A growing trend in high schools across the state is the use of dual credit and dual enrollment courses to better prepare high school students for college or the work force. Given the increase in dual credit and dual enrollment participation and the goal of creating a more seamless transition from high school to college, the effectiveness of these programs needs to be researched. The research hypothesis for this study states that students who participate in a dual credit and dual enrollment program during high school are more likely to complete an associate degree within 3 years than students who do not participate in dual credit and dual enrollment, when accounting for covariates such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status. This study examined the effectiveness of dual credit and dual enrollment programs, particularly with regard to associate degree completion, credit hour accumulation, and college GPA. The participants in this study were 1st-time, full-time students enrolled during Academic Year 2007 at 5 of the 15 community and junior colleges in state of Mississippi. The sample included 6,029 students, of which 255 had previously participated in a dual enrollment or dual credit program. This study revealed that dual credit and dual enrollment participation positively affects postsecondary outcomes for students enrolling in community colleges in the areas of associate degree completion and college GPA. Students who started college with prior experience in a dual credit or dual enrollment program were 2.51 times more likely to complete an associate degree within 3 years of first-time, full-time college enrollment than individuals who did not participate. Additionally, the study revealed that factors such as SES, gender, and race had an effect on college GPA; and that SES and race affected the number of credit hours earned by community college students. Given the positive outcomes resulting from participation in dual credit and dual enrollment programs, these programs certainly bear consideration for expansion and further study in the future, particularly given the growing availability of longitudinal data within statewide longitudinal data systems that have launched in recent years across the United States.

The majority of literature exploring high school completion and dropout has specifically investigated dropout percentages, reasons behind drop out, and what types of students decide to drop out. Information concerning alterable variables and why students complete high school is less abundant. Often, reasons behind high school dropout include variables that are out of the students' and schools' control. For instance, location (urban, rural, suburban), socioeconomic status (SES), and family education and support are not situations that can be easily altered by students or schools. As a result, the problem of high school dropout is more understood, but is not remediated. The purpose of the current study was to determine what influence, if any, social goals, degree of motivation/resiliency, and gender had on high school completion in an alternative high school. The alterable variables of social goals and motivation/resiliency were of particular interest to the researcher as the basis for potential interventions and strategies to be implemented by schools in order to improve graduation rates. Data were collected from 212 young men (n= 102) and women (n= 110) who began the 2007-08 school year at an alternative high school in Philadelphia, PA. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized for this study. Information regarding social goals and degree of motivation/resiliency was obtained with measures created by staff members at the school. Findings suggest that students who graduated from this alternative high school demonstrated more specific and realistic social goals as compared to students who dropped out. / School Psychology

This dissertation examines the strategies that students use for navigating their way through college and the steps they take in preparation for college graduation. I wrote this dissertation because I wanted to understand how students go from being freshmen not long out of high school to young adults prepared (or not prepared) to enter the workforce or attend graduate or professional school. Past research has found that as high school students, many young people are generally directionless when it comes to learning about different career paths (Schneider and Stevenson 2006). Moreover, in the U.S., there is very little structural support for helping students navigate the transition from student to worker. While universities may offer programs that can aid students in finding jobs or applying to graduate schools, it is largely up to students to seek these programs out. This dissertation therefore investigates the question, "How much do college students plan for their post-college lives?" To accomplish my research goals, I focus on two areas in which students may demonstrate planfulness: choosing a college major and planning for post-graduation careers or schooling. I seek to answer three general questions. First, what reasons do students give for attending college? Second, how planful are students when selecting their college majors? Third, how planful are students in preparing for their future educational and occupational goals? To answer these questions, I collected my own data using a mixed methodology research design that included in-depth interviews with 31 students and a survey of nearly 500 college seniors at a large, northeastern university. This study adds to the literature on the transition to adulthood by studying the school-to-work transition. It also contributes to the sociology of education literature by shedding light on how college students make decisions about college majors. The survey shows that many students simultaneously hold both utilitarian and liberal arts philosophies toward higher education. The majority of survey respondents reported that they were motivated to attend college because of both the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that a college education offers. Meanwhile, the in-depth interviews suggest that parental expectations, which were also commonly cited by survey respondents as reasons for attending college, are very powerful influences in students' decisions to attend college. Regarding college major choices, the survey results suggest that students find school experience more influential than the prospects of a potential career. In total, about two-thirds of respondents gave "present-oriented" rather than "future-oriented" reasons for choosing their majors. When looking at individual reasons for selecting a major, I found that passion for or interest in a subject was by far the reason cited most often as most important. The in-depth interview data provide further insight into the relationship between college majors and post-graduation plans. These interviews show that it is common for students to set post-graduation goals after they have chosen a college major. This was true regardless of whether students were present or future-oriented when making their initial college major decision. It was not unusual for students to select a major because of an interest in a particular occupation, but later decide that they no longer wanted to pursue that profession. Thus, I find that students can be future-oriented when selecting a major as freshmen or sophomores yet uncertain about their short-term post-graduation goals during their senior year. I also look at other ways that students can demonstrate planfulness, including seeking advice from others and participating in "development activities", which are activities that allow students to explore their interests. The survey shows that students vary in how often they seek advice from professors, advisors, and parents. On the other hand, most survey respondents participated in at least one development activity. The survey shows that social class was associated with these planfulness indicators. Both household income and parental education predicted the frequency with which students sought advice from their parents about choosing majors and making post-graduation plans. Family background was also associated with participating in activities that might help students explore their interests. Respondents from families with higher household incomes participated in more career-related activities than respondents from families with lower household incomes. Meanwhile, respondents with college-educated parents participated in more academic research activities than their classmates without college-educated parents. In my last analysis, I return to my qualitative research and introduce a typology of student planfulness that can be used to describe the different approaches students use in preparing for life after college graduation. In my conclusion, I suggest future areas of research that could extend our knowledge of student planfulness. I also provide policy recommendations that address how universities could help students make well-informed decisions about college majors, career goals, and plans for graduate study. / Sociology

Under the pressure of federal accountability for high schools in the United States to improve and maintain high rates of on-time graduation, online credit recovery has become an increasingly popular intervention to help students earn credit in a course that they have previously failed. While some studies have connected online credit recovery with positive outcomes for participants, others have found negative outcomes and poor learning experiences. Set in a large school division in Virginia, the purpose of this study was to (a) identify explanatory student factors that were associated with participation in online credit recovery and (b) compare the likelihood of on-time graduation of participants with the likelihood of on-time graduation of nonparticipants. Limited to the graduation cohorts of 2019 and 2020, there were 10,010 students in the sample from the participating school division. In the sample, 27% of students were eligible to participate in online credit recovery, but only 2.3% of students participated. Binary logistic regression models were designed to identify factors associated with participation and the likelihood of on-time graduation. Covariates considered for inclusion in the model were gender, race and ethnicity, status as an English learner, status as a student with a disability, status as homeless, status as economically disadvantaged, high school grade point average, and school. Both models failed to meet goodness of fit standards and were rejected as having fit the data. No student factors were found to have explained participation, and differences in the likelihood of on-time graduation were not identified. These findings indicated that there did not appear to be systemic participation given the studied factors, reinforced by the finding that participation was relatively uniformly distributed among the schools. The finding of a lack of significant difference in the likelihood of on-time graduation highlighted flexibility for schools in choosing their recovery interventions. State agencies may also consider collecting and publicly reporting data about student participation in online credit recovery. Opportunities for future studies include replication in other settings, particularly districts of different size and area/region, and qualitative inquiry into decisions made by school and district leaders related to credit recovery. / Doctor of Education / Under the pressure of federal accountability for on-time graduation rates, high schools have increasingly used online credit recovery to help at-risk students. Some studies have identified positive outcomes for students in online credit recovery; however, others have found negative outcomes and poor learning experiences. Set in a large school division in Virginia, the purpose of this study was to identify factors that were associated with participation in online credit recovery and the likelihood of on-time graduation of participants compared to non-participants. Limited to the graduation cohorts of 2019 and 2020, there were 10,010 students in the sample from the participating school division, of which 2.3% of students participated. Logistic regression models were created, and covariates considered for inclusion in the model were gender, race and ethnicity, status as an English learner, status as a student with a disability, status as homeless, status as economically disadvantaged, grade point average, and school. Both models failed to fit the data well; no associated factors were found, and graduation rates were not found to be significantly different. There did not appear to have been systemic participation, and schools appear to have flexibility in offering recovery interventions. State agencies may also consider collecting and publicly reporting of data about student participation in online credit recovery. Opportunities for future studies include replication in other settings and qualitative inquiry into decisions related to credit recovery.

Retirement from sport is a process that unfolds over time in which athletes have varied experiences, ranging from seamless transition to psychological distress. Researchers have sought to understand the variables (i.e., athletic identity, social support) that contribute to successful or unsuccessful transitions, with athletic identity being one of the most frequently mentioned. Athletes who strongly identify with the athlete role at the time of retirement are more at risk for adverse retirement outcomes (i.e., mental health concerns, identity concerns, substance use). To date, few studies have examined the moderating effect of coping resources, such as social support, on athletic identity at the time of retirement. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, we found that student-athletes who graduated and retired had lower athletic identity, higher alcohol use, and less perceived social support than their peers who continued competing four months after graduation. Second, we longitudinally examined the relationship of athletic identity and social support to the psychological well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and binge drinking) of collegiate student athletes who retired from sport. Neither T1 athletic identity nor T1 social support, nor their interaction, were related to T2 life satisfaction or T2 alcohol use in the retired student-athletes after controlling for gender and the respective T1 variables. Further, being female and T1 life satisfaction were the only significant predictors for T2 life satisfaction; T1 alcohol use was the only predictor of T2 alcohol use. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Early college entrance programs have existed in the United States since the 1950s, but in-depth research on academic success in these programs is lacking. Every year, early college entrance programs utilize a variety of data-gathering and candidate-screening techniques to select hundreds of students for admission into these accelerated programs. However, only a smattering of research articles has discussed the factors that predict academic success in these programs. This exploratory study investigated commonly-relied-upon admissions data points—such as high school GPA and ACT scores—and demographic information—such as sex, ethnicity, and locality—to see if any of these factors predicted academic success: namely, graduation and early college entrance program GPA. Secondary data from nearly 800 students admitted over an 11-year period to a state-supported, residential early college entrance program located at a large Southern university in the United States were utilized for this study. Logistic regression failed to yield a model that could accurately predict whether or not a student would graduate from the program. Multiple regression models showed that high school GPA and ACT scores were predictive of performance, and that factors like locality and ethnicity can have predictive power as well. However, the low variance in performance explained by the variables included in this study demonstrates that high school GPA, standardized test scores, locality, sex, and ethnicity can only tell us so much about a student's likelihood of success in an early college entrance program.

In 2002, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) was signed into law to help children in the United States receive quality education and learn the basic skills needed to be successful (Chadd & Drage, 2006). The central focus of this legislation is the core academic subjects, which are identified in the legislation as English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history and geography. Career and technical education (CTE) is not specifically mentioned in the legislation, which suggests that NCLB and the high-stakes testing associated with the accountability benchmarks could impact the future of CTE. Even though the primary expectation of high-stakes testing is to increase academic achievement in specific areas, many worthwhile school programs could suffer from unintended consequences of this high-stakes testing initiative. One of the strategies that many school districts are using to improve student performance in the core subject areas mentioned in the NCLB legislation is to devote more instructional time to the tested content subjects, such as reading, mathematics, social studies and science. Hence, the development of an unintended consequence of narrowing the curriculum offered to secondary students. As a result more CTE courses may be dropped from high school master schedules, which make the topic of specific concern for educational leaders (Gordon et al., 2007). School administrators and school leaders are concerned about school accreditation and student performance on state mandated tests. Therefore, examining career and technical education student performance on Virginia's Standards of Learning assessments and the graduation rates of CTE students would help to determine the impact of CTE enrollment on student achievement. As such, the impact of CTE on high-stakes testing in the Commonwealth of Virginia was the impetus for this topic of study. This purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the academic performance of CTE completers and non-CTE completers in the Commonwealth of Virginia on the Standards of Learning English and mathematics assessments, as well as cohort graduation rates. This quantitative study used descriptive statistics, such as mean and standard deviation, to determine if their pass rates and graduation rates differ during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 school years. A t-test was used to determine if they differ significantly from each other. Findings indicate that statistically (p<.05), CTE completers had higher mathematics and Grade 11 English reading pass rates from those of non-CTE completers. The CTE completers in this study also demonstrated higher cohort graduation rates. It appears that a concentration of career and technical education makes a positive impact the pass rates of students on the Standards of Learning assessments and cohort graduation rates. / Doctor of Education

The educational plight of the urban student athlete is often associated with academic underachievement. This study researched the effects of minimum academic standards on athletes to increase their academic success, attendance rates, reduce discipline infractions and subsequently, increase graduation rates. Vidal- Fernandez (2011) conducted a study on the effect minimum academic requirements to participate in sports had on high school graduation. Students who were involved in a sport had significantly higher grade point averages during their sport season compared to their grade point averages when the students were not in season. Schools invest large amounts of resources into sports activities under the well-supported assumption that these activities increase levels of student outcomes. If engagement in athletics significantly improves the likelihood of academic success, then school leaders should choose to target resources and efforts at increasing participation, especially for at-risk and failing students (Vidal-Fernandez, 2011). In this quantitative study to determine what impact athletics have on the student's academic performance, the researcher collected existing data on the high school football teams for two semesters prior to a system wide 2.0 GPA policy to play and two semesters after the implementation of the 2.0 GPA play policy. Independent variables (attendance, discipline and GPA) and dependent variables (participation in football, academic coach or no academic coach, and athletic coach) were collected, and these variables were then measured and analyzed using relevant statistical procedures. Many of the student athletes in this study increased their accountability for their academic achievement in order to achieve higher GPAs in order to participate in athletics. Although not statistically significant, the data showed there was an increase in the overall district GPA for football players in the division after the implementation of the 2.0 GPA rule. Another important finding, student mobility (transiency) was notable at each high school during the three-year span of the study. While the present study only analyzed a district sample of athletes, the results could assist parents, coaches, and school administrators in monitoring the academic success of the school system's athletes. / Ed. D.

This study used semi-structured interviews of athletic directors to present a descriptive narrative of academic support provided to student athletes in five Southern California high schools. These interviews highlighted what supports were provided as well as structures that would better support student athletes. The impetus of this study was the mixed findings regarding the academic performance of student athletes in comparison to their non-athlete peers. While high school students must satisfy academic requirements to remain eligible to participate, California high schools are not required to provide academic support to their student athletes (California Interscholastic Federation, 2017). Without an obligation to provide academic support, some schools may not (or cannot) invest in the resources needed to ensure that student athletes remain academically eligible, causing further disparate outcomes. The purpose of this research was to investigate what academic supports were being provided by five Southern California high schools to ensure that all student athletes were eligible to play their sport while achieving academic success. Additionally, the study further uncovered what structures athletic directors believed would better support their student athletes. This study applied the Total Person Program (TPP), a framework utilized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), as a basis of holistic supports for student athletes. Through analysis of the interviews, the researcher curated strategies that were being used to support the academic performance of student athletes and synthesized the ideas about structures that would better support student athletes. The results revealed that a collaborative approach is needed to implement various academic supports. The athletic directors identified that structures need to change to address the variance in academic performance and support student athletes with applying to college. Findings also point to the leadership capacity of athletic directors.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudia Barrozo de Queiroz e Ataides.pdf: 1059626 bytes, checksum: 97c902d985004b5a0f60e820d0305532 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-12-12 / This research investigates the post-graduation, presenting it as a social scenario that constitutes subjectivities. Through the means of indicators produced in monthly meetings with nine post-graduate students, carried out between March 2004 and May 2005, social subjectivity, a category developed by González Rey (2003), and specially sociometry, a category proposed by Moreno (1992), are explored aiming to broaden the reflection about the subjective social processes that structure the actions and inter-relations in the academy, constitute the post-graduates, and mold their writing. Social subjectivity refers to the existence of a social context of subjectivization that constitutes the subject and is constituted by it in a dynamic and reciprocal process. Sociometric analysis helps the investigation of complex processes related to choices, acceptances, rejections, mutual or not, which configure a social reality that is not apparent and many times is in dissonance with the official truth about the relations. Throughout the period of this research, three scenarios for analyses were designed: the post-graduation classroom, the dyad advisor-postgraduate student, and the post-graduate students private life. The results of the present research point to the need of reflection about the non-official forms of how the theoretical-methodological diversity is experienced in the post-graduation. In the analysis, the subject whom the academic society is committed with is questioned: on the one hand there is the autonomous subject, who is reflexive and able to live with and dialogue with diversity; on the other hand, there is the adherent subject, who is passive and involved in situations of subordination and commited with the dialogue between peers, in a self-confirmation exercise. The results here obtained also emphazise the need of rethinking the parameters that regulate the practice of advising in the post-graduation. / Esta pesquisa investiga a pós-graduação apresentando-a como cenário social de constituição de subjetividades. A partir de indicadores produzidos em encontros mensais com nove mestrandos, realizados entre os meses de março de 2004 e maio de 2005, a subjetividade social, categoria criada por González Rey (2003) e as forças sociopsicológicas, em especial a sociometria, categoria proposta por Moreno (1992), são exploradas com o intuito de ampliar a reflexão sobre os processos sociais subjetivos que estruturam as ações e inter-relações na academia, constituem os mestrandos e moldam suas escritas. A subjetividade social refere-se à existência de um contexto social de subjetivação que constitui o sujeito e é constituído por ele em processo dinâmico e recíproco. A análise sociométrica auxilia na investigação de processos complexos relacionados a escolhas, aceitações, rejeições, mútuas ou não, que configuram uma realidade social não aparente e muitas vezes em dissonância com a verdade oficial sobre as relações. No decorrer desta pesquisa delinearam-se três cenários de análise: a sala de aula de mestrado, a dupla de orientação e a vida privada dos mestrandos. Os resultados da presente pesquisa apontam para a necessidade de reflexão sobre as formas não-oficiais de como a diversidade teórico-metodológica é vivenciada na pós-graduação. Na análise questiona-se com qual sujeito se compromete a sociedade acadêmica: de um lado está o sujeito autônomo, reflexivo e capaz de conviver e dialogar com a diversidade; de outro, está o sujeito aderente , passivo, envolvido em situações de subordinação e comprometido com o diálogo entre iguais, num exercício de auto-confirmação. Os resultados obtidos também enfatizam a necessidade de se repensar os parâmetros que regulamentam a prática da orientação na pós-graduação.