Freshman Orientation, Persistence, and Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Burgette ◽  
Susan Magun-Jackson

This longitudinal study (2001–2005) considers the impact of a freshman orientation course on the persistence of black and white students at a mid-southern university, as well its relationship with college achievement (GPA). Controlling for gender, race, high school GPA, and decided on major, logistic regression was used to assess persistence; multiple regression for evaluating college GPA. Though the orientation course had a positive impact on persistence to the second year and first year GPA (particularly for black students), it failed to have impact beyond the second year. Topical gaps in the course's content are considered as a possible influence in the lack of long-term persistence. Possible future research is discussed.

Author(s):  
Daniel A. Collier ◽  
Isabel McMullen

This exploratory, descriptive study examined trends associated with Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) student stop out, reenrollment, and persistence to a credential upon reenrollment. For the 2006–2017 cohorts, 78% were retained from first to second year. Inferential models suggested that first-year stop out was mainly correlated to students’ high school free-and-reduced lunch eligibility (FRL) and high-school GPA. Forty-five percent of stopped out students reenrolled, and reenrollment was primarily correlated with time. The median time to return was 3 non-summer semesters, with Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students predicted to reenroll in fewer semesters than White students. For the 2006–2012 cohorts, 30% of all stopped out students who reenrolled have earned a degree to date. Upon reenrollment, nearly half of all postsecondary certifications were earned by FRL students. Discussion links our findings to wider trends, highlights actions to bolster outcomes, and illustrates how this study could be a benchmark comparison for other tuition-free policies.


Author(s):  
Diarmaid Lane ◽  
Sheryl Sorby

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a surge in research in spatial thinking across the international community. We now know that spatial skills are malleable and that they are linked to success across multiple disciplines, most notably Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While spatial skills have been examined by cognitive scientists in laboratory environments for decades, current research is examining how these skills can be developed in field-based environments. In this paper, we present findings from a study within a Technology Teacher preparation programme where we examined first-year students’ spatial skills on entry to university. We explain why it was necessary to embed a spatial skills intervention into Year 1 of the programme and we describe the impact that this had on students’ spatial scores and on academic performance. The findings from our study highlight a consistent gender gap in spatial scores at the start of the first-year with female students entering the Technology Teacher preparation programme at a lower base level than male students. We describe how we integrated spatial development activities into an existing course and how an improvement in spatial scores and overall course performance was observed. The paper concludes by discussing the long-term sustainability of integrating spatial interventions within teacher preparation programmes while also highlighting the importance of future research to examine spatial skills as a fundamental component of technological capability.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016264342198997
Author(s):  
Sojung Jung ◽  
Ciara Ousley ◽  
David McNaughton ◽  
Pamela Wolfe

In this meta-analytic review, we investigated the effects of technology supports on the acquisition of shopping skills for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) between the ages of 5 and 24. Nineteen single-case experimental research studies, presented in 15 research articles, met the current study’s inclusion criteria and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards. An analysis of potential moderators was conducted, and we calculated effect sizes using Tau-U to examine the impact of age, diagnosis, and type of technology on the reported outcomes for the 56 participants. The results from the included studies provide evidence that a wide range of technology interventions had a positive impact on shopping performance. These positive effects were seen for individuals across a wide range of ages and disability types, and for a wide variety of shopping skills. The strongest effect sizes were observed for technologies that provided visual supports rather than just auditory support. We provide an interpretation of the findings, implications of the results, and recommended areas for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Müller ◽  
Manuela Bombana ◽  
Monika Heinzel-Gutenbrenner ◽  
Nikolaus Kleindienst ◽  
Martin Bohus ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Mental disorders are related to high individual suffering and significant socio-economic burdens. However, it remains unclear to what extent self-reported mental distress is related to individuals’ days of incapacity to work and their medical costs. This study aims to investigate the impact of self-reported mental distress for specific and non-specific days of incapacity to work and specific and non-specific medical costs over a two-year span. Method Within a longitudinal research design, 2287 study participants’ mental distress was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). HADS scores were included as predictors in generalized linear models with a Tweedie distribution with log link function to predict participants’ days of incapacity to work and medical costs retrieved from their health insurance routine data during the following two-year period. Results Current mental distress was found to be significantly related to the number of specific days absent from work and medical costs. Compared to participants classified as no cases by the HADS (2.6 days), severe case participants showed 27.3-times as many specific days of incapacity to work in the first year (72 days) and 10.3-times as many days in the second year (44 days), and resulted in 11.4-times more medical costs in the first year (2272 EUR) and 6.2-times more in the second year (1319 EUR). The relationship of mental distress to non-specific days of incapacity to work and non-specific medical costs was also significant, but mainly driven from specific absent days and specific medical costs. Our results also indicate that the prevalence of presenteeism is considerably high: 42% of individuals continued to go to work despite severe mental distress. Conclusions Our results show that self-reported mental distress, assessed by the HADS, is highly related to the days of incapacity to work and medical costs in the two-year period. Reducing mental distress by improving preventive structures for at-risk populations and increasing access to evidence-based treatments for individuals with mental disorders might, therefore, pay for itself and could help to reduce public costs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Austad ◽  
Michel Juarez ◽  
Hannah Shryer ◽  
Patricia L. Hibberd ◽  
Mari-Lynn Drainoni ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Global disparities in maternal mortality could be reduced by universal facility delivery. Yet, deficiencies in the quality of care prevent some mothers from seeking facility-based obstetric care. Obstetric care navigators (OCNs) are a new form of lay health workers that combine elements of continuous labor support and care navigation to promote obstetric referrals. Here we report qualitative results from the pilot OCN project implemented in Indigenous villages in the Guatemalan central highlands. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 mothers who received OCN accompaniment and 13 staff—namely physicians, nurses, and social workers—of the main public hospital in the pilot’s catchment area (Chimaltenango). Interviews queried OCN’s impact on patient and hospital staff experience and understanding of intended OCN roles. Audiorecorded interviews were transcribed, coded, and underwent content analysis. Results Maternal fear of surgical intervention, disrespectful and abusive treatment, and linguistic barriers were principal deterrents of care seeking. Physicians and nurses reported cultural barriers, opposition from family, and inadequate hospital resources as challenges to providing care to Indigenous mothers. Patient and hospital staff identified four valuable services offered by OCNs: emotional support, patient advocacy, facilitation of patient-provider communication, and care coordination. While patients and most physicians felt that OCNs had an overwhelmingly positive impact, nurses felt their effort would be better directed toward traditional nursing tasks. Conclusions Many barriers to maternity care exist for Indigenous mothers in Guatemala. OCNs can improve mothers’ experiences in public hospitals and reduce limitations faced by providers. However, broader buy-in from hospital staff—especially nurses—appears critical to program success. Future research should focus on measuring the impact of obstetric care navigation on key clinical outcomes (cesarean delivery) and mothers’ future care seeking behavior.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 887
Author(s):  
Matthew Brooks ◽  
Brad M. Beauvais ◽  
Clemens Scott Kruse ◽  
Lawrence Fulton ◽  
Michael Mileski ◽  
...  

The relationship between healthcare organizational accreditation and their leaders’ professional certification in healthcare management is of specific interest to institutions of higher education and individuals in the healthcare management field. Since academic program accreditation is one piece of evidence of high-quality education, and since professional certification is an attestation to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of those who are certified, we expect alumni who graduated from accredited programs and obtained professional certification to have a positive impact on the organizations that they lead, compared with alumni who did not graduate from accredited programs and who did not obtain professional certification. The authors’ analysis examined the impact of hiring graduates from higher education programs that held external accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). Graduates’ affiliation with the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) professional healthcare leadership organization was also assessed as an independent variable. Study outcomes focused on these graduates’ respective healthcare organization’s performance measures (cost, quality, and access) to assess the researchers’ inquiry into the perceived value of a CAHME-accredited graduate degree in healthcare administration and a professional ACHE affiliation. The results from this study found no effect of CAHME accreditation or ACHE affiliation on healthcare organization performance outcomes. The study findings support the need for future research surrounding healthcare administration professional graduate degree program characteristics and leader development affiliations, as perceived by various industry stakeholders.


2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (6) ◽  
pp. 1529-1574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prudence L. Carter

Background/Context One of the most critical functions of a well-integrated school is the development of “culturally flexible” students who, over the course of their social development, effectively navigate diverse social environs such as the workplace, communities, and neighborhoods. Most studies, albeit with some exceptions, have investigated the impact of desegregation on short- and long-term gains in achievement and attainment, as opposed to its impact on intergroup relations. Mixed-race schools are vital not only for bolstering achievement outcomes of previously disadvantaged students but also for promoting social cohesion in a diverse society. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Specifically, this article examines the difference in cultural flexibility between black and white students enrolled in schools with different racial and ethnic compositions. Cultural flexibility is defined as the propensity to value and move across different cultural and social peer groups and environments. Furthermore, this article provides some insight into how students in different mixed-race and desegregated educational contexts experience their school's social organization and cultural environments, which influence their interactions and academic behaviors. Setting The study was conducted over a 6-month period in four high schools: a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a northeastern city, and a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a southern city. Research Design Survey data were gathered from a randomly stratified sample of 471 Black and White students attending. In addition, ethnographic notes from weeks of school observations and transcribed interview data from 57 group interviews conducted in the four schools with students in Grades 9–12 complemented the survey research. Data Collection and Analysis Findings reveal significant associations among self-esteem, academic and extracurricular placement, and cultural flexibility for black students. Also, black students in majority-minority schools scored significantly higher on the cultural flexibility scale than those in majority-white schools. Among white students, regional location and academic placement showed statistically significant associations with cultural flexibility. The ethnographic and interview data further explicate why these patterns occurred and illuminate how certain school contextual factors are likely linked to students’ cultural flexibility. Overall, this study's findings highlight some connections between student and school behaviors as they pertain to both students’ and educators’ willingness and ability to realize the visions of racial and ethnic integration wholly.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Rabe Mohamed Elkmash ◽  
Magdy Gamal Abdel-Kader ◽  
Bassant Badr El Din

Purpose This study aims to investigate and explore the impact of big data analytics (BDA) as a mechanism that could develop the ability to measure customers’ performance. To accomplish the research aim, the theoretical discussion was developed through the combination of the diffusion of innovation theory with the technology acceptance model (TAM) that is less developed for the research field of this study. Design/methodology/approach Empirical data was obtained using Web-based quasi-experiments with 104 Egyptian accounting professionals. Further, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the chi-square goodness-of-fit test were used to analyze data. Findings The empirical results indicate that measuring customers’ performance based on BDA increase the organizations’ ability to analyze the customers’ unstructured data, decrease the cost of customers’ unstructured data analysis, increase the ability to handle the customers’ problems quickly, minimize the time spent to analyze the customers’ data and obtaining the customers’ performance reports and control managers’ bias when they measure customer satisfaction. The study findings supported the accounting professionals’ acceptance of BDA through the TAM elements: the intention to use (R), perceived usefulness (U) and the perceived ease of use (E). Research limitations/implications This study has several limitations that could be addressed in future research. First, this study focuses on customers’ performance measurement (CPM) only and ignores other performance measurements such as employees’ performance measurement and financial performance measurement. Future research can examine these areas. Second, this study conducts a Web-based experiment with Master of Business Administration students as a study’s participants, researchers could conduct a laboratory experiment and report if there are differences. Third, owing to the novelty of the topic, there was a lack of theoretical evidence in developing the study’s hypotheses. Practical implications This study succeeds to provide the much-needed empirical evidence for BDA positive impact in improving CPM efficiency through the proposed framework (i.e. CPM and BDA framework). Furthermore, this study contributes to the improvement of the performance measurement process, thus, the decision-making process with meaningful and proper insights through the capability of collecting and analyzing the customers’ unstructured data. On a practical level, the company could eventually use this study’s results and the new insights to make better decisions and develop its policies. Originality/value This study holds significance as it provides the much-needed empirical evidence for BDA positive impact in improving CPM efficiency. The study findings will contribute to the enhancement of the performance measurement process through the ability of gathering and analyzing the customers’ unstructured data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Sadaf Khan ◽  
Ubaid Ur Rehman

This research aims to analyze the impact of insider trading laws and corporate governance on investment decisions. For this purpose, the data of 400 potential and actual investors employed who provided their feedback on a structured questionnaire. When the data is collected, it was cleaned. The normality of data and reliability of items were also checked and within limits. Simple Regression was applied to test hypotheses. It was concluded that the perception of insider trading laws and corporate governance have a positive impact on investment decisions. The study has wide implications and the government and corporation both can be beneficial from its insight and findings, and exercise good corporate governance practices and follow stringent insider trading laws. The study also paves the way for future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1995-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dismukes ◽  
Elizabeth Shirtcliff ◽  
Christopher W. Jones ◽  
Charles Zeanah ◽  
Katherine Theall ◽  
...  

AbstractAcute reactivity of the stress hormone cortisol is reflective of early adversity and stress exposure, with some studies finding that the impact of adversity on the stress response differs by race. The objectives of the current study were to characterize cortisol reactivity to two dyadically based stress paradigms across the first year of life, to examine cortisol reactivity within Black and White infants, and to assess the impact of correlates of racial inequity including socioeconomic status, experiences of discrimination, and urban life stressors, as well as the buffering by racial socialization on cortisol patterns. Salivary cortisol reactivity was assessed at 4 months of age during the Still Face paradigm (N = 207) and at 12 months of age across the Strange Situation procedure (N = 129). Infants demonstrated the steepest recovery after the Still Face paradigm and steepest reactivity to the Strange Situation procedure. Race differences in cortisol were not present at 4 months but emerged at 12 months of age, with Black infants having higher cortisol. Experiences of discrimination contributed to cortisol differences within Black infants, suggesting that racial discrimination is already “under the skin” by 1 year of age. These findings suggest that race-related differences in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal reactivity are present in infancy, and that the first year of life is a crucial time period during which interventions and prevention efforts for maternal–infant dyads are most likely able to shape hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal reactivity thereby mitigating health disparities early across the life course.


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