An extensive, internally cross-validated analytical study using nested (within academic disciplines) Multilevel Modeling (MLM) on 4,560 students identified functional criteria for defining high school curriculum rigor and further determined which measures could best be used to help guide decision making for marginal applicants. The key outcome…

Prompted by some disturbing trends of reducing enrollment among females and minorities in an earlier study (Borman, Workman, Miller & Micceri, 2006), this study, using data from over 600,000 Florida State University System (SUS) applicants, demonstrates empirically how a trend that began during World War II helps ensure that males and…

In NCAA Divisions I-AA, II and III, there has been a single-elimination playoff system to determine football's national championships for over 25 years. In the same weeks that student athletes compete in the playoffs, they would be finishing their fall semester work and (perhaps) taking final exams. For athletes at XYZ, the demands made on a…

Two studies, one at Oakland University (Michigan), the other at Northern Michigan University, examined the degree to which first semester course load predicted grade point average (GPA), retention, financial aid debt, and graduation. At Oakland University, analysis of data from 1986 freshman cohort files found that students who enrolled for a full…

This study asked college students to report their current institutional grade point average (GPA) and grant permission for the researcher to examine the official records with the understanding that some had questioned the accuracy of such self-reported GPA. The relationship between self-report and actual GPA was moderately powerful, but…

The American College Testing (ACT) Program's Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) was chosen as Arkansas'"rising junior exam" to measure learning in the general education curriculum. A study was conducted with a group of 124 college students to determine the predictability of CAAP scores based on ACT scores and cumulative…

Data from a 1974 national survey of 134 colleges was presented to verify that grade point averages had increased.404 points from 1965 to 1973. Approximately two-thirds of the increase occurred since 1968 and the 1968 to 1970 period showed the highest average annual increments. Essentially, the same pattern and magnitude of change was revealed for…

Assessed the accuracy of academic gender stereotypes by asking 265 college students to estimate the percentage of male and female students and their grade point averages (GPAs) and comparing these to the actual percentage of male and female students and GPAs. Results show the inaccuracies of academic gender stereotypes. (SLD)

This study examined the perception that individuals who enter the teaching profession are less academically competent than are those who enter other fields of study. The study investigated differences in students' grade point averages (GPAs) and differences between GPAs earned in English, mathematics, social studies, and science by teacher…

This study examined the change in term grade point average (GPA) from 1974 through 2004 for 368,282 undergraduate student records at a large, research-extensive university in the Southeast. Descriptive analyses showed an increase in term GPA and average SAT scores over the 31-year period. Although average SAT and GPA increased, standard deviations…

Critical thinking has been conceptualized as a two-factor system in which critical thinking ability and critical thinking disposition combine to determine actual thinking performance. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate such a two-factor model empirically. One hundred ninety-eight Purdue University undergraduates…

During the past 15 years, considerable attention has been given to a conspicuous longitudinal change in grading patterns in higher education. Commonly referred to as "grade inflation," the phenomenon has been perceived by some as seriously weakening the meaning of grades but by others as reflecting a positive tendency for students to…

This study was conducted to determine the accuracy of the commonly cited claims that teacher certification graduates are inferior to noncertification graduates in terms of entrance and exit criteria. Popular literature and conventional wisdom have apparently influenced state legislatures to enact legislation which places limits on the professional…

The Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) Models, often referred to as Box-Jenkins models, are regression methods for analyzing sequential dependent observations with large amounts of data. The Box-Jenkins approach, a three-stage procedure consisting of identification, estimation and diagnosis, was used to select the most appropriate…

Previous studies have shown that students who intend to major in education have low SAT and ACT scores. Further, among those students who intended to major, those who do major have even lower average scores. This study also shows that those students who intend to major in education have lower average high school and college grade point averages.…