students. The study uses data from a Midwest regional public university over a ten-year period and employs propensity score matching and proportional odds ordinal logistic regression to create…