Students of traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds generally need to receive extra support as they enter college. Many resources have been developed to address this issue, such as peer-counseling programs, faculty-mentoring programs, and federally funded TRIO Programs. There is an increase in retention problems in higher education communities and…

According to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, safety is the second most basic need, before love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, that humans require in order to be motivated. When this theory is placed within the context of higher education, one could argue that in order to reach their full potential, students must first feel…

In Kentucky, the number of high school students participating in dual credit programs is on the rise, increasing the need for research to explore the effects of dual credit on postsecondary academic outcomes. This research brief focuses on two areas: second-year persistence and first-year grade point average (GPA) in college. The study shows that…

The benefits of afterschool activity participation for youth development are well-documented. An interesting question dominating this field is whether there is a threshold at which point participating in too many activities (breadth) and spending too much time in those activities (intensity) is negatively associated with desirable outcomes. Using…

The current study explores differences in transfer shock between veteran and non-veteran community college transfer students at a land grant institution in a rural state. Analysis includes institutional data for community college transfer students, including those who self-identified as veterans or used veteran tuition benefits from Fall 2015 to…

Utilizing course grade data from 22 four-year higher education institutions, this study highlights the trends in first-year grade point average (FYGPA) between the 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 academic years, the period immediately before and after the pandemic disrupted both K12 and higher education. Results showed that while FYGPAs generally…

The study investigated the predictive effect of Emotional intelligence (EI), ICT competence, Financial Stability and Gender on academic performance of distance learners. Descriptive survey design was employed for this study. Purposive stratified sampling technique was used to select 350 participants among third year to sixth year learners. Three…

Language proficiency policies act as critical gatekeepers for multilingual international students (MIS) who intend to pursue an education at English-medium universities. The current study revisits the question of the predictive validity of a standardized English proficiency exam--International English Language Testing System (IELTS)--in comparison…

Machine learning models were constructed to predict student performance in an introductory mechanics class at a large land-grant university in the United States using data from 2061 students. Students were classified as either being at risk of failing the course (earning a D or F) or not at risk (earning an A, B, or C). The models focused on…

Historically, colleges have used standardized testing to determine whether a student is ready for college-level work or requires developmental courses first, but this method has been criticized as inaccurate. To obtain more accurate placements, nearly three-quarters of colleges now use multiple measures assessment (MMA) systems. These systems…

Academic achievement is a known predictor of career trajectory and future earnings. Thus, a great deal of research has been devoted to understanding the variables that impact academic achievement. The purpose of the current study is to extend existing scholarly work by examining the predictive power of both cognitive and noncognitive variables on…

Affirmative action policies are oftentimes pitted against the need of universities to maintain meritocratic standards in enrollment. The current study tackles this institutional dilemma against the standard of student attrition. It does so by analyzing records of 41,483 undergraduate students who attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem…

This article reports on the validity of the admi (MMI) method as it was used by a post-degree teacher education program as part of their admissions process to select candidates for entry into the program. The MMI, primarily used for medical school admittance, involves several stations with different interviewers. Comparisons were made between the…

The present study examined the mediating role of fluid intelligence between working memory (WM) and academic achievement and tested the invariance of this model across gender in a random sample of university students (N = 560, 228 boys & 332 girls). Heart and Flower task (Diamond, 2013) and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices[superscript TM]…

Enhancing student engagement and achievement in large undergraduate university courses is a vibrant area of research. Many existing studies have demonstrated the capacity of technologically enhanced formal and informal learning spaces to promote learning. However, this literature is dominated by studies that use assessment to incentivise student…