This longitudinal study of 17,455 students, the majority from underrepresented groups, investigated leaks in the vertical transfer pipeline from associate's-degree program entry to bachelor's-degree receipt. Investigated were both the size of the leaks and some associated variables. Pipeline progress examinations included quantification of early…

Using multilevel models, this study examined whether students with varying academic ability benefit equally from perseverance and intellectual curiosity in terms of academic achievement. In addressing this question two perspectives were applied: a trait perspective, focusing on differences between students, and a state perspective, focusing on…

Sign-tracking is a form of autoshaping where animals develop conditioned responding directed toward stimuli predictive of an outcome even though the outcome is not contingent on the animal's behavior. Sign-tracking behaviors are thought to arise out of the attribution of incentive salience (i.e., motivational value) to reward-predictive cues. It…

This dissertation presented a study to examine whether a correlation exists between college student retention and gamification. To date, much of the focus on gamification in the classroom has been with individual aspects: engagement, persistence, attainment, and attrition. The potential for this correlational study is to aid institutional staff…

The historical underrepresentation of women in engineering persists for women engineering majors in college and once they enter the workforce. While some engineering disciplines have seen an increase in women students, overall the numbers still have fallen well behind other STEM disciplines despite years of research. Most studies on this issue…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological research study was to describe the lived experiences of public school superintendents with the phenomenon of persistence. Self-Determination Theory was used to describe the experiences of superintendents who have held the superintendency in the same school district for at least 5 consecutive…

The literature on faculty diversity initiatives heavily consists of best practice recommendations that lack empirical support. Consequently, the authors conducted a survey study to better understand the types of faculty diversity initiatives used by colleges of engineering at Research 1 universities, the financial resources that fund them and…

Research often references years of experience specific to participants, yet no compiled report exists for secondary school-based agricultural education (SBAE) to holistically quantify years of teaching experience. In addition, definitions accounting for experience fall short of capturing the myriad ways experience counts in the broader teaching…

Concern about graduation rates in higher education has led universities to offer courses that help students develop success skills. Scientist Life Skills, a new course for freshman at Florida A&M University, focuses on helping students matriculate into majors via development of growth mindset, grit, and critical thinking. Here, we assessed the…

Identity has been proposed as a mechanism to increase persistence within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education programs. To assess the impact of identity on STEM persistence, measures that produce valid and reliable data within a given STEM discipline need to be employed. Therefore, this study developed and evaluated…

Achievement goal theory has been a dominant framework guiding research on motivation in physical activity (PA) settings. This study was designed to examine the predictive role of achievement goals and social goals on college students' self-reported persistence toward PA. We also examined gender- and grade-related differences in achievement goals…

There is now a burgeoning of literature that addresses the effects of teacher racial identity on school discipline. Scholars have recently found evidence to support the hypothesis that exposure to Black teachers can significantly reduce suspensions for same-race identity students; this being particularly true for Black students in North Carolina…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which several workplace factors are implicated in school principals' well-being. Two job resources (i.e. participatory climate and collegial climate) and two job demands (i.e. barriers to professional learning and staff shortages) were investigated, along with two well-being outcomes…

African-American and Latinx enrollment in higher education has increased dramatically in recent years at many predominantly White institutions. However, the graduation rates of these students are substantially lower than the general student population at many of these institutions. This study introduces "Success Central," an innovative…

Established in 1992, Ofsted is championed by government ministers as the guardian of educational standards in schools and colleges. Ofsted has never produced any research on the validity of its inspection judgements. Ofsted has no evidence, other than rising percentages of schools being awarded positive Ofsted grades, to support its assertion that…