The importance of using an indigenous language as a medium of school instruction has been discussed in world education for a long time. This study focuses on the influence of the presence of a native language in the learning process of the students and the impact on their academic achievement, emotional conditions, and post-school lives. A qualitative method of research was used in the study, comprising 12 interviews among Ukrainian/Russian adopted and nonadopted students who attended Utah schools. Information obtained through interviews presented language levels of students (both native and English), academic achievement, and emotional conditions of students during the period of adaptation and after several years' living in the U.S. Interviews also provided information about the roles of schools, friends, and families in the learning process for Language Learning Students and their development of native and English languages. All data in this research is the students' perception of their languages skills, academic achievements, emotional conditions, and support (provided or not) from schools and families. In the chosen cases, the study intends to see if presence of the native language during the learning process in the school keeps influencing students' lives after graduating high school and whether it has an effect on continuing education and job opportunities. This work provides some recommendations on how schools can arrange a positive environment for Language Learning Students, support their native language development, and interact with students' families to achieve the common goal of high academic success and emotional stability of students.

This study investigated the social factors affecting female Hispanic transfer students. The importance of the study relates to the relatively low graduation rates for this population and the fact that the Hispanics represent the fastest growing segment of the population in California. This study explored the topic through qualitative inquiry leading to the formation of a grounded theory. The population was limited to female Hispanic students under the age of 30, who transferred from a local 2 year college, and who applied for graduation. There were two groups: (a) neither parent attended college, and (b) at least one parent attended college. Data collection occurred in three stages: (a) collection and review of demographic data, (b) rating importance of involvement factors, and (c) guided questions to facilitate opportunity for discovery. The most universal finding was that family was their most influential social connection regarding support to attend and graduate from college. This finding was true irrespective of parental educational level. Most of the students felt their experience at the 2 year college was an extension of high school . All of the students had at least some fear about transferring and all of the students held down jobs while attending college. Each student had very a different experience in this process. This led the researcher to caution college and university decision makers to be careful not to oversimplify solutions to this issue. Faculty support was found to be particularly important in this study because the time students did spend on campus was almost exclusively in the classroom. This confirmed that faculty provides a key opportunity for individual attention and support for persisting to graduation. Other researchers should further examine the concept of the Three Connections in Social Integration : (a) personal connections, (b) extra curricular connections, and (c) academic connections. Examine the concept of the Five Stages to Graduation : (a) early experiences, (b) decision to attend the 2 year college, (c) the 2 year college experience, (d) transition, and (e) the 4 year college experience.

The research purpose was to investigate the relationship between motivation (i.e., Physiological needs, safety and security, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization) determined through the Need Satisfactory Inventory (NSI), gender (i.e., Male, Female) determined through the demographic survey, and the test score on the Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Examination (INACE), i.e., overall INACE performance and overall INACE performance based on six duty areas (i.e., communicating information, performing basic nursing skills, performing personal care, performing basic restorative skills, providing mental health-services, and providing for resident’s rights) of nurse aide students. The study explored the relationship between variables using a non-experimental, associational, and descriptive approach. All the research questions and hypotheses explored the relationship between variables (i.e., motivation and multiple-choice INACE performance) concerning the mean of overall INACE performance and means of INACE performance based on six duty areas using associational inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient r). Keywords: Motivation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Academic Achievement, Nurse Aide Students, Standardized Multiple-Choice Academic Test, Multiple Choice Questions, Academic Success, and Academic Performance

Persistence is an important issue in higher education (Tinto, 1987a). Although social and economic benefits of a college education are well documented (Baum & Ma, 2007; Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2004), during the last 100 years the college graduation rate has remained at approximately 50% (Education Policy Institute, 2004). While prior academic achievement has proven to be a successful predictor of success in college (Camara & Echtnernacht, 2000; Sadler, Cohen, & Kockesen, 1997; Tinto, 1993), it does not account for all the variability in student retention. Research has shown that other factors, including social adaptation, physical fitness, and emotional stability can contribute to whether an individual continues to persist past the first year of college (Astin, 1993; McClanahan, 2004; Tinto, 1987b). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-reported wellness and academic success in first-year health science college students. In addition the study sought to determine if the relationship between wellness and academic success differs by gender, academic program, or ethnicity. Also examined was whether the factors of wellness could be used to predict academic success. Wellness was defined using the Myers and Sweeney (2005) conceptual framework, as measured in a series of constructs, including the coping self, creative self, essential self, physical self, social self and an overall wellness score. Academic success was defined as first semester grade point average. The study also controlled for high school grade point average (HSGPA) and scholastic aptitude test score (SAT) as factors of prior academic achievement that may affect academic success in college. The findings suggest that the impact of wellness differs by ethnicity and academic program. In addition, certain factors of wellness can be used to help predict academic success in the first semester of college. Finally, overall wellness had little if any bearing on academic success in first-time, first-year students. / Ph. D.