The primary purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the academic outcomes of first-year academically underprepared TN Promise-eligible college freshmen who participated in a college bridge program. A comparative research design was applied to existing data, including first-semester GPA, first-semester credit completion rate,…

In response to increasing demand for the need for highly effective teachers, numerous pathways to teacher certification have emerged. Consequently, teacher residencies as an alternative route to certification have grown in number and scale across the country. Due to the recent growth and expansion of teacher residencies, there is limited research…

Despite the robust literature on the effects of financial aid, the effects of financial aid loss remain largely understudied. We employ a regression discontinuity design, leveraging a minimum GPA scholarship renewal threshold, to examine the effect of losing state merit aid eligibility on college student stop-out, transfer, and bachelor's degree…

Despite the robust literature on the effects of financial aid, the effects of financial aid loss remain largely understudied. We employ a regression discontinuity design, leveraging a minimum GPA scholarship renewal threshold, to examine the effect of losing state merit aid eligibility on college student stop-out, transfer, and bachelor's degree…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an afterschool reading intervention program(ASRIP) in addressing the problem of at-risk English 10 students in an urban high school in danger of failing the Tennessee End of Course Test (TEOCT) because of low TEOCT pretest scores, poor regular school attendance (RSA), and low grade point average(GPA).…

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted several states to adopt or scale new placement methods, since many test-based placement metrics were unavailable. In April 2020, the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) approved a pilot to add high school GPA as a placement method at Tennessee community colleges alongside other measures included in TBR's learning…

The contributions in this collection provide important answers and compelling evidence that honors programming does contribute something above and beyond what honors students themselves bring to the educational experience. While many of the chapters rely on analytic methods that are more widely used in some fields than in others, authors have…

After explicit instruction on how to give possible bidirectional (two-way) causality explanations for a correlation, 240 students from eight sections of social psychology and research methods courses wrote "reverse causality" explanations on various test questions, creating a total of 882 answers. Averaging across multiple graded…

Higher education administrators lack strong understanding about using course evaluation data to make judgments and decisions. Using archival student course evaluation data from a pharmacy school, we examined (a) course evaluation instrument reliability and validity; (b) bivariate relationships between eight course rating items and the overall…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation and impacts of the Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model in its first year of implementation in 66 schools across the U.S. and to document scale-up progress during the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant period (2017-2021). The impact evaluation included 21,529 9th grade students…

The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between the new statewide two-year financial aid program, Tennessee Promise, and college choice among high school seniors in four counties in upper Northeast Tennessee. Independent variables included GPA, concern about ability to pay for college, and plans to attend a two-year…

Many graduate students have and are suffering from, a mindset that questions their abilities and belonging in graduate programs. Some researchers have argued that this mental state is hindering many students from persisting in graduate school and completing their degree programs (Clance and Imes, 1978). This questioning and self-doubt are called…

The purpose of the current study was to compare 5 years of educational outcome data for online and face-to-face MSSW students (N=883) who graduated from University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. Students' knowledge (comprehensive exam scores, grade point averages), skills (field evaluation scores), and perception of their graduate…

Academic mindset encompasses individuals' beliefs about the ways learning and intelligence work. These beliefs frame students' thinking, influence how they interpret events, and ultimately affect their success. This report provides results from the first large set of data on mindset in community colleges. These data suggest that understanding the…

Many studies show a strong link between earning a college degree and receiving higher wages (for example, Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Gulish, 2015). Consequently, a large body of research is published each year analyzing indicators of progress toward increased college enrollment and completion (for example, National Student Clearinghouse…