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College algebra fulfills general education requirements at many colleges in the United States. The study reported here investigated differences in mathematics achievement between undergraduates in college algebra classes using one of two homework methods:WeBWorK, an open-source system for web-based homework, or traditional paper-and-pencil homework. We assessed learning for 439 students in 19 college algebra classes at a large public university in the United States. Twelve classes usedWeBWorKand seven had traditional paper-and-pencil homework. Analysis of covariance revealed no significant differences in algebra performance or achievement gain by homework group, ethnicity or gender when statistically controlling for previous mathematics achievement. Results support the conjecture thatWeBWorKis at least as effective as traditionally graded paper-and-pencil homework for students learning college algebra in moderately sized lecture-based classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights findings from the first phase of an ongoing qualitative Youth Participatory Acton Research (YPAR) study with a group of students with foster care experience at a large public university in the Northeastern United States. The first phase of data collection consisted of a focus group designed and carried out by co-researchers, amongst themselves. Data was analyzed in two ways, by a faculty member and doctoral student, using thematic content analysis, and through a collaborative analytic process with student co-researchers using an adapted version of Carol Gilligan's, "Listening Guide" in which co-researchers created, analyzed and performed "I Poems" from the focus group transcript. Findings from each data analytic process were compared and contrasted; discrepancies amongst themes from each analytic process led to the merging and creation of new modified themes. Findings illuminate the barriers and facilitators to completion of high school, and applying to college for this cohort of students, as well as barriers and facilitators to retention once in college. Additionally, recommendations are made for university professionals to become more affirming of scholars connected to foster care systems. This study is unique in that it is the first known study to engage with college students with foster care experience in a participatory research process that centers their voices, concerns and priorities in both research design and data. Student organizing and action emanating from the PAR approach are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As universities around the world have begun to use learning management systems (LMSs), more learning data have become available to gain deeper insights into students' learning processes and make data‐driven decisions to improve student learning. With the availability of rich data extracted from the LMS, researchers have turned much of their attention to learning analytics (LA) applications using educational data mining techniques. Numerous LA models have been proposed to predict student achievement in university courses. To design predictive LA models, researchers often follow a data‐driven approach that prioritizes prediction accuracy while sacrificing theoretical links to learning theory and its pedagogical implications. In this study, we argue that instead of complex variables (e.g., event logs, clickstream data, timestamps of learning activities), data extracted from online formative assessments should be the starting point for building predictive LA models. Using the LMS data from multiple offerings of an asynchronous undergraduate course, we analysed the utility of online formative assessments in predicting students' final course performance. Our findings showed that the features extracted from online formative assessments (e.g., completion, timestamps and scores) served as strong and significant predictors of students' final course performance. Scores from online formative assessments were consistently the strongest predictor of student performance across the three sections of the course. The number of clicks in the LMS and the time difference between first access and due dates of formative assessments were also significant predictors. Overall, our findings emphasize the need for online formative assessments to build predictive LA models informed by theory and learning design. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Higher education institutions often use learning analytics for the early identification of low‐performing students or students at risk of dropping out.Most predictive models in learning analytics rely on immutable student characteristics (e.g., gender, race and socioeconomic status) and complex variables extracted from log data within a learning management system.Prioritizing prediction accuracy without theory orientation often yields "black‐box" models that fail to inform educators on what remedies need to be taken to improve student learning.What this paper adds Predictive models in learning analytics should consider learning theory, pedagogy and learning design to identify key predictors of student learning.Online formative assessments can be a starting point for building predictive models that are not only accurate but also provide educators with actionable insights on how student learning can be improved.Time‐related and score‐related features extracted from online formative assessments are particularly useful for predicting students' course performance.Implications for practice and/or policy This study provides strong evidence for using online formative assessments as the foundation for predictive models in learning analytics.Student data from online formative assessments can help educators provide students with feedback while informing future formative assessment cycles.Higher education institutions should avoid the hype around complex data from learning management systems and instead rely on effective learning tools such as online formative assessments to revolutionize the use of learning analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose Multiple barriers exist within doctoral education in the United States that can undermine the success of students, particularly for students with marginalized identities. While mentorship can provide an important form of support, it must be done in an intentional way that is mindful of issues of equity and power. Background By applying a power-conscious framework to current practices of doctoral mentorship in the U.S., we propose key considerations to help support doctoral students and shift power imbalances. Methodology As a scholarly paper, this work draws upon a comprehensive review of existing research on doctoral mentorship in the U.S. Contribution As a relatively recent development, the power-conscious framework provides an important tool to address issues of inequity that has not yet been applied to doctoral mentorship to our knowledge. Such a framework provides clear implications for mentorship relationships, institutional policies, and future research. Findings The power-conscious framework has direct applicability to and possibility for reshaping doctoral mentorship in the U.S. as well as elsewhere. Each of the six foci of the framework can be integrated with research on doctoral students to help formal and informal mentors enhance their practice. Recommendations for Practitioners Throughout our analysis, we pose questions for mentors to consider in order to reflect upon their practice and engage in further exploration. Recommendations for Researchers Research on doctoral mentorship should explicitly engage with broader dynamics of power, particularly as related to understanding the experiences of marginalized student populations. Impact on Society The demanding nature of and precarity within U.S. doctoral education leads to high rates of departure and burnout amongst students. By re-envisioning mentorship, we hope to begin a broader re-imagining of doctoral education to be more equitable and supportive of students. Future Research To examine these claims, future research should explore doctoral student mentorship relationships and how power dynamics are contained therein both within the U.S. and in international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examines Latina/o/x parents' perceptions and involvement in the pre-college process from the South Texas border region. Researchers have expressed student success and the likelihood of students pursuing postsecondary education is dependent on the level of parent involvement. As student demographics and enrollment rates continue to shift in education, parent involvement has received attention from policymakers, practitioners, and researchers as a discussion topic to advance educational outcomes for students of color, specifically for Latina/o/x students. Although existing literature on parent involvement is not new, Latina/o/x parents' experiences and contribution to their student's success have been absent from the literature. In which has constructed a deficit perspective in which places the responsibility on Latina/o/x parents for their student's success. This paper aims to examine how Latina/o/x parents are involved and contribute to their student's success to identify how school settings can leverage and include parents in collective efforts that support students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of intercollegiate athletics in the U.S. have identified many negative consequences for universities. individual players, students, and other fans. In this paper, we take a cultural perspective to explore both the positive and negative consequences of college athletics. First, we show how athletics function as cultural forms that carry cultural meanings and argue that many of the meanings carried by athletics reflect cultural ideologies of the wider society. We then enumerate and discuss many of the positive and negative consequences that have been attributed to athletics at societal, organizational, group, and individual levels. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analysis for current reforms, arguing that the cultural significance and positive functions of university athletics represent formidable barriers to reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This volume focuses on the importance of state policy for ensuring equity in postsecondary access, achievement, and attainment. America has a federalist system of education that gives states significant autonomy in their governance of schools, colleges, and universities. This system has created significant variation across states; variation that provides opportunities for state governments to learn from one another. This volume underscores the importance of context and uses differentiation across state lines to highlight the roles internal and external factors play in policy development and issues pertaining to postsecondary access, achievement, and attainment. This collection of papers includes a diverse set of theoretical and methodological approaches to address a range of topics that makes clear the scope and importance of a multitude of state policies. This volume will serve as a source of new information regarding state policies that will be useful for policymakers and researchers alike. It is also suggests important new avenues for research that focus on theoretical and methodological considerations as well as topical areas including funding, accountability, transparency, and policy framing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor's degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English-speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the USA), which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. Our results suggest that socioeconomic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the USA and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the field of civil engineering evolves to address twenty-first century challenges, the demand for creative and innovative thinking rises. Engineering institutions around the nation have begun to integrate sustainability into the curriculum. Topics such as innovation and entrepreneurship are highly correlated with sustainability goals; however, many times they are viewed as market or management-driven principles. The Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) Program was established to transform the U.S. workforce through equipping graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset. This program is based on KEEN student outcomes (KSOs), which can be incorporated into department level, as well as course level, curricula. This paper focuses on the integration of KSOs into a senior civil engineering capstone course through two course activities over two years. KEEN rubrics are used to assess student achievement of the KSOs focused on innovative thinking and productive collaboration. The assessment results indicate that there are existing strengths as well as future opportunities to enhance student performance of innovative thinking and open-ended problem solving--skills that are essential to promoting sustainable design and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effects of state merit-based student aid programs on college attendance and degree completion. Our primary analysis uses microdata from the 2000 United States Census and 2001-2010 American Community Survey to estimate the effects of exposure to merit programs on educational outcomes for 25 states that adopted such programs by 2004. We also utilize administrative data for the University System of Georgia to look more in depth at the effects of exposure to the HOPE Scholarship on degree completion. We find strong consistent evidence that exposure to state merit aid programs have no meaningfully positive effect on college completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If academic development is to contribute to (re)shaping the purposes and means of pedagogy in higher education, then it has to be based on educational inquiry, for only inquiry will allow us to undertake a critical analysis of educational policies, practices and beliefs with the goal of transforming them. However, the conditions under which academic development units (ADUs) operate may hinder rather than foster educational inquiry. This is the issue we explore in this paper on the basis of a small-scale, interview-based study that was conducted in six well-established ADUs at universities in the USA. By looking at how these units work, we gained insights into paradoxes and tensions that seem to indicate that educational inquiry cannot play a significant role within them, even though these units act as catalysts for the enhancement of teaching in the academic milieu. We should ask whether ADUs are appropriate sites for educational inquiry and whether they can contribute to (re)shaping the higher education landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explain the hypercompetitive new reality in the global marketplace, discuss cultural changes in the United States leading to declining student performance and graduates who are unprepared for a competitive work environment, and provide helpful ideas to educators functioning as coaches and mentors. We found extensive support from many authors and sources expressing concern about the lack of preparation, complacency, and denial that interfere with the recognition of the new reality and the urgent need to properly coach and mentor students who will enter the workforce. Unless a country's culture and educational system prepares students to effectively compete in the workforce, the country's productivity will decline with unfortunate consequences for its economy and the standard of living of its citizens. There is evidence suggesting that this situation is already happening in the United States. Educators should coach and mentor students to understand the challenges they will face and motivate them to prepare for those challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a sample of nearly 3,924 students at 28 of the most selective college and universities in the United States, this paper tests hypotheses about religion, academic performance, and satisfaction at college. Two measures of religiosity—attending religious services every week or more and a 1 to 10 scale of observance of one's religious traditions and customs—increase the amount of hours students report spending on academic work and extracurricular activities, as well as reduce the hours students report going to parties. Even when controlling for time spent partying, studying and in extracurricular activities, regular attendance at religious services increases academic achievement. Finally, students who attend religious services weekly and those who are more observant of their religious traditions also report being more satisfied at college. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author comments on an editorial in the "Journal of Developmental Education," entitled "We’ve Lost Our Focus," by Peter Adams. He says that Adam's paper implies that U.S. community colleges' remedial courses are less effective than those offered at four-year institutions. He says that faculty should to conduct, evaluate and support developmental education efforts.