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In this educational study, the student population at one of the state’s 15 community colleges was the target over a 5-year period (FY 2004-FY2009). Four variables (gender, race, socioeconomic status, and enrollment status were studied to predict if they had any affect on a student’s transfer grade point average. In 4 out of the 5 years in the study, this institution had the highest transfer grade point average as compared to native students at the state’s 8 universities. The purpose of this study was to examine the student population and look at four student variables to see if any were related to transfer grade point average. Over a 5-year period for this study, the number of women who have attended this community college has been 2 to 1. The number of students who receive a Pell Grant through financial aid is high. The ethnicity of the student population has also changed within the 5 years of this study.The first research question examined whether gender or race could predict a student’s transfer grade point average. The second research question explored whether socioeconomic status could predict a student’s transfer grade point average. The third research question asked whether a student’s enrollment status could predict the transfer grade point average. The fourth question examined which of the set of four variables had the most impact, and which one had the least impact. Race and sex were shown to have stronger relationships to transfer GPA. These variables only explain about 9% of grade variance; therefore, there are other factors that explain differences in the transfer GPA. The research concluded with a summary of the findings along with limitations of the study. Recommendations for practitioners and policy makers along with recommendations for future research were to study more variables, use other institutions, and perhaps to do a survey of the student population at community colleges.

While most public community colleges today advocate that they are open door and have liberal registration policies, there is little current research on the effects of late registration on student performance at the community college level. Community colleges need sound evidence in order to implement institutional practices and policies that will benefit students. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the effects of late registration on student success at a rural Mississippi community college and (2) to identify reasons that students register late. In examining the effects of late registration on student success the study focused on the success measures of student GPA, course withdrawal, and persistence. Data for the first study purpose were obtained from the records of students enrolled at the respective college during the fall 2011, 2012, and 2013 semesters. For the second study purpose data were obtained using a self-developed survey that was emailed to students who late registered during the fall 2014 semester. Independent samples t-test, chi-square, frequencies, and percentages were used for data analysis. Results of the study indicate that late registration has a significantly negative effect on student success. Results of the statistical analysis are presented in narrative and table form to answer the 4 research questions. The study concludes with a summary of findings and a discussion of the limitations of the study. Recommendations for practitioners and policymakers are discussed along with recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this study was to identify areas of agreement and disagreement between concert band music publisher difficulty grading systems and the perceptions of the band directors who program concert band music. Because no standard difficulty stratification for concert band music exists among publishers, band directors must rely on personal interpretations of diverse grading systems. This may complicate their programming and curriculum decisions. In the study, two questions were addressed: (a) Does a discrepancy exist between performance difficulty levels assigned to literature through publishers’ grading systems and concert band directors’ perceptions of this music’s difficulty level? (b) What criteria do concert band directors use to select music that is at an appropriate performance difficulty level for their concert bands? A sampling of 168 band directors from U.S. schools at the elementary through college levels completed a researcher-designed survey that focused on methods of selecting level-appropriate band literature. They reviewed excerpts from 10 published concert band pieces with a publishers’ difficulty level rated from Grade 1 (least difficult) to Grade 6 (most difficult), and offered their perceptions regarding each piece’s performance difficulty. Ratings were compared with publishers’ assigned difficulty levels. The degree of accord and discord between directors’ judgments and publishers’ grades were determined and discussed. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the relationship between publishers’ grading systems and concert band directors’ perceptions of musical difficulty levels. This understanding may assist instrumental music educators with the difficult and important task of band music selection and curriculum planning. / Music Education

The introduction of the Ministry of Education, curriculum guideline in Science, 1987, precipitated changes in Hamilton’s Glendale Secondary School Biology program. The primary aims of this project is to translate the Ministry document into a viable course that would both inform the students of the basic language of biology, and make the learning process enjoyable. This project outlines the development, implementation and evaluation of the grade 11 advanced level biology course (SBi3A) at Glendale. In the development of this course, the curricular component attempted to enhance learning by moving from general to specific concepts. To aid in this process the major concepts were organized into conceptual hierarchies that progressively differentiated the major principles and created a network of ideas. The instructional component which actually moves the information to the students uses a diversity of course designs. The variety in course designs allows us to use the best features of each format to accommodate both different rates of learning and various learning styles much more effectively. / Thesis / Master of Science (Teaching) / This thesis is missing pages 124, 127, 128 and 159. No other copy of this thesis has these pages.

The relationship between human health and nutrition is complex and limited widely accepted guidance on proper methods of evidence synthesis is available for nutritional issues. While concepts and methods of evidence synthesis in pharmacological treatments can be mostly applied to nutritional interventions, characteristics unique to the nutrition- and dietetics-related topics can lead to distinct challenges that may not be encountered in evidence synthesis of traditional medical interventions. In addition to traditional methods for pooling the results, state-of-the-art methodologies such as GRADE or network meta-analysis, while being widely used in many medical fields, their use in the field of nutrition and food science is surprisingly rare. This thesis begins with the assessment of methodological quality of available public health guidelines on sugar intake to determine the extent to which nutritional guidelines follow currently available guidance in evidence synthesis and making practice recommendations. Subsequently, we present two examples of proper implementation of evidence synthesis methods in standard pairwise meta-analysis and indirect treatment comparison and handling of relevant challenges including applications of GRADE approach. Further, this thesis presents a network meta-analysis in the field of nutrition and child health in which the challenges of conducting multiple treatment comparison are tackled and a new approach for presenting and making conclusion from network meta-analysis results is proposed. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)