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Transfer students face many challenges integrating into a 4-year college that affect their retention and success, yet very little research has documented how to create wraparound programming to support them. There remains a need to establish retention models that are adaptable and can serve a variety of students and institutions. The Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (LEARN) Consortium, a partnership of Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, and Western Carolina University whose focus is on engagement in undergraduate research, addressed this need by developing and testing T-LEARN, a new model for a sustainable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) retention program specifically for transfer students who have transitioned to a university setting after receiving their associate's degree at a community college. The new model was developed by adapting a successful retention model for 1st-year students at the University of Central Florida centered around three main pillars: (1) academics/research; (2) mentoring; and (3) community building. In this paper, we describe the development of the T-LEARN model, outline the adaptations made to accommodate the specific needs of transfer students, and present 3 years of implementation data we analyzed to determine what factor(s) most impact transfer student retention and success. Our findings indicate that T-LEARN students' involvement in research during their 1st year was the most significant factor within the T-LEARN program that contributed to their academic success. Additionally, the majority of these students had continued to do research with the same LEARN program faculty mentor 1 year after the program ended.

Indirect and direct assessment methods have a long standing history in college learning centers. Being more resource-intensive and time-consuming, direct assessment methods are often underrepresented in the literature and in practice. This paper presents a case study of how a pretest-posttest assessment initiative was designed to measure student learning during supplemental instruction (SI) sessions. Significantly higher post-test scores illustrate that similar direct assessment methods can be used effectively by learning center administrators to document student learning, improve training programs, and improve the value offerings of their centers.

This paper presents the results of a pilot study investigating the use of the Realizeit adaptive learning platform to deliver a fully online General Psychology course across two semesters. Through mutual cooperation, UCF and vendor (CCKF) researchers examined students' affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to the system. Student survey results indicated that students found the system easy to use and were generally positive about their seamless transition to adaptive learning. While the majority of students were successful, learning outcome metrics utilizing Realizeit indices indicated a potential for early prediction of students who are likely to be at risk in this environment. Recommendations are presented for the benefits of cooperative research between users and vendors.

This paper uses data from research projects that deliberately set out to tell positive stories about educators who were working with the children and families of migratory agricultural workers in the US. The aim underpinning these projects was to move beyond the deficit discourses and stories of blame that so often circulate, particularly in relation to social groups that are marginalised, and to present stories that embody positive and productive ways of thinking and working. Using Maxwell's (2012) process of connecting, the authors used the transcripts of semistructured interviews to construct narratives about three of the educators who were interviewed. These examples from rural education research highlighted the actions of educators to build and promote children's and families' relationships with the place where they were residing temporarily. The notion of querencia provided a helpful way of conceptualising the relationship between place and belonging, to assist the development of insider understandings. The narrative approach offers a way of opening such discussions in education more broadly and to consider the role of teachers in ensuring that negatively framed stories, such as deficit discourses, are not in play.

This paper analyzes the relationship between high school value-added and college performance, which contributes to the literature on (1) the relationship between value-added and adult outcomes and (2) the importance of high schools. One standard deviation increase in high school value-added is associated with an increase in the probability of graduating from college by 4-6 percentage points and final GPA by 0.04-0.08 points on a 4.0 scale, depending on controls for student, high school, geographic, university, and major selection effects. The associations are largest for male students and Black students. Most of the association with GPA occurs in early semesters.

In this paper I use a rich longitudinal database from Florida to compare the characteristics of alternatively certified teachers with their traditionally prepared colleagues. I analyze the relative effectiveness of teachers who enter the profession through different pathways by estimating value-added models of student achievement. In general, alternatively certified teachers have stronger preservice qualifications than graduates of traditional university-based teacher preparation programs do, with the least restrictive alternative route attracting the most qualified prospective teachers. Teachers who enter through the path requiring no coursework have a substantially larger effect on student achievement. In contrast, the alternative pathway that requires substantial occupation-specific human capital investment yields teachers who are less effective than either traditional-route teachers or teachers who entered the profession through other alternative pathways. These results suggest that any benefits from preservice training are overwhelmed by the adverse selection into programs that require nontransferable human capital investments.

This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing and analyzing studies that randomize schools--which comprise three levels of clustering (students in classrooms in schools)--to measure intervention effects on student academic outcomes when information on the middle level (classrooms) is missing. This situation arises frequently in practice because many available data sets identify the schools that students attend but not the classrooms in which they are taught. Do studies conducted under these circumstances yield results that are substantially different from what they would have been if this information had been available? The paper first considers this problem in the context of planning a school randomized study based on preexisting two-level information about how academic outcomes for students vary across schools and across students within schools (but not across classrooms in schools). The paper next considers this issue in the context of estimating intervention effects from school-randomized studies. Findings are based on empirical analyses of four multisite data sets using academic outcomes for students within classrooms within schools. The results indicate that in almost all situations one will obtain nearly identical results whether or not the classroom or middle level is omitted when designing or analyzing studies. (Contains 9 tables and 4 notes.)

As community colleges move beyond traditional ideals of quality instruction and attempt to improve student learning experiences and student success, they increasingly turn to the use of Internet technology and tools. The use of the Internet for instruction has expanded the possibilities of teaching and learning to blended, hybrid, Web-enhanced, and Web-assisted courses. In the context and setting of this study, Web-assisted is the term used for face-to-face courses that are supplemented with online instruction and online resources. As Web-assisted and blended courses have become a rapidly growing instructional strategy in educational institutions, questions can be raised about the implications for quality instruction, student success, and student persistence in such settings. Such questions have not been adequately addressed in research. Thus, the authors' focus on faculty perceptions of best practices of instruction as they relate to retention in Web-assisted courses was an attempt to address a small portion of this research gap. They undertook this as a Delphi study, the purpose of which was for a panel of faculty experts to reach consensus on the instructional best practices that influence student persistence and retention in Web-assisted courses at a mid-sized community college in Florida. The scope of this paper will reveal their findings on the instructional best practices that expert faculty members used in their Web-assisted courses, and how they used these best practices. The findings reported in this paper were previously reported as part of a larger study (Manning, 2010). (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether teachers with high value-added scores (as a measure of teacher quality) stay or left test grades and subjects in a medium-sized school district. Design/methodology/approach: Panel data for this paper encompass teachers providing math and reading instruction and link to individual students in grades 3-10 from a single Florida school district (2000-2001 to 2004-2005). Value-added modeling is used to estimate a measure of teacher quality, which is entered into binomial logistic regression models. Findings: This paper finds a negative relationship between reading teachers' value-added scores and attrition (p less than 0.05): a finding consistent with the few that have examined the relationship between value added and teacher attrition. A significant relationship is not found between math value added and attrition. There is also no significant relationship between value added and transferring. Secondary and alternatively certified teachers are more likely to exit tested grades/subjects. Classroom percentages of students enrolled in the free/reduced lunch program (a proxy for poverty) are associated with leaving among math and reading teachers. Practical implications: Not all turnover is negative. Evidence from this paper suggests that schools are not losing the best teachers from tested subjects and grades: those in which schools and school leaders are held accountable. While there are costs associated with turnover, it can serve as an important matching function between workers and employers. Originality/value: Only, a few published studies have utilized value-added scores as the measure of teacher quality and tested their relationship with teacher attrition. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure and 8 notes.)

In the past few years, four states have established programs that provide public financial support to students who choose to attend a private school. These programs--a tax-credit-funded scholarship initiative in Florida and voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio--offer a glimpse of what expansive statewide choice might look like. What have we learned about the students and schools who choose to participate in these programs? What academic outcomes have students reaped? And what does research tell us about how states should design and oversee voucher programs--if indeed they should do so at all? In this forum, we hear from Patrick J. Wolf, education policy professor at the University of Arkansas, Douglas N. Harris, professor of economics at Tulane, and the trio of Mark Berends, professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, R. Joseph Waddington, assistant professor at the College of Education, University of Kentucky, and Megan Austin, researcher at the American Institutes for Research, Chicago.

This paper reports on a case study conducted in an American university investigating the role of feedback within a distance education environment. Based on data gathered from online and hybrid undergraduate students in a teacher education program and supported by existing research, we describe how we support online learners by implementing a feedback system that incorporates multi-draft formative assessments and various feedback strategies. We describe these strategies (i.e. explicit feedback directions and feedback surveys) as well as data from formative assessments to demonstrate the impact of clear expectations and feedback on student performance in distance education. We present recommendations for online feedback and propose a feedback model for further study.

Approximately 26 million Americans have no access to broadband's social and economic benefits. A persistent level of non-adoption stems from adults' lack of perceived need or benefit. Florida's unique move to all digital instructional materials and required online learning by 2015 may make home broadband essential for maintaining a learning continuum. To date, little work has been done to determine the degree to which children have continuous access to broadband. This paper presents secondary analyses of Census, FCC, student achievement, and school district data to discover possible connections between broadband access and learning. Results revealed lack of perceived need was the overriding factor for no home broadband. While school broadband, and community and district characteristics had no significant relationship to one another or to student achievement, rurality had an unmistakable correlation, suggesting that a lack of rural home broadband could be especially problematic. Although existing data sets are imperfect and difficult to compare, initial explorations suggest that Florida's digital learning initiatives will require broadband in rural homes.

This dataset contains participant data related to the use of badging (achievement) feedback in pedagogical design. Two sections each of web-based graphic design and web design undergraduate courses were offered at the University of Central Florida. A badging system for achievements was included in one section of each. Performance, engagement and behavior-related data were collected. The dataset comprises complete data from 44 undergraduate students. This paper includes a justification for data collection, methodology and preexisting usage of the data. It also discusses limitations of the dataset.

Learning analytics is receiving increased attention, in part because it offers to assist educational institutions in increasing student retention, improving student success, and easing the burden of accountability. Although these large-scale issues are worthy of consideration, faculty might also be interested in how they can use learning analytics in their own courses to help their students succeed. In this paper, we define learning analytics, how it has been used in educational institutions, what learning analytics tools are available, and how faculty can make use of data in their courses to monitor and predict student performance. Finally, we discuss several issues and concerns with the use of learning analytics in higher education.

Faced with mounting policy pressures from federal and state accountability programs, school leaders are reallocating curricula, time, even diet in an attempt to boost student achievement. To explore whether they are using test score data to reallocate their teacher resources as well, I designed a cross-case, cross-sectional study and explored principals' reported staffing practices in one higher performing and one lower performing elementary school in each of five Florida school districts. Findings show that school leaders are "staffing to the test" by hiring, moving, and developing teachers in an effort to increase their schools' overall performance. The paper discusses the implications of evidence-based staffing for policy, practice and future research. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

This paper provides detailed evidence regarding the nature of selection into a school voucher system. We use micro-data on scholarship applications matched with state student-level records on test scores, schools attended, and demographic background characteristics to describe the attributes of students who choose to participate in Florida's Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program, a means-tested scholarship program that is the largest of its type in the United States. We find evidence that those who choose to participate in the program tend to be lower-performing students from poorly performing schools, and that students of different backgrounds tend to choose different types of private schools. Students participating in the program tend to select schools that have more white students and fewer minority students, regardless of student race. (Contains 7 figures and 9 tables.)

An important criticism of high-stakes testing policies--policies that reward or sanction schools based on their students' performance on standardized tests--is that they provide schools with an incentive to focus on those subjects that play a role in the accountability system while decreasing attention to those subjects that are not part of the program. This paper utilizes a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of Florida's high-stakes testing policy on student proficiency in the low-stakes subject of science. We confirm prior results that students in schools facing more immediate sanctions under the policy made substantial gains in the high-stakes subjects of math and reading. Contrary to the crowding-out hypothesis, we find that students in these schools made substantial achievement gains in the low-stakes subject of science as well. (Contains 4 tables.)

The reported study in this paper examined the continuing viability of Florida's 2+2 articulation agreement by comparing academic success and persistence among Florida public community college graduates (n = 1,738) and native (n = 874) juniors at three universities. Discriminant analysis yielded statistically significant differences. Transfer students graduated with fewer lower level courses in upper division and fewer cumulative credit hours than native students. Discriminant analysis did not yield appreciable differences in the final grade point averages of student graduates, indicating that community college transfer students performed just as well academically as native students. Chi-square tests of independence indicated that a greater percentage of transfers dropped out prior to graduation. These findings support the conclusion that community college transfers are academically competitive, but they may benefit from retention services and programs that engender student engagement. (Contains 1 table.)

Students with disabilities and special needs have faced challenges in accessing educational content, and in taking traditional pen-and-paper tests. How might technology improve the process, while making statewide tests truly accessible to all students? NimbleTools is the first computer-based test delivery system that incorporates principles of universal design by building in multiple accessibility tools designed to meet various needs of students. The program flexibly adjusts the accessibility tools available to students; students select when and how to use each tool while performing a given test item. Its success in two pilot studies suggests that computer-based test delivery can improve students' access to tests and their ability to demonstrate knowledge. The development of NimbleTools illustrates how the principle of universal design can be applied to ensure that all students have access to the tools they need to demonstrate what they actually know and can do. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)

This article examines themes of academic resilience in the descriptions of academic achievement by three students at Benjamin High School, one of the least affluent high schools in Bayside, Florida. Through ethnographically informed interviews conducted during their senior year, coherent themes emerge that provide insight into these students' resilience. I argue that the students diminished the degree to which academic achievement separated them from their peers, in addition to situating achievement in a utilitarian fashion. Ultimately, acting on the notion of academic achievement in this manner positively impacted their resilience. (Contains 3 notes.)

More and more colleges and universities seek to extend their reach by offering individual courses and complete degree programs online. Planners of such initiatives will find it useful to examine the different challenges and approaches already in use on various campuses, as in the mentoring program at Florida State University (FSU). The critical issue FSU faced was scalability of its curriculum to an online constituency. The university planned to offer existing degree programs through online delivery with the expectation that demand would be high for these programs. The concern was how best to support faculty faced with students in greater numbers. At the same time, FSU needed to provide additional instructional support to the students who would not have face-to-face interaction with faculty or with other students. The importance of providing this support to students was borne out in Alley's research, which stressed the criticality of instructors and mentors to student success in the online learning environment. This paper describes the importance of interaction which is necessary for both the teacher and the student. In this article, the author provides an overview of Florida State University's online undergraduate and graduate degree programs as well as its mentor personnel management system, selection process for online mentors, and the training and evaluation of its mentors. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 21 endnotes.)

In the state of Florida, several of the principles of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have been enacted earlier than at the federal level. For example, the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) is required for all students through grade 10 and must be passed for promotion to grade 3 and for high school graduation. Schools are graded A through F, based on FCAT scores, improvement from year to year, and a comparison of the achievement of lower-ability students with the school average. High-ranked schools receive awards, including funds that are typically translated into handsome bonuses for teachers and staff; conversely, students enrolled in schools rated as "failing" for two successive years are eligible for vouchers. Like many institutions, the University of Florida is heavily committed to an outreach program, in part to support teachers and administrators whose students repeatedly score low on FCAT assessments and whose schools, in turn, are given low grades by the state. In this article, the author talks about how teacher education can be effective in this decade only if it can face the problem of "struggling" schools and "at-risk" students head-on. He describes his experiences working with the Opportunity Alliance, a program that has put the university into partnership with urban high schools labeled as "struggling," and how the program works with six high-need schools to assist with the identification and preparation of capable students for enrollment in college. Here, he offers some suggestions on how to prepare prospective teachers differently which include: (a) foster dialogue with education policymakers; (b) prepare teachers to "leave no child behind"; and (c) extend and redefine teacher education programs in English.

Presents the State Board of Community Colleges' position paper on potential barriers to increasing baccalaureate-degree production. Presents four academic barriers, including lack of college preparation, and two financial barriers, including insufficient need-based financial aid support, and discusses the potential impact of the barriers on the outcome of interest. (CAK)

Examines the impact of mandatory statewide implementation of increased standards with the enactment of Florida's Recognizing Achievement in Secondary Education Bill as evidenced by performance on standardized entry-level tests for community college students. Finds little improvement in academic preparation as measured by test scores. (DMM)

In today's information-age society, America must have more well-educated individuals to remain competitive as a world leader. The standardized testing movement is a sign of public mistrust of education and will result in denying opportunity to many students with the potential to succeed. (MLW)

Although the use of technology in the K12 classroom has been shown to have a positive impact, research on the use of open education resources (OER) is relatively limited, especially research focusing on low‐achieving students. The present study examines the relationship between usage of Algebra Nation, a self‐guided system that provided instructional videos and practice problems, and the performance of students who had failed the state‐administered Algebra I end‐of‐course (EOC) assessment the previous year. Indicators of usage of Algebra Nation consisted of logins, video views, and practice questions answered. Path analyses and logistic regressions were used to evaluate relationships between usage indicators and algebra scores, controlling for number of absences, free/reduced lunch eligibility, Hispanic/Latino origin, race, and gender. The results indicate that higher levels of logins, video views, and practice questions answered were related to higher scores when the students re‐took the assessment. Logins and practice questions were also related to increases in odds of passing the Algebra I EOC assessment, but not video views. The results suggest that there may be benefits to technology use in the form of an OER adopted by students and teachers on an informal basis and link self‐regulated learning strategies to student achievement. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Algebra courses typically have a high failure rate.Repeating algebra is costly for the education system and for the student.Open education resources could potentially be an effective and cost‐efficient approach to algebra instruction. What this paper adds: This study shows that logins, video views, and practice questions answered in an open education resource were positively related to scores on a state‐administered,high‐stakes algebra assessment.The study indicates that the relationship between a self‐regulated learning strategy (i.e., practice questions answered) and student algebra scores is stronger than that between video views and algebra scores.This study shows that student‐driven ad hoc use of online tutoring programme is associated with higher passing rates on the algebra exam. Implications for practice and/or policy: This study demonstrates that informal use of an open education resource with videos and a practice question system can be effective in increasing student scores on algebra assessments.Future research is needed to connect diverse types of student self‐regulated use of open education resources to academic achievement and on how to design resources that encourage effective self‐regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of South Florida Libraries has supported a campus-wide "Textbook Affordability Project" initiative by creating and maintaining an ebooks database called "Ebooks for the Classroom+." This database facilitates faculty members' adoption of ebooks as textbooks through library acquisitions in the hope that students can achieve academic success without paying for expensive textbooks. It is built and run by the library, using data based on vendor-supplied information. This paper discusses the approaches, the challenges, and the future plans for building and updating the database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that Puerto Rican youth from large cities such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia do poorly in school compared to other Latinos and ethnic immigrant groups due to their low socio-economic status. However , while youth academic achievement and aspirations have received scholarly attention, there has been little research on the educational aspirations and achievements of Puerto Rican youth in different and rapidly growing cities like Orlando, Florida. This paper ills that gap and also compares Puerto Rican achievement with other youth in the Orlando area. The availability of a recent data set consisting of over 2,000 surveys of high school students in Metropolitan Orlando has enabled us to unravel factors that may influence or shape the academic performance and aspirations of immigrant or second generation youth. The results show that ethnic background, family structure, and parental socio-economic factors are important determinants of youth academic achievement and aspirations. Indeed, youth who were raised in two-parent households, whose parents had a college degree, and also earn a higher income (especially, over $80,000) are significantly more likely to receive an academic award, earn better grades (mostly A's), enroll in more challenging academic programs (such as International Baccalaureate), and aspire to prestigious professional occupations. However , Puerto Rican youth achievement and aspirations are lower compared with youth from other ethnic groups. Consistent with previous studies, Asian Americans (Koreans) were found to be the highest achievers, followed by Colombians, and White Americans. When comparisons are made between Puerto Ricans born in the USA and those born on the Island, most measures of youth performance and aspirations are not significantly different, even when parental social status is controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I use a rich longitudinal database from Florida to compare the characteristics of alternatively certified teachers with their traditionally prepared colleagues. I analyze the relative effectiveness of teachers who enter the profession through different pathways by estimating value-added models of student achievement. In general, alternatively certified teachers have stronger preservice qualifications than graduates of traditional university-based teacher preparation programs do, with the least restrictive alternative route attracting the most qualified prospective teachers. Teachers who enter through the path requiring no coursework have a substantially larger effect on student achievement. In contrast, the alternative pathway that requires substantial occupation-specific human capital investment yields teachers who are less effective than either traditional-route teachers or teachers who entered the profession through other alternative pathways. These results suggest that any benefits from preservice training are overwhelmed by the adverse selection into programs that require nontransferable human capital investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a regression discontinuity design generated by school-entry cutoffs and school records from an anonymous district in Florida, we identify externalities in human capital production function arising from sibling spillovers. We find positive spillover effects from an older to a younger child in less affluent families and negative spillover effects from a younger to an older child in more affluent families. These results provide empirical evidence that educational policies could create both positive and negative within-family externalities depending on the characteristics of the affected households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]