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…

Community colleges are grappling with low rates of degree completion and transfer. The City University of New York's (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) aims to improve graduation rates by providing a range of comprehensive support services to community college students in select majors. Using student-unit record data, we…

The 6-yr degree-completion rate of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at U.S. colleges and universities is less than 40%. Persistence among women and underrepresented minorities (URMs), including African-American, Latino/a, Native American, and Pacific Islander students, is even more troubling, as these…

Though campus principals must take on many leadership roles, their primary responsibility is to facilitate effective teaching and learning with the overall mission of enhancing student achievement. One way to provide instructional leadership is to evaluate and select effective instructional programs that align with campus goals of improving…

This paper uses qualitative and quantitative data to compare the outcomes of students at Chabot College who participated in an accelerated, one-semester developmental English course and their peers who participated in a two-semester sequence. The sample included first-time students who entered college between summer 1999 and fall 2010; students…

This randomized controlled trial in 55 low-performing schools across Florida compared 2 early literacy interventions--1 using stand-alone materials and 1 using materials embedded in the existing core reading/language arts program. A total of 3,447 students who were below the 30th percentile in vocabulary and reading-related skills participated in…

This study examined the impact of a commonly adopted elementary universal social-emotional learning program, Second Step, on student social-emotional and academic outcomes following 2 years of implementation. The cluster-randomized wait-list control trial included 61 schools, 321 teachers, and 8,941 early elementary students across 2 states, with…

The early twenty-first century has seen increased attention to developing young children's social-emotional skills and competencies in preschool programs, including Head Start--the largest federally funded early-childhood education program in the United States. At the same time, there has been greater recognition of the importance of adapting…

A Mandarin/English two-way immersion elementary program is described from its inception and implementation through the fifth grade, the culminating year of the program. All students in all grades were assessed on their oral/listening, reading, and writing performance in Mandarin using program-created assessment measures. Fifth-grade students also…

Hinds Community College (HCC) engaged in a study that produced the transitional program. This program was in response to high rates of attrition of the college's freshmen classes because of poor academic performance. This dissertation evaluated the effectiveness of the transitional program's main component-the learning community created by placing…

In an American economy where the advancement of technology and globalization means that a high school diploma alone is no longer able to provide family-sustaining earnings to many, certificates represent one piece of a multi-pronged solution on the road to a workforce with 60 percent postsecondary attainment. Though certificates currently aren't…

This article reports the results of a quantitative matching study investigating the impact on first-year students of a two-semester learning community. Results indicate a statistically significant association between LEAP participation and academic performance measured by retention, GPA, and time to graduation. Participation was associated with…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two implementation variables (source of technical support and time of implementation) to first grade reading achievement across three naturally-occurring conditions over a six-year time span. Two of the conditions involved implementation of Direct Instruction (DI) curriculum programs,…

The effects of bilingual education on reading and math achievement were examined by comparing test scores across different elementary school programs. Results revealed that bilingual Two-Way Immersion (TWI) programs benefited both minority-language and majority-language students. Minority-language students in TWI programs outperformed their peers…

Despite the potential contributions of adolescent employment to postschool success, many youth who experience emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD) do not access these opportunities. This intervention study examined the effects of a package of strategies designed to increase access to summer work experiences. Fifty-seven youth with EBD from…