An analysis of undergraduate student satisfaction, retention, and graduation by instructional modality and racial/ethnic groups

This study investigated whether instructional modality in an undergraduate degree program, either traditional on-campus or asynchronous online, and racial/ethnic group could predict students’ reports of satisfaction with the institution, retention year-over-year, and graduation within an eight-year award rate. Data from surveys and enrollment status were collected on undergraduate students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program by instructional modality over a timespan of eight academic years at a single institution. The researcher analyzed categorical predictor variables of instructional modality and racial/ethnic groups with the dichotomous outcome variables of low or high satisfaction, did not or did retain, and did not or did graduate through six research questions and multiple binomial logistic regression tests. This study identified statistically significant results by instructional modality for students’ reports of satisfaction with the institution (i.e., online students were more likely to report high satisfaction), retention year-over-year (i.e., on-campus students were more likely to retain), and graduation rate (on-campus students were more likely to graduate). It further identified statistically significant results by instructional modality and racial/ethnic groups for students’ reports of satisfaction with the institution (i.e., on-campus White students were more likely to report high satisfaction than other on-campus racial/ethnic groups and online Black or African American students were more likely to report high satisfaction than other online racial/ethnic groups), retention year-over-year (i.e., on-campus White students were more likely to retain than other on-campus racial/ethnic groups and online White students were more likely to retain than other online racial/ethnic groups), and graduation rate (i.e., on-campus White students were more likely to graduate than other on-campus racial/ethnic groups and online White students were more likely to graduate than other online racial/ethnic groups)

Random Acts of STEM: A systematic review of local k-12 school division STEM experiences in Virginia

The initial purpose of the study was to determine whether the school divisions in Virginia have definitions of STEM education. For the divisions that have described STEM education, the following valuation was based on the precise STEM education definition each has implemented. The population for the study included all 132 school divisions in This mixed-methods study investigated the implementation of STEM programs in Virginia K-12 schools. Data were collected through two avenues: publicly available online resources from school divisions and interviews with STEM leaders in the Virginia educational system. Data analysis on these two sources yielded five themes: (a) existence of sense-making definition of STEM; (b) differentiated STEM programs; (c) scaling embedded STEM integration; (d) interest in STEM drives successful inclusion of gender, minority, and students with disabilities; and (e) standardized testing is a barrier to STEM participation