This research examines factors that contribute to persistence of sophomore students. It builds a model to predict the likelihood of leaving the institution by third year and explores whether the concept of transfer receptivity can be used to explain differences in persistence between continuing and transfer sophomore students. Results indicate…

Wesley College secured a five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM (scholarships in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) grant (1355554) to provide affordability and access to its robust STEM programs. With these funds, the college initiated a freshman to senior level, mixed-cohort, Cannon Scholar (CS) learning community…

This study used self-determination theory (SDT) to investigate the motivations for selecting a major among mass communication and media majors at 18 colleges and universities across the United States. Specifically, 669 mass communication majors were queried on their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for choosing a major, their degree of major…

Academic tracking is a common feature of school organization, but it produces inequalities in student outcomes. High-stakes testing policies offer new opportunities for assessing students' progress, but the instruments raise concerns about relying on such narrow measures of learning. This study utilizes a longitudinal data set that follows one…

Recent research in English language is descriptive, evaluative and analytical. It is quantitative and qualitative in nature, which aims at investigating theme development methods/techniques employed by Palestinian tertiary level EFL learners in performing written discourse. The study is an attempt to analyze the written product of 120 Palestinian…

Using data from the nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study examined how journalism participation in high school relates to subsequent academic outcomes. The analysis statistically controlled for a host of correlates of academic achievement, isolating the associations between journalism participation and…

This quantitative longitudinal study sought to highlight the difference between the proportion of men and women who planned to pursue a STEM major in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, and computer and information sciences as freshmen, as well as to determine the proportion of men and women who changed their major choice by…

Background: Asian American experiences have been largely ignored in the engineering education research literature. Asian Americans are often considered as a homogenous group, despite including over 40 different ethnic subgroups who speak over 300 languages. The immigrant trajectories, cultural experiences, and college completion rates of Asian…

This study measured the rate of retention to the second semester among first-time, full-time freshman college students who attempted a gateway course within their declared major during their first semester of college compared with students who declared a major, completed a course, but not the gateway course in their major and students who did not…

During the last decade, there have been numerous reports detailing the importance of increasing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors in the United States. Simultaneously, an increasing number of studies are being developed to predict a student's success and completion of a STEM degree, recognizing that retention is a…

This study is an extension of two previous studies that provided profiles of persisting STEM majors overall (regardless of academic performance) and persisting STEM majors who earned semester GPAs of 3.0 or higher (Westrick, 2016, 2017). Using data from 25 four-year institutions, this study compared the mean ACT assessment scores, HSGPAs, and ACT…

Acquiring sufficient content knowledge to lead effectively in the classroom is one of the greatest challenges for beginning teachers. National and state agencies have made significant investments in content-specific induction supports, but these efforts have not been informed by any empirical evidence regarding the topic-level content knowledge of…

This longitudinal study investigated development in expectancy for success (perceived competence), 3 types of task value (utility, interest, attainment), and 3 types of perceived cost (opportunity, effort, psychological) for engineering students during their first 2 years of college. Latent growth curve models indicated declines in expectancy and…

This paper explores one of the enduring small mysteries of student life -- why do women participate in study abroad programs more than men? To answer this question, original data collected from seniors and recent graduates of a sample of liberal arts colleges in the US were analyzed. Results show an intractable gender gap persisting, even after…

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictability of selected cognitive and non-cognitive factors on retention. Data was collected from 822 first-time-freshmen college students at a four-year institution of higher learning. The material was analyzed using specific predictors of Fall 2012 to Spring 2013 retention. These cognitive and…