This performance improvement-based dissertation in practice analyzed and addressed a retention performance problem embedded in a higher education setting. A problem of practice is defined as an ongoing performance problem that exists in the context of a scholar-practitioner's workplace (Burrington & Throne, 2021) which, if addressed, can lead…

The validity and specifically the convergent validity of a course's online assessments (i.e. the extent to which the online assessments really measure what is measured by other assessments meant to measure the constructs of the course's learning outcomes) so far receive little attention, especially for business mathematics courses. Based on a…

When seeking to explain the eventual outcomes of a higher education experience, do the personal attributes and background factors students bring to college matter more than what the college is able to contribute to the development of the student through education or other institutional factors? Most education studies tend to simply ignore…

With increasing competition for postgraduate research scholarships, awarding processes demand attention and scrutiny. We examine inter-rater reliability for two prestigious New Zealand scholarships, the Shirtcliffe Fellowship and the Gordon Watson Scholarship. For each scholarship, five assessors (three academic; two non-academic) independently…

Critical Race Theory contends that institutions codify and sustain racial inequalities even absent explicitly racist motives or actions. College ranking systems perpetuate such institutional racism by socially constructing minority-serving institutions (MSIs) as less valuable and prestigious. By assigning greater worth to criteria favoring more…

Grade inflation threatens the integrity of college grades as indicators of academic achievement. In this study, we contribute to the literature on grade inflation by providing the first estimate of the size of grade increases at the student level between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. By controlling for student characteristics and course-taking…

Central to many of the current developments in higher education is prior learning assessment (PLA). In the past several years, with new and ambitious degree completion goals for adults, the United States is witnessing what can only be called a surge of interest in PLA.

Ratings published by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) require selectivity in admission to educator preparation programs. NCTQ provides a list of citations to support the selectivity standard termed "strong support." A review of each citation in the list found little or no support for the standard. Original data was…

Starting in 1974, the "Council for Adult and Experiential Learning" (CAEL) has helped colleges and universities develop and expand their prior learning assessment (PLA) programs for adult and other non-traditional learners. In the past several years, with new and ambitious degree completion goals for adults, the U.S. is witnessing what…

This speech, given at the 2014 Council for the Study of Community Colleges annual Awards Luncheon, describes three of the major changes in the sixth edition of "The American Community College". The speech also describes what those changes can tell us about the directions in which our colleges are moving and the ways in which community…

Despite, and perhaps because of its amorphous nature, the term "academic success" is one of the most widely used constructs in educational research and assessment within higher education. This paper conducts an analytic literature review to examine the use and operationalization of the term in multiple academic fields. Dominant…

Using 1994-95, 2002-3, and 2008-9 data, the author found that economics majors scored well on the LSAT® (1998, 2006, 2010). These results are often posted on university economics (and other) department Web sites. The author, who updates the prior studies using current data for law school applicants for the 2012-13 class of students entering law…

Adapting campuses, classes, and processes to better serve Hispanic students will be a crucial step toward meeting national attainment goals. Since fall 2000, the number of Hispanic students in public colleges has effectively doubled. However, due to a Congressional ban on a student-level data system, the federal government is flying blind when it…

Over the past 30 years, problem-based learning (PBL) has become a major force in health professions education and even in the broader educational world. This article focuses on the outcomes that have been found from using PBL in the health professions based on at least 20 reviews done since 1990. The outcomes identified in these reviews are…

A common practice in medical education is to create a prescribed distribution of grades, or ratings, so that only a certain percentage of students receive the highest marks. This approach typically is employed to curb grade inflation and as a means to help faculty distinguish outstanding performers. Despite the well-intentioned reasoning for using…