Study abroad programs have become increasingly popular in the United States and in other countries around the world. This descriptive study examines the impact of a short-term study abroad program on a group of ethnically diverse students in order to examine changes in global mindedness after participation in the program. The Hett (1993) Global…

More than one third of college students in the US do not complete their college education. Through panel data methods and principal component regression analysis, this study examines the effect of different reasons for college enrollment on academic performance, educational outcomes and future planning. The findings suggest that students who…

Residential mobility is associated with negative education outcomes for urban students, but there is little empirical evidence for school factors that may ameliorate these effects. One such factor may be civic engagement at school. This study analyzed data from 2,000 urban middle school students to examine the interplay of residential mobility,…

Two-year colleges have served as vital stepping-stones for students seeking to earn a bachelor's degree. To achieve that goal, these students must complete their current program's requirements and then matriculate at a four-year college--a process known as "vertical transfer." This is commonly extolled as a cost-saving strategy, but it…

Previous research has shown that adolescent peer groups play a role in maintaining and exacerbating demographic differences in achievement. However, there is still limited knowledge about the malleable factors that contribute to these achievement disparities. This short-term longitudinal study examined one such malleable factor--namely, perceived…

Underrepresented minority (URM) college students have been steadily earning degrees in relatively less-lucrative fields of study since the mid-1990s. A decomposition reveals that this widening gap is principally explained by rising stratification at public research universities, many of which increasingly enforce GPA restriction policies that…

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of mobile app courseware on the college outcomes of developmental education students, using a research design which randomly assigned course sections to receive access to the apps or not. The results show that access to the apps significantly improved student performance in developmental…

Admissions professionals have historically relied on measures of cognitive ability and academic achievement to make decisions about which applicants are admitted to their institutions. At the very least, selection on the basis of these factors (high school grades and standardized test scores) alone potentially decreases ethnic and socioeconomic…

This study investigates the impact of residence hall architecture on students' academic achievement, also considering the influence of race and homophily opportunity--a tendency to create social bonds with like others. We found that socializing architecture was positively associated with a higher first-semester grade point average, and that…

This study explored science, mathematics, and general academic factors that predicted outcomes for community college students (N = 3052) in a regional institution. A binary logistic regression was performed to determine significant independent variables contributing to successful outcomes (graduation or transfer) vs. non-completion. Transcript…

The purpose of the current study was to compare 5 years of educational outcome data for online and face-to-face MSSW students (N=883) who graduated from University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. Students' knowledge (comprehensive exam scores, grade point averages), skills (field evaluation scores), and perception of their graduate…

The current paper explores how students' relationships with their teachers, parents, and friends might differentially impact their academic experience and success, by presenting and integrating the results of two related studies. In the first study, survey methods and structural equation modeling are used to describe the similar and different…

Dual credit programs are collaborations between secondary and postsecondary institutions that enable high school students to enroll in college courses and receive simultaneous academic or technical credit that counts toward high school and college completion. Dual credit is distinct from Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which require students to…

Large foundational courses delivered in lecture halls are disadvantaged in eliciting participation from all students and maintaining engagement throughout the class session. We introduced a question-driven method facilitated by an audience response system, namely TopHat™, that allows the instructor to engage students in solving Calculus problems…

An examination of the recent literature revealed there are no established standards for orienting online doctoral students. To address this problem, the relevant literature was examined and suggested that doctoral students can be effectively oriented to their academic environment when provided with the requisite programmatic and institutional…