THE COMPARISON OF GPA REGRESSION EQUATIONS FOR REGULARLY ADMITTED AND DISADVANTAGED FRESHMEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

The regression equations of first semester grade point average (GPA) on high school percentile rank (HSPR) and verbal and quantitative score on the Cooperative School and College Ability Tests (SCAT) were significantly different for men and women regularly admitted freshmen and men and women freshmen admitted to the Special Educational Opportunities Program (SEOP) at the University of Illinois. HSPR and SCAT verbal scores were useful predictors of GPA for all groups. However, separate regression equations for the prediction of GPA were indicated, since there were significant differences in the regression coefficients of all of the independent variables among the four groups.     

A Longitudinal Assessment of Antecedent Course Work in Mathematics and Subsequent Mathematical Attainment

Abstract

Using six waves of data (Grades 7–12) from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, the author examined the effects of different mathematics course work (pre-algebra, geometry, calculus) on subsequent achievement in, and attitude toward, mathematics, with partial adjustment for student background characteristics. Results showed that in the early grades of high school, algebra courses significantly affected mathematics achievement. Mathematics course work, however, did not play a significant role in mathematics achievement in the middle grades of high schools. There was a “harvest” of significant course-work indicators in the later grades of high school; every advanced mathematics course affected mathematics achievement. Many course-work effects were substantial even after accounting for variables such as prior mathematics achievement and socioeconomic status.     

Noncognitive predictors of achievement in introductory college chemistry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive relationship between initial student attitudes, admissions test scores, years of high school math taken, and subsequent achievement in introductory college chemistry. Included in this study was a sample of 179 students who began as new freshmen during the same fall semester and took an introductory chemistry course during their first year of college. The results of this study indicated that noncognitive variables were significant predictors of student performance. These findings also indicated that, for some types of academic outcomes, noncognitive variables may be better predictors of achievement than traditional measures such as admissions test scores.     

Academic achievement among first semester undergraduate psychology students: the role of course experience, effort, motives and learning strategies

This study investigated the relationship between multiple predictors of academic achievement, including course experience, students’ approaches to learning (SAL), effort (amount of time spent on studying) and prior academic performance (high school grade point average—HSGPA) among 442 first semester undergraduate psychology students. Correlation analysis showed that all of these factors were related to first semester examination grade in psychology. Profile analyses showed significant mean level differences between subgroups of students. A structural equation model showed that surface and strategic approaches to learning were mediators between course experience and exam performance. This model also showed that SAL, effort and HSGPA were independent predictors of exam performance, also when controlling for the effect of the other predictors. Hence, academic performance is both indirectly affected by the learning context as experienced by the students and directly affected by the students’ effort, prior performance and approaches to learning.     

Toward a Predictive Model of Community College Student Success in Blended Classes

This retrospective study evaluates early semester predictors of whether or not community college students will successfully complete blended or hybrid courses. These predictors are available to faculty by the fourth week of the semester. Success is defined as receiving a grade of C- or higher. Failure is defined as a grade below a C- or a withdrawal. Method: Seven variables available to faculty are considered: gender, degree sought, students’ academic level, attendance for the first 4 weeks of face-to-face classes, scores on orientation extra credit assignments, grades on the first quiz, and grades on an early semester reflective essay. Logistic regression is used to evaluate the power of seven variables to predict successful course completion in 15 sections of two business courses: Introduction to Marketing and Marketing Research. Three hundred forty-three students were included in this study. Results show that completion of optional extra credit assignments offered during the first 2 weeks of the semester and performance on the first quiz are significant predictors of successful course completion. These results suggest that students’ self-regulation skill or learning presence in the community of inquiry model is a strong predictor of student success. A faculty-based model like the one presented here can help faculty to enhance their students’ chances of success by highlighting factors that predict successful course completion early in the semester.     

Comparing Student Performance and Growth in 2- and 4-Year Institutions

This study examines the organizational characteristics of 51 higher education institutions in relationship to student performance and growth. The study first finds that organizational measures of mission, size, wealth, complexity, and selectivity are statistically represented by the 2-year versus 4-year college mission. Findings indicate that 2-year and 4-year campuses indeed do exert significantly different influences on undergraduate GPA and self-reported intellectual growth. Next, the study uses both OLS regression and HLM to examine these influences. High school percentile rank and college classroom experiences are better predictors of Cum GPA at 4-year institutions, while student effort is a better predictor of GPA at 2-year institutions. Whereas the most important predictors of Cum GPA include precollege measures such as high school percentile rank and SAT score, the most influential predictors of student intellectual growth are campus experiences including classroom vitality, peer support, student effort, commitment, and involvement. Controlling for all other variables, students at 2-year institutions receive higher grades, and students at 4-year campuses experience more growth.     

Modifying School Attendance of Special Education High School Students

Abstract

This study evaluated a program to modify the school attendance of special education (SE) high school students. Twenty 1st and 2nd-year SE high school students from a semirural area in the Southeast were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Treatment students received social and tangible rewards for good attendance, and their parents were notified whenever they were absent. All tangible rewards were donated by local businesses, and all procedures were implemented by university undergraduates working for course credit. Thus, treatment involved no cost to the high school. We predicted that treatment would lessen the degree to which students would show the decline in attendance that usually occurs over the course of the semester. As expected, students in the control group showed a significant linear decline in their attendance to SE and regular classes, p < .05. In contrast, students in the treatment group showed no significant decline in attendance over the course of the semester. The findings show that programs like the one evaluated here can reduce the absenteeism of SE high school students without any cost to the schools.     

Designing Retention Research for Assessment and Enhanced Competitive Advantage

Based on a longitudinal study of entering freshmen at a selective, private college in northeastern USA, this article provides a model for designing retention studies for assessment. Results from discriminant analysis revealed average high school grade, admission rating, and first semester average college grade as significant predictors of graduation. Regression analyses identified average high school grade, first semester average college grade, and satisfaction with academic advising as significant predictors of final average college grade. Perceived impact on intellectual self‐confidence and satisfaction with faculty attitude, business courses and sense of community were identified as significant predictors of overall satisfaction.     

Situated learning in an abstract algebra classroom

Advisory committees of mathematics consider abstract algebra as an essential component of the mathematical preparation of secondary teachers, yet preservice teachers find it challenging to connect the topics addressed in this advanced course with the high school algebra they must someday teach. This study analyzed the mathematical content knowledge that developed in preservice teachers during a semester course in abstract algebra utilizing Lerman's “person-in-practice-in-person” lens. This unit of analysis provided insights into the situated nature of the algebra learned by illuminating how the goals of the instructor and preservice teachers impacted the community of practice created in the university classroom and how participating in that community impacted the preservice teachers' mathematical identities.     

MODERATING THE PREDICTION OF GRADES IN FRESHMAN ENGINEERING1

This study concerned the identification of an optimal moderator within a test battery for enhancing prediction of first semester engineering grades for 522 college freshmen. Moderated multiple regression disclosed high school rank (HSR) as the best moderator of SAT-M, the best predictor, in both a validation and hold-out group. SAT-M overall validity of .39 was increased to .53 and an overall R of .47 was raised to .61 when only those highest in HSR were considered.     

A Study of Academic and Nonacademic Predictors and Criteria of Success among Scholarship Recipients

This is an investigation of the relationships and differences among selected personality, demographic, and intellective variables in a sample of 267 Morehead Scholars, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from the classes of 1965 through 1970 to determine the feasibility and practicality of their use as predictors and criteria of academic and nonacademic achievements. Analysis of variance was used to determine the differences among the various groups. Stepwise regression analysis was used to determine the association among the variables and to select the most efficient predictors of academic and nonacademic criteria.

There was a significant relationship between high school nonacademic achievements and (a) Opinion, Attitude, and Interest Survey (OAIS) scores, (b) high school rank in class and (c) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. High school nonacademic achievements and selected OAIS scales, when combined with SAT scores and high school rank in class, increase the efficiency of predicting subsequent college grade point average (GPA). The addition of high school nonacademic achievements to SAT scores increased the efficiency of predicting freshman and senior cumulative GPA for all groups. The OAIS scales, freshman GPA, and high school nonacademic achievements can be used to predict college nonacademic achievements.     

Examination of Indices of High School Performance Based on the Graded Response Model

We examined summary indices of high school performance (coursework, grades, and test scores) based on the graded response model (GRM). The indices varied by inclusion of ACT test scores and whether high school courses were constrained to have the same difficulty and discrimination across groups of schools. The indices were examined with respect to skewness, incremental prediction of college degree attainment, and differences across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups. The most difficult high school courses to earn an “A” grade included calculus, chemistry, trigonometry, other advanced math, physics, algebra 2, and geometry. The GRM‐based indices were less skewed than simple high school grade point average (HSGPA) and had higher correlations with ACT Composite score. The index that included ACT test scores and allowed item parameters to vary by school group was most predictive of college degree attainment, but had larger subgroup differences. Implications for implementing multiple measure models for college readiness are discussed.     

Teaching Algebra to Students with Learning Difficulties: An Investigation of an Explicit Instruction Model

Abstract. Thirty‐four matched pairs of sixth‐ and seventh‐grade students were selected from 358 participants in a comparison of an explicit concrete‐to‐representational‐to‐abstract (CRA) sequence of instruction with traditional instruction for teaching algebraic transformation equations. Each pair of students had been previously labeled with a specific learning disability or as at risk for difficulties in algebra. Students were matched according to achievement score, age, pretest score, and class performance. The same math teacher taught both members of each matched pair, but in different classes. All students were taught in inclusive settings under the instruction of a middle school mathematics teacher. Results indicated that students who learned how to solve algebra transformation equations through CRA outperformed peers receiving traditional instruction on both postinstruction and follow‐up tests. Additionally, error pattern analysis indicated that students who used the CRA sequence of instruction performed fewer procedural errors when solving for variables.     

Can learning of basketball be enhanced through a web-based multimedia course? An experimental study

This study’s aim is the creation of a web-based multimedia course for Physical Education (PE) students’ familiarization with the teaching of basketball, and the evaluation of its use as a complementary tool to conventional instruction, in terms of learning effectiveness and student acceptance. The course includes multimedia learning material as well as interactive learning activities and quizzes on the cognitive components of basic basketball skills and on other basketball-related topics (history of the sport, referee’s signals, training aids, basketball court). The study involved 88 undergraduate students during one semester. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a group that used the web-based multimedia course and also attended a conventional face-to-face course on the teaching of basketball (N?=?45), and another group that only attended the conventional face-to-face course (N?=?43). A pretest/posttest research design was followed. For both groups basketball knowledge was measured at the beginning and at the end of the semester through written questionnaires. The responses of the students of the first group towards the web-based course were also assessed, at the end of the semester, through a written feedback questionnaire. Within both groups, significant increases in students’ basketball knowledge were found. However, the web-based multimedia course in combination with conventional face-to-face instruction was significantly more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction alone in increasing students’ cognitive learning regarding the sport of basketball, at the same time being well-accepted by the students. These findings support the effectiveness of blended learning for PE at higher education level as well as the acceptance of this mode of learning by PE students.     

Impact of school readiness program interventions on children's learning in Cambodia

To reduce the high repetition rates in early years of primary school, the government of Cambodia piloted a school readiness program (SRP) in the first two months of Grade 1 of primary school. This study examines whether such intervention has effects on students’ immediate acquisition of school readiness skills as well as students’ longer term achievement of formal curriculum. The study finds that children who participated in SRP outperform children that did not participate in both outcomes, controlling for pretest score and background variables. The findings suggest that the intervention may be one alternative model to preschools in countries where access to pre-primary education is limited.     

Statistics for Educational Workers

ABSTRACT

Present federal education policies promote learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the participation of minority students in these fields. Using longitudinal data on students in Florida and North Carolina, value-added estimates in mathematics and science are generated to categorize schools into performance levels and identify differences in school STEM measures by performance levels. Several STEM-relevant variables show a significant association with effectiveness in mathematics and science, including STEM teacher turnover, calculus and early algebra participation, and mathematics and science instructional indices created from survey items in the data. Surprisingly, a negative association between students’ STEM course participation and success in STEM is consistently documented across both states, in addition to low participation of underrepresented minority students in successful schools in STEM.     

Predicting Student Success in a Major’s Introductory Biology Course via Logistic Regression Analysis of Scientific Reasoning Ability and Mathematics Scores

Studies over the last 30 years have considered various factors related to student success in introductory biology courses. While much of the available literature suggests that the best predictors of success in a college course are prior college grade point average (GPA) and class attendance, faculty often require a valuable predictor of success in those courses wherein the majority of students are in the first semester and have no previous record of college GPA or attendance. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of the ACT Mathematics subject exam and Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning in predicting success in a major’s introductory biology course. A logistic regression was utilized to determine the effectiveness of a combination of scientific reasoning (SR) scores and ACT math (ACT-M) scores to predict student success. In summary, we found that the model—with both SR and ACT-M as significant predictors—could be an effective predictor of student success and thus could potentially be useful in practical decision making for the course, such as directing students to support services at an early point in the semester.     

Examining the Influence of Increased Knowledge About White-Collar Crime on Attitudes Toward It in the Undergraduate Classroom

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exposure to information about white-collar crime among college students on changes, if any, in their opinion toward it. The research design employed a one-group pretest–posttest design. Undergraduate students enrolled in a college course on white-collar crime answered a survey that measured their level of knowledge about crimes of the powerful and general sentiments toward them both on the first and last day of the semester. With the notable exception of environmental racism, subjects’ knowledge about white-collar crime—which was already high at time 1—did not statistically increase during the course of the semester. Similarly, attitudes toward white-collar crime remained both negative and stable. Correlational analyses between knowledge gains and changes in sentiments revealed that better-informed subjects were generally more likely to consider white-collar crime a serious issue and to recommend tougher sanctions against its perpetrators.     

Peer tutoring in algebra: A study in Middle school

Abstract

This study reports the academic benefits of peer tutoring in algebra for middle school students. A total of 380 students enrolled in grades 7^th and 8^th participated in the study. Two peer tutoring sessions took place during each week (10?weeks). Interactions between peers lasted 20 to 25?minutes for each session. The typology of tutoring was fixed and same-age. A pretest posttest with control group design was used. Statistical significant improvements were reported in the academic achievement variable after the implementation of the peer tutoring program for 7^th and 8^th grade courses separately and altogether. Over 87% of the students in the experimental group improved their marks. The overall effect size for the experience was reported to be medium (Hedge’s g?=?0.48). The main conclusion of this study is that fixed and same-age peer tutoring in algebra may be very beneficial for middle school students.