Does Delivery Location Matter? A National Study of the Impact of Dual Enrollment on College Readiness and Early Academic Momentum

Background/Context Although dual enrollment (DE) programs have indicated positive impact on various high school and postsecondary outcomes, access to DE programs remains unequal; historically marginalized students are less likely than other students to attempt college credits in high school. Despite DE being a widely adopted program at the state level, these programs vary greatly by eligibility criteria, funding models, delivery location, and modality. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Guided by prominent learning theories, we hypothesize that the influence of early DE on later educational pathways and outcomes may vary by the location in which DE is delivered. This study examines whether the delivery location of DE (i.e., on a college campus or otherwise) influences students’ college readiness and first-year academic momentum in college, with a special focus on its heterogeneous effect among students of diverse racial and socioeconomic background. Research Design Using the restricted-use data from High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), we use a quasi-experimental approach (i.e., inverse probability weighting models) with a nationally representative sample of students who have taken at least one DE course by 11th grade. Findings/Results The findings reveal that students who took at least one DE course on a college campus do not differ in their cumulative high school GPA, in their probability of attending college, in whether they took developmental courses, in whether they attended college immediately after high school graduation, and in their probability of full-time enrollment when compared with those who took DE course(s) elsewhere. However, the findings are not applicable to all students of varying background defined by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Conclusions/Recommendations This study provides several implications: (1) Because DE courses taken on a high school or college campus equally fuel students’ college readiness and early academic momentum, advising practices should acknowledge the benefits of DE courses regardless of delivery location. (2) DE participation with college exposure may particularly benefit students of higher socioeconomic status (SES), so interventions that offer holistic college experiences beyond academic work are needed to effectively prepare lower SES students for college life and accumulate academic momentum are needed. (3) States and educational entities should be mindful about the potential disparate effect of DE programs and provide regulation, oversight, and quality assurance so that these programs can narrow the postsecondary achievement gap.

COVID-19 as a Badiouian event? A global insight into theoretical interrogation of Zizek’s pandemics

The rapidly burgeoning literature surrounding COVID-19 pandemic fetishistically and prematurely tried to catch the academic momentum, taking almost an a priori, non-debatable, starting point of the conceptualization of the pandemic as the ?new normal?. In Pandemic: COVID-19 Shakes the World and Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost, Slavoj Zizek frames the pandemic as multiple global crises, arguing it will aggressively and drastically rupture the global societal norms and dynamics creating a new order. However, did it? This essay debates this question through the theoretical lenses of Badiou?s Event. It starts by laying down the fundamental theoretical principles and mapping the necessary criteria needed to be fulfilled in order for a happening to be named an Event. Further, it navigates through ideas and arguments presented in Zizek?s publications localizing the pandemic?s global characteristics. Finally, it theoretically deconstructs them providing us with the fundamental answer to the question what COVID-19 pandemic is: a Badiouian event that has/is/will construct the global ?new normal?, multiple consequential crises, or just a temporary situation that reaffirms the existing societal normatives worldwide.

Analysis of the quality of life of medical students in Sobral - CE

Objective: The objective of the present study was to analyze the factors determining the quality of life of medical students in Sobral-CE and to compare them with the student’s academic momentum. Method: This is an epidemiological, cross-sectional, quantitative and qualitative study, and a questionnaire was used to collect data from 308 medical students. The questionnaire chosen was the WHOQOL-BREF, which is a Quality of Life Assessment instrument, which will be composed of 20 questions, the answers follow a Likert scale (from 1 to 5, the higher the score the better the quality of life). Results: The students enrolled in the third semester showed a worse quality of life evaluation in all the domains evaluated, which coincided with poorer quality of life and with their own health. The fifth semester showed a better quality of life assessment in all domains. Conclusions: the statistically significant differences found between domains are due to the fact that students, when they enter college, have an enthusiasm that is lost over the years and a desire and search for mutual knowledge that goes away with the routine of the day by day.

From Delay to Degree

This qualitative study extends the research on postsecondary delay by examining the college experiences of six male nontraditional students from the North Texas area who purposefully postponed college education for 3 years after high school graduation to fulfill religious commitments. Unlike the majority of delayers, the participants successfully attained bachelor degrees within 4 years from their initial college enrollment. Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s bioecological model of human development as a conceptual framework, four main themes emerged, which students credited for their college success: (a) reestablishing academic momentum, (b) overcoming financial challenges, (c) receiving institutional support, and (d) relying on personal development from delay activities.