The Effects of Minimum College Transfer Admissions Requirements within the University System of Georgia

The University System of Georgia sets minimum transfer admissions requirements for its institutions that differ with the institution’s classification as a research university, comprehensive university, state university, or state college. For the three types of universities, the requirements consist of minimum grade-point-average (GPA) thresholds that apply for students with at least 30 transferrable credits. This report studies how the minimum GPA requirements affect student transfers within the system. We find that, in many cases, these GPA requirements do influence transfer patterns. These effects are most apparent for the minimum GPA (3.2) required to transfer to the University of Georgia. Students with a GPA just above the 3.2 minimum at 30 credits are three times as likely to transfer to the University of Georgia within one year compared to students with a GPA just below 3.2. The minimum transfer GPA requirements, however, have a more distinct effect on the timing of when students transfer as opposed to whether students ever transfer to a particular institution. The report concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings

Placement Tests, Initial Enrollments, and Student Outcomes in the Technical College System of Georgia

Institutions in the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) offer programs that lead to technical certificates of credit (certificates), diplomas, and associate degrees. TCSG uses tiered standards to place students into courses for these programs. The standards consist of minimum thresholds for several common skills and aptitude tests, including the ACCUPLACER, SAT, and ACT, with progressively higher standards applying to required courses for certificate, diploma, and associate degree programs. This multi-measure, tiered system is intended to ensure each student has the appropriate math and language skills to succeed in the student’s chosen program. This report from Michael D. Bloem, David C. Ribar, and Jonathan Smith analyzed how placement test results and other student characteristics are associated with students’ program choices, program completion, and post-program outcomes. It examines students who enrolled in TCSG award programs in the Fall 2013 term through the Summer 2020 term. The authors have three main findings 1. Some students are more likely to enroll in particular programs. Women, White students, older students, and students without high school diplomas have high rates of enrollment in certificate programs. Men, Black students, and economically-disadvantaged students have high rates in diploma programs. Younger and economically-disadvantaged students have high rates in associate degree programs. 2. Placement test scores are only moderately associated with program enrollments and certificate and degree program completion. 3. Initial program level is an important predictor of whether students complete a credential and what type of credential they obtain, although a plurality of students at each initial program level earns a certificat

Labels direct infants’ attention to commonalities during novel category learning

Recent studies have provided evidence that labeling can influence the outcome of infants’ visual categorization. However, what exactly happens during learning remains unclear. Using eye-tracking, we examined infants’ attention to object parts during learning. Our analysis of looking behaviors during learning provide insights going beyond merely observing the learning outcome. Both labeling and non-labeling phrases facilitated category formation in 12-month-olds but not 8-month-olds (Experiment 1). Non-linguistic sounds did not produce this effect (Experiment 2). Detailed analyses of infants’ looking patterns during learning revealed that only infants who heard labels exhibited a rapid focus on the object part successive exemplars had in common. Although other linguistic stimuli may also be beneficial for learning, it is therefore concluded that labels have a unique impact on categorization

The joy of ruling: an experimental investigation on collective giving

We analyse team dictator games with different voting mechanisms in the laboratory. Individuals vote to select a donation for all group members. Standard Bayesian analysis makes the same prediction for all three mechanisms: participants should cast the same vote regardless of the voting mechanism used to determine the common donation level. Our experimental results show that subjects fail to choose the same vote. We show that their behaviour is consistent with a joy of ruling: individuals get an extra utility when they determine the voting outcome

Efficacy of a Mycotoxin Binder against Dietary Fumonisin, Deoxynivalenol, and Zearalenone in Rats

It was hypothesized that a mycotoxin binder, Grainsure E, would inhibit adverse effects of a mixture of fumonisin B1, deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone in rats. For 14 and 28 days, 8–10 Sprague–Dawley rats were fed control diet, Grainsure E (0.5%), toxins (7 μg fumonisin B1/g, 8 μg of deoxynivalenol/g and 0.2 μg of zearalenone/g), toxins (12 μg of fumonisin B1/g, 9 μg of deoxynivalenol/g, and 0.2 μg of zearalenone/g + Grainsure E), or pair-fed to control for food intake of toxin-fed rats. After 28 days, decreased body weight gain was prevented by Grainsure E in toxin-fed female rats, indicating partial protection against deoxynivalenol and fumonisin B1. Two effects of fumonisin B1 were partly prevented by Grainsure E in toxin-fed rats, increased plasma alanine transaminase (ALT) and urinary sphinganine/sphingosine, but sphinganine/sphingosine increase was not prevented in females at the latter time point. Grainsure E prevented some effects of fumonisin B1 and deoxynivalenol in rats