The accountability movement has created tensions among key actors at institutions of higher education in the U.S. in recent years. As such, a need existed to examine the lived experiences that influenced faculty (n =6) in the College of Agriculture (COA) at [State] University as they engaged in various forms of assessment to evaluate student…

Background: In response to the effort to increase minority enrollment in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, STEM summer bridge programs were created to help minorities with the transition from high school to college with the long-term goal of increasing the diversity of professionals in STEM. The goal of this…

Preparing pre-service students to teach agricultural mechanics is a difficult task due to the career pathway including a great variety of topics (Byrd et al., 2015). This study examined the trend in requirements in 1862 land-grant universities for number of courses, course credit hours, and course topics related to agricultural mechanics, as well…

A mismatch remains between the skills employers seek in new hires and the skills applicants possess. This study encompassed an evaluation of the impacts of the Quality Enhancement Program on students' work readiness competencies, including oral, written, and digital communication skills, at Nunez Community College. The Quality Enhancement Program…

This study aimed to determine the perspectives of Louisiana high school students, particularly Black students, on the diversity of the state-mandated Tier 1 English I curriculum and the correlation between their academic self-concept, curriculum diversity perceptions, and their achievement level on the LEAP 2025 English I high stakes assessment.…

In higher education classrooms, teacher-centered instruction remains the dominant learning approach. However, as calls have increased for university graduates to demonstrate the ability to solve complex problems, active learning strategies such as flipped classrooms and team-based learning (TBL), have emerged as popular approaches to ensure…

This paper focuses on the evaluation of the clinical component of preservice teacher preparation. In this paper, clinical experience in teacher preparation refers to the "application of academic knowledge to practice" in classrooms, schools, and communities where candidates learn to "contextualize" the curriculum, learning…

Micro-credentials are increasingly being adopted across a variety of industries and countries, including the kindergarten through grade 12 education system in the United States, as a way to identify workers with specific skills, knowledge, and competencies. This report presents the results of a study conducted by RAND researchers who investigated…

This paper describes how an anatomy and physiology laboratory class transitioned from a paper-based lab to an online learning platform that updated the curriculum to rely more on face-to-face small group collaboration and peer teaching. Student perceptions of the new format were positive, but halfway through the transition a global pandemic…

Experiential education is a highly prized and effective interdisciplinary methodology to supplement classroom instruction and to improve student learning. Experiential theories have a wide reach, traceable to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. John Dewey's pivotal work "Experience and Education," first published in 1938, is canonical in…

As NIET enters its 20th year, research continues to point to the effectiveness of NIET's support and the positive impact of investing in human capital. The Winter 2020 Research Summary captures both NIET's key long-term impact, shares promising results highlighting that the TAP System [The System for Teacher and Student Advancement] sustains…

Statewide higher education governing and coordinating boards have long been involved in academic planning, academic program review, and academic program approval. A detailed analysis of the templates that statewide boards require institutions to use during the program approval and review processes reveals the role these processes play in ensuring…

ACT requested assistance from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) to investigate declines of scores for states administering the ACT to its 11th grade students in 2018. This request emerged from conversations among state leaders, the Center for Assessment, and ACT in trying to understand the…

A primary motivation for this study was to compare student perceptions and performance within a virtual learning environment to the traditional in-person learning experience for the General Chemistry II course taught during a 5-week summer session at Xavier University of Louisiana, a minority serving institution. The authors present quantitative…

Free college, or "Promise" programs--a model of student aid that covers at least full tuition costs for a subset of a given state's residents--have received a significant boost in the past few years. A central question has been whether the model benefits from more consistent political support over time as compared to other forms of…