<p> Adolescents and young adults use more tobacco than all other adults, yet the percentage of this younger population eventually quitting the use of tobacco is lower. There is little evidence-based research to support adolescent smoking cessation programs. Using social learning theory (SLT) and the stages of change model, the purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Not-On-Tobacco (N-O-T) program, an evidence-based adolescent smoking cessation program, in reducing or preventing the number of cigarettes smoked by high school boarding students and to evaluate how best to individualize the program for this high school going forward. The DNP questions were asked to see to what extent the N-O-T program would reduce the prevalence of student smoking and what changes to the current program curriculum should be made to tailor the program to this particular high school. Pre- and post survey data were obtained from 10 students 15-17 years of age enrolled in the N-O-T program for violating the campus&rsquo; tobacco-free policy. A secondary data analysis using paired samples t test did not determine a statistically significant effect on smoking cessation in this small population of students. The findings did show a significant positive correlation between those who found the program &ldquo;very helpful&rdquo; and a decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked pre- and post program. Content analysis of student data resulted in recommendations to modify the program to make it more effective for this school. Awareness of interactions and relationships with others and successfully dealing with social changes through a program like the N-O-T program will lead to increased life-long health benefits, decreased medical costs, and lost productivity associated with tobacco use. School nurses are in an ideal position to implement a successful smoking cessation program. </p><p>

<p> This mixed-methods case study examined the impact of a mandatory service-learning intervention college preparatory elective class on at-risk students in a Southern California charter high school. At-risk was defined as, disadvantaged high school students from low income families and possessing poor health, cognitive problems and/or behavior issues that might hinder educational attainment. The embedded design analyzed two years of archival data from four student cohorts (<i>n</i> = 133), all of whom had the same instructor, who was trained to lead the class. The study included a quantitative survey taken by the students at the program&rsquo;s beginning and end, demographic information, students&rsquo; GPAs, attendance records, and reflective journals and notes from the teacher of the class. </p><p> The examination of academic achievements of participating students found that student participants increased their school attendance and overall GPA following completion of the class. Including student voice in instructional activities and reflection in writing journals contributed to developing the students&rsquo; understanding of leadership capabilities. These leadership capabilities included their change in self-awareness that they and their friends could assume positive leadership roles. Following the class, female students significantly increased their participation in clubs and organizations on campus. </p><p> During data analyses, the data coders noted that over the course of the study, the instructor became more focused and included more activities into the class. In year one more than 50% of students were unable to participate in the service-learning project (SLP) prior to the semester&rsquo;s completion. In year two, the program instructor decreased the time spent on formal curriculum to allow students the opportunity to increase their time spent working on actual SLP. Since then, the service-learning program has been embraced by students and administration as these at-risk students build relationships with their peers and identify student leaders based on their experiences in the ACT program. </p><p> Recommendations include that the SLP increase hands-on activities and seek formal opportunities to engage students in diverse communities. In that process, the SLP should garner student input in the implementation and design of the SLP to ensure that the curriculum, activities and projects remain relevant to at-risk SLP students.</p><p>

<p> As the achievement gap between African American and Latino students and their White counterparts continues to grow, lawmakers are searching for ways to decrease the disparity. As a result, college access programs that focus on improving basic skills and strengthening academic achievement have become essential to fostering student success. With Upward Bound being one of the longest running federally funded college access programs, its success and effectiveness have been the focus of several studies. Surprisingly, very little qualitative phenomenological research exists that is solely devoted to student perceptions. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the impact of Upward Bound, and its relation to postsecondary success, but from the perspective of former program participants. Eight former Upward Bound participants completed the data collection process, which included completing a demographic survey and participating in a 60-minute interview that consisted of sixteen open-ended questions. The study was conducted on the campus of a public community college in a large urban city in Southern California. Key findings of this study indicated that tutoring, summer college classes, workshops, field trips to college campuses, motivation and attention beyond high school from program staff were significant in helping students achieve postsecondary success. The conclusion of the study indicated that the participants did believe that Upward Bound had a positive influence on their decision to go to college and ultimately helped them achieve postsecondary success.</p><p>

<p> The local high school and school district have failed to achieve adequate yearly progress in reading due to the poor performance of 9th-grade and special education students on the annual state reading assessment. There may be numerous factors leading to the low scores, but researchers have suggested that students whose parents are engaged in their education have more academic success than students whose parents have minimal participation. An explanatory survey design was used in this quantitative study to identify the involvement activities of parents of 9th-grade students and determine if there was a relationship between their involvement and their child&rsquo;s reading achievement. The theoretical framework was Epstein&rsquo;s theory on parental involvement. Archival data from the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness-end of course English I/reading test of 65 9th-grade students were coded for anonymity and matched with their parents&rsquo; total scores on the Parent Choice of Involvement Activities survey. Data analyzed using the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis yielded no significant relationship between parent involvement and students&rsquo; reading scores. Descriptive analysis identified that parents were more involved with educational activities in the home, rather than participating at school. Therefore, a school-based parent development program was designed. Additional research is needed to explore other reasons for the poor reading outcome of the 9th-grade and special education students. Providing parents with strategies that empower them to become fully involved in the secondary education of their children can bring about positive social change by building strong relationships between the school, family, and community to support the academic achievement of high school students.</p><p>

<p> Racial disparities in educational achievement have been a persistent phenomenon in the United States. This inequity has been described as educational &ldquo;opportunity gaps&rdquo;, &ldquo;education debts&rdquo;, and &ldquo;achievement gaps&rdquo;. Education debt refers to the year after year amassed racial and ethnic achievement gaps that result in a debt for most minoritized groups in comparison to White and Asian students. Despite the repeated significance of focusing on education inequalities concerning race and ethnicity, there is a paucity of research that examines the interrelatedness of school climate and academic achievement specifically with respect to racial and ethnic differences. The ecology of human development framework provides a complex lens to better understand the students&rsquo; experiences in the environment of the school. For this quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to answer the research questions about the extent that high school students&rsquo; perceptions of school climate predicted their self-reported grades, whether they differed as a function of students&rsquo; race and ethnicity, and whether the magnitude between race/ethnicity groups was substantial. Overall, evidence was found for the unceasing and persisting education debt for minoritized groups regarding their grades, but also in connection to the influence of school aspects on their academic achievement. For Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students the results indicated an intensification of the education debt through the considerably lower impact of school climate characteristics on grades than for White and Asian. For Mixed, Latin@, and Other the debt appeared to be unchanging due to similarly small impacts as for White and Asian, yet, not lessening due to their lower grades.</p><p>

<p> Choosing curriculum is an essential part of what teachers do to ensure students are successful learners. Students in rural areas may feel many current educational practices are biased toward urban education or may not see the need for education in their lives. Connecting students to their &ldquo;place&rdquo; through place-based learning may help rural students become engaged learners and active community members. Place-based learning is a curriculum designed around the locations near students. Students help create the curriculum by using essential questions and inquiry. Although often used in science and social studies classrooms, place-based learning may be used in the secondary English language arts classroom. This study looks at the advantages and disadvantages of using place-based curriculum in a rural secondary English language arts classroom and determines what implications there are for using place-based curriculum as a regular aspect of the rural secondary English classroom. Using surveys, interviews, reflective student writings, and observational data of community members and students, this case study shows one rural secondary English language arts classroom&rsquo;s place-based learning experience.</p><p>

<p> This mixed-methods study analyzed student perceptions regarding the impact of career and technical education (CTE) programs on student engagement, mind-set, support of teachers, and school climate. The Tripod 7C instrument was utilized to gather quantitative data, while focus groups were utilized for gathering qualitative data. Survey results showed statistically significant differences between CTE and non-CTE subjects in the areas of <i>care, captivate, </i> and <i>clarify.</i> These findings were used to develop the questions and structure for the focus group discussions. The focus groups revealed four student-perception themes: <i>teacher, environment, student engagement,</i> and <i>content.</i> In the settings studied, CTE programs were noted to have significantly higher levels of student engagement, environments that are welcoming and warm, and caring adults.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students&rsquo; high school Project Lead They Way participation and their subsequent academic success in post-secondary engineering studies and to assess to what degree, if any, their level of Project Lead The Way (PLTW) participation, gender, and AALANA status (African American, Latino/a American and Native American) effected this success. </p><p> PLTW is the nation&rsquo;s single largest provider of pre-engineering curriculums, the subject of this research study, currently being offered in over 3,200 secondary schools nationwide. Despite this level of integration, the amount of research on PLTW&rsquo;s effectiveness has been very limited. To date, the majority of the literature on PLTW has examined its impact on students&rsquo; high school academic performance or their desire to further their engineering studies. The findings from these studies have been overwhelmingly positive, indicating that PLTW students often had greater achievements in math and science and either plan to, or have actually enrolled, in post-secondary studies at higher rates. Nevertheless, the amount of literature on PLTW&rsquo;s effects on students&rsquo; academic success in post-secondary engineering studies is very limited. Furthermore, no research has yet to examine for the moderating effects of gender, ethnicity, or level of PLTW participation on students&rsquo; post-secondary academics success. </p><p> The population of interest for this research study was 1,478 students who entered an undergraduate engineering program from 2007 to 2009 at a privately endowed, co-educational university located in the northeastern United States. </p><p> The findings of this research study were that virtually all the effects of PLTW participation, gender, and AALANA status had on academic success were observed during students&rsquo; freshmen and sophomore years. These effects were positive for PLTW participation, and adverse for female and AALANA students. Additionally, PLTW participation, gender, and AALANA status only explained a small amount of the variance for each of the academic success metrics. These conclusions suggest that future research on PLTW should focus on the first and second year of study and expand the factors examined, both quantitative and qualitative, to gain a greater understanding of the complex factors that influence students&rsquo; initial academic success in post-secondary engineering studies.</p><p>

<p> Extensive research confirms that a high school diploma has a lasting value on future educational opportunities and career goals. Some students, in their transition to high school, can harm grade point averages to such a degree that future opportunities for rigorous courses or post high school opportunities are diminished. Caring relationships are a critical element in the motivation and encouragement of most of life&rsquo;s endeavors and the purposeful creating of this type of relationship within the school day could have a positive impact on a student's&rsquo; success. The improvement in semester grades for the first semester of high school could only serve to increase the probability of future success in school. </p><p> This quantitative study, utilizing a quasi-experimental design, looked at the immediate impact of using teachers as mentors for struggling students during the first semester of their transitional year of high school at a suburban, middle-class high school in the Pacific Northwest. The students were not aware that the teacher had been assigned to them, hence the term invisible mentor, in order to examine the impact of natural forming relationships. </p><p> Two-sample t-tests were conducted on the mean grade point averages of the struggling students who had invisible mentors for their transitional semester into high school. The results conclude that such a mentoring program had a positive impact on the first semester grades of the first semester of high school. Linear regression scatter plots showed positive relationship between the frequency of interactions that an invisible mentor has with a mentee and their academic improvement, as measured by GPA. This study scratches the surface into the impact of invisible mentoring for struggling students in this suburban, Pacific Northwest school district. Additional research may serve to strengthen these initial findings that promote the academic improvement of struggling students.</p><p>

<p> College application behaviors among students who are similarly prepared vary by socioeconomic status. Recent research suggests that undermatching is a growing trend, especially among low-income students. Undermatching has detrimental consequences for students who possess the potential to succeed at a selective college, but fail to apply, leading to reduced student success and poor economic outcomes. While literature about factors that affect a student&rsquo;s decision to attend college is abundant, a focus on the selection of college is still limited. A literature review examined how college choice changed over time, and how future trends in students&rsquo; college application behaviors might develop.</p><p> This quantitative study used a cross-sectional survey design. Demographic variables were collected along with the results from the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV). A paper-and-pencil survey was used to collect data about participants&rsquo; race, gender, academic achievement, socioeconomic status, identity orientation, and college choices. In this study, college choice was measured by college selectivity scores, which are annually assigned by the <i>U.S. News &amp; World Report.</i> Surveys were administered to 341 twelfth grade students in a California public high school.</p><p> Results revealed that both race and academic achievement are significant predictors (<i>R</i>² = .422) of college selectivity. Inferential analysis reported that Asian participants (<i>M</i> = 2.75) had a higher mean college selectivity score than Filipino (<i> M</i> = 1.91) and Latino/a (<i>M</i> = 1.99) participants. These findings suggest that Filipino students require support systems that may be different from those available to Asian students.</p><p> The findings also suggest that academic achievement is associated with participants&rsquo; college choices. Participants who reported high academic achievement levels had higher college selectivity scores, regardless of socioeconomic status, concluding that undermatching was not found for low-income participants at this research site. This is noteworthy because it is different from what literature reports is a negative outcome among low-income students. This suggests there may be external factors that can have a positive impact on college choices in order to overcome the typical effects of social class on college attainment. Future research can investigate policies and practices at high college-matching schools to explain how to improve college application behaviors.</p>