Recently, the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) framework has been gaining increasing prominence in cognitive and learning sciences. The ICAP theory asserts that students learn more deeply when they are cognitively engaged in generative and collaborative learning. Indeed, prior studies have established the value of the ICAP framework…

Grades are perhaps the most widely used and universally accepted representation of a student's academic achievement. More importantly, they can be a vehicle to higher education, specialty programs, and access to highly competitive scholarship dollars. Given the wide disparity of grading practices from teacher to teacher and from district to…

Predicting students' performance to identify which students are at risk of receiving a D/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) grade and ensuring their timely graduation is not just desirable but also necessary in most educational entities. In the US, not only is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) major becoming less popular among…

Advanced Placement courses and exams are seen as marks of distinction for high school students, but it remains unclear how participation in AP affects student performance at the post-secondary level -- a problematic situation given that "open enrollment" policies have vastly increased the numbers of students participating in AP. Data…

This study was conducted to determine which admission criteria are most commonly utilized in selecting students into sonography programs, and whether a relationship exists between admission criteria and academic success in sonography education. All program directors from CAAHEP-accredited or CAAHEP-accreditation seeking sonography programs were…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Equal Opportunity Schools on high school minority achievement in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. The 48% of students in this research study were identified as minority students, which means they were identified as non-white or African American/Black,…

Empirical research on the predictors of the edTPA scores is growing in education literature. However, to date minimal empirical literature exists on edTPA and physical education as a specific program area. State policymakers, educator preparation program administration, and physical education teacher education faculty may benefit from…

The present study explored the effect of instructing middle school students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in positive psychology lessons, as compared to control classes that did not receive this positive psychology instruction. This study used quantitative procedures to determine the implementation of this curriculum on lowering student…

This dissertation investigates whether dual credit students' academic performance in subsequent university courses is comparable to that of non-dual-credit students. The study uses data from a Midwest regional public university over a ten-year period and employs propensity score matching and proportional odds ordinal logistic regression to create…

Nursing student retention is a concern for nursing programs globally, as the demand for nursing professionals in the workforce has increased. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the contributions of emotional intelligence (EI), science GPA, and Kaplan Nursing Admission Test (KNAT) scores to understanding retention of…

The attrition rate for online education continues to be high. To mitigate or better understand attrition, different researchers have developed survey tools in order to try to predict student outcomes in the virtual setting. Roblyer and Marshall first developed The Educational Success Prediction Instrument (ESPRI) in 2002 and then updated it in…

As students move from grade level to grade level and onto college, their grades have an impact on the number of opportunities available to students. The competition for entering college and earning a scholarship are at an all-time high and the grades students earn have a direct impact on future opportunities. Grading practices vary by teacher…

The importance of investigating the relationship of the high school scheduling plan and academic performance, spans across the high school grades, and into college. The implementation of block scheduling as a means to address concerns in declining high school performance has been widely regarded as an effective strategy. The connection between the…

The research entitled, "The Factors That Affect Retention Rates of African-American Students Pursuing Stem Degrees from Historically Black Colleges and Universities" is a quantitative study that analyzes academic factors, specifically in the first year of college, and their impact on the retention of African-American Science, Technology,…

The effect of class size on student learning has numerous policy implications and has been a major subject of conversation and research for decades. Despite this, few studies have been done on class size in the context of university settings or physics courses. This dissertation helps address that gap in the literature by quantitatively analyzing…