Peer relationships play a critical role in academic performance, yet their link in higher education remains underexplored. This study introduces commensality--shared mealtimes--as a novel proxy for peer acceptance and examines its relationship with academic outcomes across student groups. Using 2,717,938 transaction records from 3355 first-year…

This study aimed to reveal the perspectives of academics on the competencies of students who are placed in universities through a first-place quota system. The study has been organized within the framework of a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological design. The data collected through a semi-structured interview form were analyzed…

Communicating national qualification standards clearly to learners and their teachers is crucial to raising standards. If people do not know what they must do to get the grade, then the qualification is providing poor information about what is considered valuable learning. Assessment scores (and grades) need to convey meaning about learners'…

Background: Academic achievement goals are important for student outcomes, including their well-being, collaboration with peers, and academic achievement. Theory and research also indicate that achievement goals are linked to students' social context, playing a role in forming and maintaining peer relationships within the school environment. Aims:…

This paper extends the work of Chan (2023) by investigating the consistency of student attendance engagement patterns between online and offline lectures, not through direct attendance rate comparison, but through the analysis of student attendance rankings. While the previous study found no significant correlation between direct attendance rates,…

Research on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) indicates that students evaluate themselves more favorably when they have high rank in low rank schools than low rank in high rank schools. In this integrated dissertation, I provide three empirical papers examining experiences and forecasts of this effect. BFLPE experiences refer to the impact…

Schools receive an annual letter grade that is made readily available for parent, community, teacher, and school district staff consumption. Victor Vroom's (1994) Expectancy-Value theory is used to further evaluate the importance that school rankings (via school letter grades) play in motivated teacher planning. Purposeful sampling was used to…

Instructors may use low-cost, light-touch strategies to help students achieve optimal effort in demanding upper-level courses. The authors of this study exploit an intervention that provides a series of personalized feedback emails to students about their relative performance, which is tied to approving messages or tips that encourage improvement.…

Subjective social status in school (or school social status) refers to youths' perception of their position relative to peers in school. School social status has been associated with various socio-emotional outcomes in adolescents, such as internalizing symptoms (e.g., social anxiety and depression). Another closely related construct that…

ACT annually publishes score norms, also referred to as national ranks, derived from data on the most recent three cohorts of high school graduates who completed the ACT® assessment. These norms are not grade-specific and are calculated using each student's final ACT attempt in Grade 10, 11, or 12. National ranks are displayed on ACT score reports…

Earning a college degree requires a standard measure of academic success. Institutionally, this measure is calculated in earned credits and cumulative grade point averages known together as satisfactory academic progress. This qualitative study explores the relationship of students' academic progress and their perceived sense of belonging after…

Artificial scarcity occurs when individuals or groups face an inability to access or are excluded from sufficient or desired resources, even when those resources might be available (Daoud, 2015). This results in situations that work contrary to the aspirations of inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and sustainability. This conceptual…

Class ranking remains a prevalent practice in Nigerian primary and secondary schools, yet research has not explored how Nigerian students perceive and experience this practice. This study sought to address this gap in the literature by delving into four Nigerian primary and secondary school alumni's experiences and perceptions of the class ranking…

When the purpose and meaning of grades is not well-defined by an organization, there is a disconnect between curricular/assessment practices and student engagement. This study sought to investigate origins and find solutions in regards to discerning a student's knowledge and mastery of a subject and how this is reflected in the grade, and how…

In this paper, we examine how Success Training for Academic Resiliency (STAR) Lite, an advising intervention program, influenced undergraduate students to overcome academic probation into achieving good academic standing. We use descriptive quantitative methods to assess the impact of program participation for 194 undergraduate students on…