Grades awarded to undergraduate students at Brigham Young University over a 20-year period were analyzed to determine to what extent the mean GPA may have increased. Study variables included enrolled freshman mean ACT, enrolled freshman mean AP credits, faculty research productivity, student evaluations of teaching (SET), and a university policy change regarding course withdrawal dates and calculating students' mean GPA. Other study variables included the overall grading philosophy of the college or school (normative, mastery, or other) and the course level (upper division, lower division). The study employed a regression model with splines for the residual, or yearly trend. Upper division courses have higher mean GPA than lower division courses, and mean GPA in mastery-based grading colleges are higher than in normative-based grading colleges. Mean GPA in upper division courses are consistently higher than mean GPA of lower courses, regardless of college grouping, but the difference between the upper and lower division mean GPA scores of the normative-grading classification is significantly larger than the difference between upper and lower division mean GPA of the other two grading classifications. Faculty research productivity had no impact on mean GPA. SET scores are highly correlated with college grading philosophy and course level and did not further predict mean GPA. The university policy change had no statistically significant effect on most mean GPA, but there is a marginally significant negative local effect on mean GPA of the lower division normative courses, as well as a marginally significant positive effect on mean GPA of lower division mastery courses. Grade trends vary between colleges with differing grading philosophies. They also likely vary across departments within colleges and from course to course within departments. Trends also differ between course level. Except for the non-significant effect of the policy change, mean GPA trends across most categories at the university have leveled off for more than a decade and are likely to remain so. Study results indicate there is no reason for alarm and that no systemic, rampant pattern of grade inflation is evident.

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The transition to high school is a critical juncture of a student's educational career. The type of ninth grade transition program a high school has in place can be a deciding factor regarding whether students 'make it or break it' during their first year and, ultimately, have success throughout all of high school. Currently, resources are available about different aspects of the ninth grade transition, but nothing provides principals with a research-based and practitioner-endorsed comprehensive approach to designing and implementing a ninth grade transition program. A comprehensive approach starts with proper goals and objectives, includes essential specific components and ingredients needed in a ninth grade transition program, and requires data or measures to judge the effectiveness of the program. Therefore, a Delphi study was undertaken to answer the following research question: What should be the goals/objectives of a comprehensive ninth grade transition program (i.e., academic success alone or are there other things that also are important)? The secondary questions focused on the components or ingredients that are essential and how to evaluate the success of a ninth grade transition program. This Delphi study included three rounds during which data were gathered from a 20-member panel of experts that included both national leaders and education practitioners. The panel produced 21 consensus items on goals/objectives of a ninth grade transition program, 10 consensus items on essential components of a ninth grade transition program, and 15 consensus items on the data/measures to evaluate the success of a ninth grade transition program. Results indicated that transition programs need to address both academic and social/emotional needs of students. The data provided evidence that principals need to take great care in teacher quality, instructional practices, and a systematic approach to monitoring the performance of ninth grade students as well as ensuring students make a positive connection with an adult in the school. / Ed. D.

Transition programs designed to ease the middle to high school transition are becoming a necessity in high school because ninth grade is deemed as a critical year for determining students’ success in high school. Few studies examined transition programs’ impact on students’ educational outcomes, and transition research is typically conducted in inner-city or urban settings. The purpose of this case study was to examine the impact of a full transition model program on ninth grade students’ performance in a rural high school. A comparison of the students who participated in the transition program to those who did not was examined by using a mixed method approach. The qualitative data consisted of the ninth grade teachers and administrators’ perceptions and the program documents. The quantitative data consisted of a chi-square analysis of the transition and nontransition program students’ pass rate of high stakes tests, earned credits, retention status, out-of-school suspensions, dropout status, and attendance. The study also examined if specific groups of students as categorized by race, gender, and socioeconomics were impacted more by the transition program. The findings of this study suggested that the transition program may have eased the transition by providing support to ninth grade students to improve their conduct. The quantitative evidence does not show other significant benefits from the transition program, however. Improving academic performance still remains a challenge for this rural high school. / Ph. D.

Aggression/victimization in school is a problem that is associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors which may develop into long term emotional problems for the child.Sixth grade is a transitional period in a child's life, whereby a child experiences hormonal changes, enters a new school and establishes social status. Depending on the child's emotional well-being, these are antecedents that are related to experiencing aggression/victimization. Children develop within a context. Within this context there are parents, adults, siblings, peersand teachers whereby the child learns behaviors through proximal and distal interactions which may impact the child's life either positively or negatively. Within this context the child developsresilience, which is a protective factor that enables the child to "bounce back" from negative situations. The goal of this study is to establish a connection between the environment in which achild develops and the impact emotional well-being, peers and adults have on a child in relation to experiencing aggression and ultimately becoming a victim. The findings indicate that childrenwho suffer from emotional distress are more likely to become victims and children who have supportive adults in their lives are less likely to become victims. Overall, emotional distressplays a negative role and resilience plays a positive and protective role in a child's life. This outcome suggests that prevention/interventions should be created whereby a child has more supportive adults in their lives creating a resilient environment.

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The problem of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of the Cuisenaire method of teaching arithmetic to fourth graders, as compared with a traditional conventional method. Furthermore, a secondary aspect of the problem was to compare performances of the experimental and control groups when classified according to sex.

This study examined the effect of a freshmen transition program on student success. Success was measured by achievement in test scores and grades, retention, attendance, and discipline. This study also examined the differential effects of student outcomes by student characteristics to include, sex, race, previous middle school, economic status, disability status, and proficiency in English. There were no significant differences between participant and control groups in the bivariate analysis. There were limited findings when considering students characteristics. There were main effects on Earth Science and World Geography test scores when previous middle school was held as a constant, and there was a main effect on the Earth Science test when disability status was held as a constant. There were two interaction effects. One of these was a negative effect in which males in the participant group actually scored worse on the Algebra I SOL score than did males in the control group. The other interaction effect was that black students in the participant group had fewer disciplinary incidents than did black students in the control group.