The purpose of this quantitative record of study was to explore the relationship between performance on EBRW scores on the SAT and participation in dual credit, advanced placement, or on-level junior English coursework. In addition, the relationship between participation in a collegiate academy magnet program and SAT performance was also of…

Student persistence problems have arisen in the past 30 years due to the rapid growth of online higher education degree programs in the United States. Current literature has studied online undergraduate student persistence in-depth, but there has been little research to uncover the issues facing online graduate students. Given that online…

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to identify if a relationship existed between the main teaching method attribute used in accounting courses and the students' self-reported course grade outcomes. Specifically, does teaching methods correlate with students' grades? The research considered the teaching method attributes…

This California study focuses on the economic impact of school suspensions at the district level. Every 10th grade student in California was tracked for three years to determine the degree to which suspensions predicted lower graduation rates at the state and district level. This estimated impact on graduation was then used to calculate the…

Missed instruction can have a devastating impact on educational outcomes. Some reasons for missed instruction are beyond the control of schools and districts: some students miss school due to mental or physical illness or injury, and transportation problems sometimes are to blame. One major reason for missed instruction that schools can directly…

A growing number and proportion of students rely on student loans to assist with the costs of postsecondary education. Yet little is known about how first-generation students use federal loans to finance their education. In this article, we examine each of the decisions that culminate in student indebtedness: the decision to apply for aid, whether…

International assessments in higher education are especially challenging because differences across countries (e.g., educational systems, SES) increase the complexity of testing. This becomes even more challenging when using performance-based assessments, which are becoming more prominent in assessment programs. ANVUR collaborated with the Council…

Superintendents of low income rural school district are challenged to close the achievement gap, specifically the disparity between classrooms. This study took the angle of looking at Equitable Classroom Practices and levels of rigor from classroom to classroom. The reasoning stems from the use of Job Embedded Professional Development for…

This exploratory dissertation investigates and describes 1) the habits of U.S. college students' use of mobile devices in the classroom, and 2) U.S. college students' perceptions on policy which bans mobile device usage in the classroom. The study also examines how students' demographics influence their usage of mobile devices in the classroom and…

This quantitative comparative research study examines the career maturity of student-athletes in comparison to non-athletes at a Division I university. The study also measures differences in career maturity among student-athletes based on gender, class level, race/ethnicity, by sport, by type of sport (revenue/non-revenue), and professional sports…

This dissertation consists of a theoretical essay and two empirical studies exploring the associations between students' perspectives on knowledge, the processes they use to negotiate dissonance, and their subsequent service-learning outcomes. The overarching goal of this research is to better understand why some students productively negotiate…

Of the many narratives to which educators subscribe, one of the most prevalent for the past three decades is the idea that students' success is strongly predicated on their ability to read on grade level by the end of third grade. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of half-day versus full-day kindergarten on students' growth in…

In measurement theory, causal indicators are controversial and little understood. Methodological disagreement concerning causal indicators has centered on the question of whether causal indicators are inherently sensitive to interpretational confounding, which occurs when the empirical meaning of a latent construct departs from the meaning…

In a series of articles and comments, Kenneth Bollen and his collaborators have incrementally refined an account of structural equation models that (a) model a latent variable as the effect of several observed variables and (b) carry an interpretation of the observed variables as, in some sense, measures of the latent variable that they cause.…

Graphical model validation techniques for linear normal models are often used to check the assumptions underlying a statistical model. We describe an approach to provide "instant experience" in looking at a graphical model validation plot, so it becomes easier to validate if any of the underlying assumptions are violated.