821 resultados para Academic achievement
Resumo:
The purpose of this study was to examine the factorsbehind the failure rates of Associate in Arts (AA)graduates from Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC) transferring to the Florida State University System (SUS). In M-DCC's largest disciplines, the university failure rate was 13% for Business & Management, 13% for Computer Science, and 14% for Engineering. Hypotheses tested were: Hypothesis 1 (H1): The lower division (LD) overall cumulative GPA and/or the LD major field GPA for AA graduates are predictive of the SUS GPA for the Business Management, Computer Science, and Engineering disciplines. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Demographic variables (age, race, gender) are predictive of performance at the university among M-DCC AA graduates in Engineering, Business & Management, and Computer Science. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Administrative variables (CLAST -College Level Academic Skills Test subtests) are predictive of university performance (GPA) for the Business/Management, Engineering, and Computer Science disciplines. Hypothesis 4 (H4): LD curriculum variables (course credits, course quality points) are predictive of SUS performance for the Engineering, Business/Management and Computer Science disciplines. Multiple Regression was the inferential procedureselected for predictions. Descriptive statistics weregenerated on the predictors. Results for H1 identified the LD GPA as the most significant variable in accounting for the variability of the university GPA for the Business & Management, Computer Science, and Engineering disciplines. For H2, no significant results were obtained for theage and gender variables, but the ethnic subgroups indicated significance at the .0001 level. However, differentials in GPA may not have been due directly to the race factor but, rather, to curriculum choices and performance outcomes while in the LD. The CLAST computation variable (H3) was a significant predictor of the SUS GPA. This is most likely due to the mathematics structure pervasive in these disciplines. For H4, there were two curriculum variables significant in explaining the variability of the university GPA (number of required critical major credits completed and quality of the student's performance for these credits). Descriptive statistics on the predictors indicated that 78% of those failing in the State University System had a LD major GPA (calculated with the critical required university credits earned and quality points of these credits) of less than 3.0; and 83% of those failing at the university had an overall community college GPA of less than 3.0.
Resumo:
Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. ^ This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. ^ The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.^
Resumo:
Parent involvement (PI) in schooling has consistently been correlated with improved academic achievement in children. However, despite the apparent benefits of parent involvement, many schools serving low-income communities report consistent difficulty in facilitating the involvement of parents in their children's schooling. The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to examine key variables associated with a PI program at a school that served a low-income community. The program was selected because it sustained the involvement of parents for a prolonged period of time. It was also selected because the program was facilitated by social workers. Derived from the literature, four lines of inquiry were examined: (a) the relationship between PI and parent strengths and development; (b) the relationship between PI and children's academic achievement; (c) facilitators for PI; and (d) barriers to PI. These lines of inquiry yielded the study's four primary research questions. The study employed a cross-sectional research design to address them. Thirty-three parents, representing 16 school-involved (SI) parents and 17 nonschool involved (NSI) parents, served as study participants. All 33 parents resided in a high poverty community. Quantitative methods were selected to examine differences between study participants and PI. Measures of parental empowerment, social support, self-esteem, and direct and indirect measures of their children's academic achievement were utilized. Qualitative methods were developed to identify and describe SI and NSI parents' perceptions of facilitators for and barriers to PI. This study's findings suggest that PI may yield important benefits for SI parents. These benefits include parents' perceptions of their empowerment, social support, and self-esteem. This study's findings also suggest a relationship between PI and reduced rates of children's school suspensions. This study did not, however, support relationships between PI and children's standardized test scores. This study concludes that despite the apparent benefits of PI for SI parents, PI may nonetheless be a proxy for several unspecified interventions that effect parents, children, schools and communities alike. More precise specifications and robust measures of PI are needed.
Resumo:
Juvenile crime is a social problem of increasing concern to many citizens in the United States. In 2000, there were an estimated 2.4 million juvenile arrests for a variety of crimes ranging from misdemeanors to violent felony offenses. African American males are disproportionately represented among juvenile offenders in the United States. In 2000, black youth were approximately 16% of the U.S. population between the ages of 10-17; however, they accounted for 42% of juvenile arrests for violent crime. This study explored putative factors associated with juvenile offending among a sample of African American adolescent males. The independent variables in this study were academic achievement, religiosity, parenting styles and discrimination. The dependent variables were delinquent behavior and arrest. The data used in this study were from a larger NIDA funded longitudinal study that included approximately 425 African American youths. The data collection method involved structured interviews and questionnaires. The participants for the original study were selected via random sampling from all students attending middle school in Miami-Dade County. The study examined the hypotheses that African American males retrospectively reporting (a) high academic achievement, (b) high religiosity, (c) authoritarian parenting and (d) low perceptions of discrimination are less likely to be involved in delinquent behavior and are also less likely to be arrested. Results indicated that among African American adolescent males, delinquent behavior had a significant relationship (p The findings indicated that experimental studies are needed to clarify cause and effect relationship among the variables associated with juvenile offending among African American males, which may differ from those associated with juvenile offending among other groups.
Resumo:
Parce quil est notamment li des facteurs de russite scolaire et dadaptation sociale (Eccles & Roeser, 2009; Finn, 1989; Janosz, Georges, & Parent, 1998), le sentiment dappartenance des lves est considr comme tant un lment de premire instance qui doit dtre dvelopp et maintenu par les professionnels de lducation (MELS, 2012). L'objectif gnral visait approfondir notre comprhension du sentiment dappartenance lcole. Pour rpondre cet objectif gnral, trois articles de recherche distincts ont t labors. Le premier article prsente une analyse conceptuelle visant clarifier la comprhension du concept de sentiment dappartenance lcole. La mthode conceptuelle privilgie dans cet article est celle de Walker et Avant (2011). La recension des crits et les rfrents empiriques rpertoris indiquent que ce concept est de nature multidimensionnelle. Lanalyse des donnes indique quatre attributs dfinitionnels. Llve doit : (1) ressentir une motion positive lgard du milieu scolaire; (2) entretenir des relations sociales de qualit avec les membres du milieu scolaire; (3) simpliquer activement dans les activits de la classe ou celles de lcole; (4) percevoir une certaine synergie (harmonisation), voir mme une similarit, avec les membres de son groupe. la suite de cette tude permettant de mieux comprendre le sentiment dappartenance lcole, le deuxime article visait examiner la structure factorielle et l'invariance de linstrument de mesure du sentiment dappartenance Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) au regard du sexe des lves. Cette tude a t mene chez un chantillon compos de 766 filles et de 391 garons de troisime secondaire. Les analyses factorielles confirmatoires ont indiqu une structure trois facteurs : (1) la qualit des relations entre les lves; (2) la qualit des relations entre les lves et lenseignant; ainsi que (3) le sentiment dacceptation par le milieu. Les analyses factorielles multigroupes ont indiqu pour leur part que le PSSM est un instrument invariant chez les filles et les garons de troisime secondaire. Finalement, le troisime article a t men chez un chantillon de 4166 lves de niveau secondaire afin dexaminer les processus psychologiques complexes soprant entre le sentiment dappartenance et le rendement scolaire (Anderman & Freeman, 2004; Connell & et al., 1994; Roeser et al., 1996). Afin dexaminer ces processus psychologiques, quatre hypothses issues du modle de Freeman-Anderman ont t valides par le biais danalyses acheminatoires : H1 Les affects positifs mdiatisent partiellement et positivement leffet du sentiment dappartenance sur lengagement comportemental; H2 Les affects positifs mdiatisent partiellement et positivement leffet du sentiment dappartenance sur lengagement affectif; H3 Les affects positifs mdiatisent partiellement et positivement leffet du sentiment dappartenance sur lengagement cognitif; H4 Les engagements affectif, cognitif et comportemental mdiatisent partiellement et positivement leffet du sentiment dappartenance sur le rendement scolaire. Nos rsultats appuient partiellement la premire hypothse de recherche tout en soutenant les hypothses deux, trois et quatre. Spcifiquement, la relation entre le sentiment dappartenance et lengagement motionnel montre davantage un effet direct quun effet indirect (H2). Ltude a produit des rsultats similaires pour lengagement cognitif (H3). Finalement, la relation entre le sentiment dappartenance et le rendement scolaire indique un effet indirect plus grand quun effet direct (H4). la lumire de ces rsultats, des recommandations lintention des professionnels de lducation sont offertes en guise de conclusion.
Resumo:
La prsente tude a pour but de vrifier si le QI et le sentiment de comptence interagissent lorsque llve doit performer lcole et si, en loccurrence, cette interaction est son tour modre par lge et le sexe des participants. Afin de vrifier ces hypothses, les variables suivantes ont t tudies chez 928 lves de souche francocanadienne frquentant des coles montralaises de niveau secondaire : la moyenne en mathmatiques, le QI, le sentiment de comptence en mathmatiques, lge, le sexe et le statut socioconomique. Tel que prvu, le QI et le sentiment de comptence en mathmatiques corrlent de faon positive et significative avec la moyenne en mathmatiques de llve. Les analyses montrent galement une interaction significative entre le QI et le sentiment de comptence. Une fois dcompose, cette interaction indique que chez les lves qui ont un sentiment de comptence lev, la valeur prdictive du QI est plus leve, alors que la relation entre le QI et la performance ne change pas de faon significative chez les lves qui prsentent un faible sentiment de comptence. Enfin, ni lge ni le sexe de llve ninfluencent linteraction entre le QI et le rendement scolaire, pas plus quils ne sont corrls avec le rendement scolaire. Les implications cliniques de cette recherche sont discutes.
Resumo:
Background: Internationally, tests of general mental ability are used in the selection of medical students. Examples include the Medical College Admission Test, Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test and the UK Clinical Aptitude Test. The most widely used measure of their efficacy is predictive validity.A new tool, the Health Professions Admission Test- Ireland (HPAT-Ireland), was introduced in 2009. Traditionally, selection to Irish undergraduate medical schools relied on academic achievement. Since 2009, Irish and EU applicants are selected on a combination of their secondary school academic record (measured predominately by the Leaving Certificate Examination) and HPAT-Ireland score. This is the first study to report on the predictive validity of the HPAT-Ireland for early undergraduate assessments of communication and clinical skills. Method. Students enrolled at two Irish medical schools in 2009 were followed up for two years. Data collected were gender, HPAT-Ireland total and subsection scores; Leaving Certificate Examination plus HPAT-Ireland combined score, Year 1 Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) scores (Total score, communication and clinical subtest scores), Year 1 Multiple Choice Questions and Year 2 OSCE and subset scores. We report descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and Multiple linear regression models. Results: Data were available for 312 students. In Year 1 none of the selection criteria were significantly related to student OSCE performance. The Leaving Certificate Examination and Leaving Certificate plus HPAT-Ireland combined scores correlated with MCQ marks.In Year 2 a series of significant correlations emerged between the HPAT-Ireland and subsections thereof with OSCE Communication Z-scores; OSCE Clinical Z-scores; and Total OSCE Z-scores. However on multiple regression only the relationship between Total OSCE Score and the Total HPAT-Ireland score remained significant; albeit the predictive power was modest. Conclusion: We found that none of our selection criteria strongly predict clinical and communication skills. The HPAT- Ireland appears to measures ability in domains different to those assessed by the Leaving Certificate Examination. While some significant associations did emerge in Year 2 between HPAT Ireland and total OSCE scores further evaluation is required to establish if this pattern continues during the senior years of the medical course.
Resumo:
La prsente tude a pour but de vrifier si le QI et le sentiment de comptence interagissent lorsque llve doit performer lcole et si, en loccurrence, cette interaction est son tour modre par lge et le sexe des participants. Afin de vrifier ces hypothses, les variables suivantes ont t tudies chez 928 lves de souche francocanadienne frquentant des coles montralaises de niveau secondaire : la moyenne en mathmatiques, le QI, le sentiment de comptence en mathmatiques, lge, le sexe et le statut socioconomique. Tel que prvu, le QI et le sentiment de comptence en mathmatiques corrlent de faon positive et significative avec la moyenne en mathmatiques de llve. Les analyses montrent galement une interaction significative entre le QI et le sentiment de comptence. Une fois dcompose, cette interaction indique que chez les lves qui ont un sentiment de comptence lev, la valeur prdictive du QI est plus leve, alors que la relation entre le QI et la performance ne change pas de faon significative chez les lves qui prsentent un faible sentiment de comptence. Enfin, ni lge ni le sexe de llve ninfluencent linteraction entre le QI et le rendement scolaire, pas plus quils ne sont corrls avec le rendement scolaire. Les implications cliniques de cette recherche sont discutes.
Resumo:
Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.
Resumo:
This study describes recent high school graduates perceptions about their use of technology for educational purposes outside the classroom. Graduates were asked a series of questions on how they used technology outside of the classroom. The questions focused on what technology resources helped academic achievement throughout their high school experience.
Resumo:
This study investigates the relationship between parent involvement, academic achievement, and behavior. Participants in this action research project will be the researchers 40 second grade students. Parental data will be captured through surveys. Student data will be captured through surveys, behavior checklists and Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading scores.
Resumo:
Participation in organized activities is associated with many markers of positive youth development (PYD) such as improved self-esteem, social competence, and academic achievement (Mahoney et al., 2009). Sport is an extra-curricular activity that is particularly popular among youth, as nearly three quarters of Canadian children and adolescents are engaged in organized sport or physical activity (CFLRI, 2012). Much of the research in this area has examined sport programs which are explicitly structured to promote life skills or PYD outcomes; however, the sustainability of such programs has recently been called into question (Turnnidge, Hancock, & Ct, 2014). The purpose of this program of research was to conduct an in-depth case study of a successful, sustainable community youth basketball league. Study 1 was a qualitative descriptive exploration of coaches perceptions of the basketball league. This study provided a general overview of the structure and perceived benefits of the league, from the perspective of current coaches. Coaches highlighted the unique emphasis that the league places on fun and positive immediate sport experiences. Study 2 expanded on selected themes from Study 1, namely, the salience of the leagues culture and tendency for former players to return to the league as volunteers. This study used an ethnographic approach wherein the first author volunteered as an assistant coach on a basketball team over the course of a six-month season. This approach enabled him to gain considerable first hand insight into the organizational culture of the basketball league. The third and final study adopted a quantitative approach using both systematic observation and questionnaires to investigate the relationship between PYD outcomes and observed athlete behaviour during basketball games. A cluster analysis revealed the presence of two distinct groups of athletes characterized by relatively high and low perceptions of PYD outcomes, which were also associated with varying behavioural characteristics during competition. The results of these three studies provide a detailed blueprint of a successful youth sport program that has been sustained over 60 years. While not without limitations, many characteristics of the league should prove useful in structuring youth sport programs in other contexts.
Resumo:
This paper considers the analysis of data from randomized trials which offer a sequence of interventions and suffer from a variety of problems in implementation. In experiments that provide treatment in multiple periods (T>1), subjects have up to 2^{T}-1 counterfactual outcomes to be estimated to determine the full sequence of causal effects from the study. Traditional program evaluation and non-experimental estimators are unable to recover parameters of interest to policy makers in this setting, particularly if there is non-ignorable attrition. We examine these issues in the context of Tennessee's highly influential randomized class size study, Project STAR. We demonstrate how a researcher can estimate the full sequence of dynamic treatment effects using a sequential difference in difference strategy that accounts for attrition due to observables using inverse probability weighting M-estimators. These estimates allow us to recover the structural parameters of the small class effects in the underlying education production function and construct dynamic average treatment effects. We present a complete and different picture of the effectiveness of reduced class size and find that accounting for both attrition due to observables and selection due to unobservable is crucial and necessary with data from Project STAR
Resumo:
Non-cognitive skills have caught the attention of current education policy writers in Canada. Within the last 10 years, almost every province has produced a document including the importance of supporting non-cognitive skills in K-12 students in the classroom. Although often called different names (such as learning skills, cross curricular competencies, and 20th Century Skills) and occasionally viewed through different lenses (such as emotional intelligence skills, character skills, and work habits), what unifies non-cognitive skills within the policy documents is the claim that students that are strong in these skills are more successful in academic achievement and are more successful in post-secondary endeavors. Though the interest from policy-makers and educators is clear, there are still many questions about non-cognitive skills that have yet to be answered. These include: What skills are the most important for teachers to support in the classroom? What are these skills exact contributions to student success? How can teachers best support these skills? Are there currently reliable and valid measures of these skills? These are very important questions worth answering if Canadian teachers are expected to support non-cognitive skills in their classrooms with an already burdened workload. As well, it can begin to untangle the plethora of research that exists within the non-cognitive realm. Without a critical look at the current literature, it is impossible to ensure that these policies are effective in Canadian classrooms, and to see an alignment between research and policy. Upon analysis of Canadian curriculum, five non-cognitive skills were found to be the most prevalent among many of the provinces: Self-Regulation, Collaboration, Initiative, Responsibility and Creativity. The available research literature was then examined to determine the utility of teaching these skills in the classroom (can students improve on these skills, do these skills impact other aspects of students lives, and are there methods to validly and reliably assess these skills). It was found that Self-Regulation and Initiative had the strongest basis for being implemented in the classroom. On the other hand, Creativity still requires a lot more justification in terms of its impact on students lives and ability to assess in the classroom.
Resumo:
Durante la educacin secundaria los estudiantes comienzan a explorar las ocupaciones y expectativas profesionales, forman sus creencias de autoeficacia y consolidan sus intereses acadmicos. En este contexto, el artculo presenta los resultados de una investigacin realizada en el Principado de Asturias para conocer las percepciones y opiniones que tienen los estudiantes de bachillerato y sus progenitores sobre las elecciones acadmicas realizadas en la educacin secundaria, haciendo especial hincapi en los factores contextuales que pueden ayudar u obstaculizar el desarrollo de la carrera. Se ha usado una metodologa cualitativa fundamentada en el uso de la tcnica del grupo de discusin. Se han organizado cinco grupos de discusin con estudiantes y dos grupos con progenitores. El total de personas que particip en las entrevistas focales fue de 51 estudiantes y de 14 padres/madres. Los resultados obtenidos nos permiten concluir que el bachillerato sigue siendo considerado la puerta de acceso a la universidad y no a la formacin profesional de grado superior. Tambin se concluye que los estudiantes fundamentan sus decisiones acadmicas sobre la base de la preferencia y gusto personal por determinada opciones y esta razn prevalece sobre otras como las salidas profesionales o el rendimiento acadmico previo. Respecto a la influencia de distintos agentes sociales en el proceso de decisin acadmica, los resultados son concluyentes al afirmar que el principal apoyo de los estudiantes son sus progenitores, por encima del que perciben encontrar de docentes y grupo de iguales. El artculo finaliza con algunas sugerencias para mejorar la prctica de la orientacin educativa en las instituciones de educacin secundaria.
