Students at open-enrollment institutions enter college with a wide range of academic preparedness and are often required to take developmental classes to increase their academic skills to be successful in higher education. Further, few students possess self-regulated learning skills to aid in their learning. Researchers posited that academically…

The flipped classroom is a blended, constructivist learning environment that reverses where students gain and apply knowledge. Instructors from K-12 to the college level are interested in the prospect of flipping their classes, but are unsure how and with which students to implement this learning environment. There has been little discussion…

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are competing to recruit students in a crowded market with the number of colleges on the increase and the number of high school seniors declining. IHEs are looking for effective ways to recruit students and increase retention and graduation rates. Relationship marketing (RM) is an approach from business that…

Retention and graduation rates of an entire cohort of 1,913 first-time full-time college students are analyzed. The effects of participation in a first year experience (FYE) course and of entry level academic preparation (ELAP) on retention and graduation are examined, both descriptively and with discrete-time survival analyses. Although…

Traditionally class rankings have been used by high schools to determine valedictorians and salutatorians. These rankings have also been used by colleges to make admission decisions and for awarding scholarships. While there is no direct link between college rank and college admission, there is evidence that not using class rank can reduce stress…

The University of Texas at Austin administrative data between 1990 and 2003 are used to evaluate claims that students granted automatic admission based on top 10% class rank underperform academically relative to lower ranked students who graduate from highly competitive high schools. Compared with White students ranked at or below the third…

An early admission call-up was used to attract high-achieving students to a private university in Lebanon. The call-up, which is essentially an offer of admission before the student takes any formal steps, was administered to the top 25th percentile ranked students of main feeder schools at a private university in Lebanon. Data were accrued for…

This study identified factors that were potential predictors of student completion in a collegiate honors program, evaluated the relative predictive importance of these factors, and used them to describe how the completion groups differed. Records were examined from 336 freshman honors program participants at a large, Midwestern, public…

Educators act as advocates every day, and an advocate's greatest tool is credible information. The College Board and the Alliance for Excellent Education are pleased to announce a series of jointly produced fact sheets intended to arm educators and others with information they can use in advocating for their students, professions, and…

This paper presents survey data concerning the procedure for determining Class Rank and Valedictorian status at 232 of the 500 largest public high school districts in the United States. These data are analyzed to consider whether or not districts are currently employing methodologies that provide students with appropriate incentives and provide…

Honors and advanced placement (AP) courses are commonly viewed as more demanding than standard high school offerings. Schools employ a range of methods to account for such differences when calculating grade point average and the associated rank in class for graduating students. In turn, these statistics have a sizeable impact on college admission…

In studies of the SAT, correlations of SAT scores, high school grades, and socioeconomic factors (SES) are usually obtained using a university as the unit of analysis. This approach obscures an important structural aspect of the data: The high school grades received by a given institution come from a large number of high schools, all of which have…

Describes study investigating why some academically able students attending "star" public high schools are rejected by selective colleges even though their SAT scores are often much higher than those admitted from other high schools. (PKP)

Examines the relationship between class rank and intelligence skills for a group of 75 physically handicapped students mainstreamed into two regular vocational-technical high school programs. (Author/CM)

While grade point averages and class rank are firmly entrenched in our educational system, they are not particularly reliable or valid indicators of student achievement. Introducing weighted grades creates additional problems. If schools were to eliminate this system, some motivation for grades and easy coursework would disappear. Includes four…