The Effect of Participation in Syracuse University Project Advance and Advanced Placement on Persistence and Performance at a Four-Year Private University

Concurrent enrollment programs (CEPs) are an important source of academic preparation for high school students. Along with Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, CEPs allow students to challenge themselves in high school and prepare for the rigor of college. Many researchers and practitioners have claimed that, when high school students participate in such programs, they become more successful in college, having better retention rates and better grades. Based upon their knowledge about the many students who have participated in CEPs, Marshal and Andrews (2002) note that there is scarcity of research on dual credit aka concurrent enrollment programs. The claims for the effectiveness of CEPs must be substantiated. Syracuse University\u27s concurrent enrollment program, Project Advance (PA), was implemented in 1972 at the request of six local Syracuse high schools. The current study is an empirical investigation of the effects of student participation in Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) and/or Advanced Placement (AP) on desired student outcomes such as persistence and performance, determined as follows: 1. Persistence: a. Short-term persistence i. Student dropout in the first year of college; ii. Student dropout in the second year of college b. Long-term persistence i. Student graduation in four years ii. Student graduation in six years 2. Performance: a. College readiness i. Student performance in subsequent courses on the main Syracuse University campus. b. College performance i. First year cumulative grade point average (freshman GPA) ii. Fourth year cumulative grade point average (degree GPA) The sample consists of Syracuse University undergraduates (23,398) from fall 1997 to fall 2008, both inclusive. Students who participated in SUPA and AP in high school are tracked by college enrollment and completion, and then compared with their peers of similar demographics and achievement who had not taken such courses. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of both AP and SUPA on college persistence and performance, with and without controlling for confounding variables such as demographic, financial need, and precollege entry student characteristics. The researcher also examined other significant determinants of persistence and whether the effects varied by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The effects were examined using statistical tests for differences in means as well as multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study were mixed. No cause and effect claims were made, as this is a correlational study. Regarding short-term persistence, the findings were in favor of both AP and SUPA. Regarding long-term persistence and performance (cumulative GPA for the first and fourth year), the findings were in favor of AP. When student performance in the subsequent course was examined, participation in SUPA was not significant in predicting the grade in the subject specific postcourse grade. The findings also suggest grade inflation in six out of the eight SU courses offered through PA. However, the findings for both math and writing were illuminating. The overall results point to some positive effects of concurrent enrollment programs, but also call for improvements to increase their effectiveness. Reference Marshall, R. P., & Andrews, H. A. (2002). Dual-credit outcomes: A second visit. Community College Journal of Research and Practices, 26, 237-242

Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed

Outlines best-practice strategies historically black colleges and universities in Texas used in the 1990s to lower student loan default rates and avoid losing federal aid, including campuswide collaboration, partnerships, and teaching financial literacy

Student Attainment and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

In this report we examine high school completion and postsecondary enrollment (a.k.a. “educational attainment”) of the cohort of 9th grade students who were in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) at the beginning of our state-mandated evaluation of the MPCP in 2006. After tracking the MPCP 9th graders following the 2006-07 year and comparing them to a carefully matched sample of 9th graders who were in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) during the 2006-07 year, we use a combination of parent surveys and administrative (school) records to estimate attainment

Reading on Grade Level in Third Grade: How Is It Related to High School Performance and College Enrollment?

Illustrates how third-grade reading level correlates with eighth-grade reading level, which, along with ninth-grade school traits, correlates with ninth-grade performance, which in turn correlates with high school graduation and college attendance rates

The Role of End-of-Course Exams and Minimum Competency Exams in Standards-Based Reforms

[Excerpt] Educational reformers and most of the American public believe that most teachers ask too little of their pupils. These low expectations, they believe, result in watered down curricula and a tolerance of mediocre teaching and inappropriate student behavior. The result is that the prophecy of low achievement becomes self-fulfilling. Although research has shown that learning gains are substantially larger when students take more demanding courses2, only a minority of students enroll in these courses. There are several reasons for this. Guidance counselors in many schools allow only a select few into the most challenging courses. While most schools give students and parents the authority to overturn counselor recommendations, many families are unaware they have that power or are intimidated by the counselor’s prediction of failure in the tougher class. As one student put it: “African-American parents, they settle for less, not knowing they can get more for their students.

Educational Reform and Disadvantaged Students: Are They Better Off or Worse Off?

This paper analyzes the effects of increased academic standards on both average achievement levels and on equality of opportunity. The five policies evaluated are: (1) universal curriculum-Based External Exit Exam Systems, (2) voluntary curriculum-based external exit exam systems with partial coverage such as New York State Regents exams in 1992, (3) state minimum competency graduation tests, (4) state defined minimums for the total number of courses students must take and pass to get a high school diploma and (5) state defined minimums for the number of academic courses necessary to get a diploma. We use international data to evaluate the effects of CBEEES. High school graduation standards differ a lot across states in the U.S. This allowed us to measure policy effects on student achievement and labor market success after high school by comparing states in a multiple regression framework. Our analysis shows that only two of the policies examined deliver on increasing everyone’s achievement and also reduce achievement gaps: universal CBEEES and higher academic course graduation requirements. Other policies were less successful in raising achievement and enhancing equality of opportunity

Using Random Forests to Describe Equity in Higher Education: A Critical Quantitative Analysis of Utah’s Postsecondary Pipelines

The following work examines the Random Forest (RF) algorithm as a tool for predicting student outcomes and interrogating the equity of postsecondary education pipelines. The RF model, created using longitudinal data of 41,303 students from Utah\u27s 2008 high school graduation cohort, is compared to logistic and linear models, which are commonly used to predict college access and success. Substantially, this work finds High School GPA to be the best predictor of postsecondary GPA, whereas commonly used ACT and AP test scores are not nearly as important. Each model identified several demographic disparities in higher education access, most significantly the effects of individual-level economic disadvantage. District- and school-level factors such as the proportion of Low Income students and the proportion of Underrepresented Racial Minority (URM) students were important and negatively associated with postsecondary success. Methodologically, the RF model was able to capture non-linearity in the predictive power of school- and district-level variables, a key finding which was undetectable using linear models. The RF algorithm outperforms logistic models in prediction of student enrollment, performs similarly to linear models in prediction of postsecondary GPA, and excels both models in its descriptions of non-linear variable relationships. RF provides novel interpretations of data, challenges conclusions from linear models, and has enormous potential to further the literature around equity in postsecondary pipelines

Enrollment, Attendance and Engagement → Achievement: Successful Strategies for Motivating Students - Evidence of Effectiveness from Comparisons of 50 States and 45 Nations

The purpose of the educational enterprise is LEARNING. Engagement is essential to achieving this purpose. How do we increase the proportion of our young people who enroll in and attend school while simultaneously setting high standards and inducing them to become engaged and effective learners? This paper proposes an agenda of reform to achieve these two goals. Each of proposal has a research literature behind it that makes a good case that the policy simultaneously raises the achievement of existing students and encourages them to stay in school or alternatively achieves one of these goals without sacrificing the other. Strategy # 1 says “Do a better job of convincing adolescents that learning and schooling pays off big time.” Strategy # 2 proposes a variety of ways of making secondary schools both more attractive and more effective. Expand the offerings of and access to career-technical education. Stop building large high schools. Create a new set of small high quality schools of choice: KIPP Academies and Career Academies. In Strategy # 3 I propose that end-of-course exams [not minimum competency exams or standards based exams] be the primary mechanism (along with teacher grades) for signaling student achievements to colleges and employers and for holding high schools accountable.High quality end-of-course exams that reliably measure achievement over the entire A to F range would need to be developed. Exam grades would appear on the student’s transcript, be part of the final grade in the course and be factored into college admissions and placement decisions. The exam would be a spur for everyone in the class to try harder, not just those who are struggling to pass the course. This strategy brings the interests of students, parents and teachers into alignment, encourages a pro-learning culture in the classroom and makes it easier for teachers to be rigorous and demanding. Universal curriculum-based external exam systems—as they are called--work remarkably well in Europe, Canada, North Carolina and New York and there is every reason to expect them to be equally successful when implemented in other SREB states

The Growth of Female College Attendance: Causes and Prospects

[Excerpt] This paper analyzes the response of female college attendance and completion rates to changes over time (and variations across labor markets) in the payoff to college and the cost of attendance and the preparation of students for college. The robustness of the main findings will be checked by analyzing two very different data sets: cross section data on individuals and time series data on awegate college enrollment and completion rates from 1949 to 1989. In Section 1, a simple model of the college attendance decision is developed which incorporates most of the factors discussed above. Section 2 presents the results of fitting the specification implied by the theory developed in Section I to cross-section data on the college attendance choices of 29,141 women who were high school juniors in 1960. Major findings of this analysis are that female college attendance is very responsive to public decisions effecting instate tuition levels and the proximity of public colleges and somewhat responsive to the magnitude of the local economic payoff to college