High School GPA Research Articles

The Flutie Effect: The Influence of College Football Upsets and National Championships on the Quantity and Quality of Students at a University

Abstract: Using a panel study of universities, we find that football success, as measured either by an upset win or winning a national championship, increases applications and enrollment at a university. Surprisingly, we further find that losing an upset game also increases student enrollment numbers. When examining the academic quality of incoming students following one of these events, we encounter mixed results. Our findings indicate that winning a national championship lowers the number of students enrolling at a school from the top 10%, and between the top 10% to top 25%, of their high school class. However, we also find that winning either a national championship or an upset victory increases the average high school grade point average of students who choose to enroll at the school. Overall, our results suggest that athletics serve as a consumption amenity, leading students to apply and enroll at the university.

Evaluation of a combined bachelor's (Bach)/MD program at UC San Diego School of Medicine

Purpose A substantial number of medical schools offer combined baccalaureate (BA)/ MD programs and grant conditional acceptance to medical school at the time of admission to the affiliated undergraduate program. The purpose of these programs includes attracting academically talented students, reducing competitive pressures and encouraging honor students to become physicians. Although many combined BA/ MD programs exist, evidence on their impact is largely lacking. In this study, we analyzed the combined BA/ MD program at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine (UCSD SOM), the Medical Scholars program. Participants’ demographics were analyzed as well as their performance in USMLE 1 and USMLE Step 2 CK exams. Methods Since its implementation in 2003, 107 students have been admitted via the Medical Scholars program until 2016. The quantitative admission criteria include a SAT score of 1500 and above or 2250 and above (depending of the SAT scoring system used) or an ACT score of 34 and above. Also, a High School GPA of four and above is required among other qualitative judgements (e.g. extracurricular activities, volunteer experience). Academic performance and demographics of students from the Medical Scholars program (n=107) were compared with non-Medical Scholars (n=1552) for the matriculating class of 2003 until 2016. Results A total of 107 students entered UCSD SOM from 2003-2016 through the Medical Scholars program. The average number of Medical Scholars was eight students (S.D.=4.1) per matriculating class. This relates to an average of six percent in each matriculating class. For Medical Scholars and non-Medical Scholars, there was no significant difference between their USMLE Step 1 (232 (S.D.=20) compared to 230 (S.D.=20); p=0.6, unpaired t-test) and USMLE Step 2 CK performance (244 (S.D.=17) compared to 239 (S.D.=19), p=0.3, unpaired t-test). Demographics of students participating in the Medical Scholars program from 2006-2016 (n=107) revealed a significant racial/ ethnic difference between Medical Scholars and non-Medical Scholars (p<0.0001, chi-square test). Eighty-seven percent of the Medical Scholars were Asian (n=93) compared to 38% (n=589) of non-Medical Scholars. Eleven percent (n=12) of the Medical Scholars were white versus 44% of the non-Medical Scholars (n=681). Minorities underrepresented in Medicine compromised only 2% (n=2) of the Medical Scholars compared to 18% (n=282) of non-Medical Scholars. In addition, only two percent (n=2) of Medical Scholars self-identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged compared to 19% (n=311) of the non-Medical Scholars. Discussion The academic performance of students in the Medical Scholars program was equivalent to students admitted via the traditional pathway. Analyzing the demographics of Medical Scholars revealed an absence of URiM students and also a lack of students with socioeconomic disadvantage. As medical schools have made significant changes to diversify their applicants and to include more URiM students as well as students with socioeconomic disadvantage our study suggests that combined BA/MD programs may enhance socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities. The results have implications for medical schools seeking to implement or redefine their combined BA/MD program.

Test‐optional policies fast‐tracked by COVID‐19 increase admissions equity

Test‐optional admissions were front and center for Sonya K. Smith when she started as Vassar College's Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services in fall 2019. Data indicated that high school GPA is a much better indicator of success at Vassar than SAT and ACT scores, especially for students of color. Smith saw that, for many students, testing is a barrier that can cause institutions to overlook talented and diverse applicants.

Practice Makes Perfect? Self-testing with External Rewards

Create your own luck: more practice results in a better outcome. We evaluate this conventional wisdom for a group of economics and business students enrolled in a university math course (final dataset N = 280). During the semester, students were offered a set of optional, additional exercises (some awarding extra credit, some not) and a web-based linear algebra game. Controlling for a large set of personal characteristics using machine learning methods (e.g., Lasso regression, random forest), most notably ability as measured by high school GPA and motivational variables, we find a statistically significant effect of voluntary practice on exam performance. The estimated size of the causal effect is large in terms of final grade, i.e., practice leads to better grades. A subsequent quantile regression analysis showed that the overall effect is most pronounced for weak students who would be otherwise expected to have a low exam score.

Deadlines don't prevent cramming: Course instruction and individual differences predict learning strategy use and exam performance

The goal of the present study was to investigate how course instruction and individual differences in general academic competences and conscientiousness relate to students' learning strategy use and exam performance. The sample comprised two cohorts of university students who attended a lecture on the same topic, but with varying course instruction: In the blended course (N = 238), the teacher applied deadlines for self-testing and offered regular in-class meetings to encourage distributed practice over the semester. In the online course, students studied independently without regular meetings, nor deadlines (N = 200). Learning strategies were measured objectively using behavioral log-file data. Students in the blended course used fewer self-tests than online students which was associated with poor exam performance. Academic competences (high school GPA) positively predicted exam performance via more distributed practice and self-testing. Conscientiousness was related to more distributed practice which was associated with better exam performance. Results revealed that (voluntary) in-class meeting and deadlines did not prevent cramming. Especially less conscientious students with lower general academic competences need further support in applying efficient learning strategies.

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.

Test‐optional policies fast‐tracked by COVID‐19 increase equity in college admissions

Test‐optional admissions were front and center for Sonya K. Smith when she started as Vassar College's Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services in fall 2019. Data indicated that high school GPA is a much better indicator of success at Vassar than SAT and ACT scores, especially for students of color. Smith saw that, for many students, testing is a barrier that can cause institutions to overlook talented and diverse applicants. After collecting data for several months, when COVID‐19 shutdowns began in March, Vassar administrators decided the time to pilot test‐optional admissions had arrived. Vassar has extended its test‐optional policy for the next two years, and its first test‐optional class of students will begin this fall.

Academic Success of General Education College Students Compared to those Screened as Twice-Exceptional and Gifted

In this study, the high school and college GPAs of college students who were screened as twice-exceptional were compared to college students screened as gifted and average college students. From a sample of 32,741 college students, those screened as gifted earned significantly higher means than students screened as twice-exceptional (2e) and the general college population on both high school and college GPA (p .05), but STEM majors had higher high school mean GPAs than those with non-STEM majors (p < .001). Additionally, 2e students screened as having a reading learning disability (LD) yielded higher mean high school and college GPAs than 2e students screened as having a math LD (p < .001). Implications for advising are discussed.

An Examination of Campus Engagement and GPA for Latinx College Athlete

Despite the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s focus on improving outcomes among college athletes, research has overlooked Latinx college athletes. This paper focuses on how campus engagement with peers, faculty, administrators, and athletic staff are positively related to GPA among Latinx college athletes. I used an ordinary least square (OLS) regression model to examine the relationships between engagement and Latinx college athletes' GPA. The findings suggest that high school GPA, participation in class, and faculty-student interactions were significant for Latina/o college athletes' GPA. Additionally, interactions with teammates and coach were both significant predictors, but team interactions had a slight negative effect on GPA. Lastly, identifying as a Latina college athlete had a positive association on GPA when compared to Latino college athletes.

The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design

The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design

Equity in Secondary Career and Technical Education in the United States: A Theoretical Framework and Systematic Literature Review

Career and technical education (CTE) has become increasingly popular in U.S. secondary schools, but equity has not always been a focus of federal legislation or state and local policies and programs. This literature review of trends in CTE research between 1998 and 2019 uses a novel equity framework to examine whether and how secondary CTE programs affect educational equity. A total of 123 sources were reviewed. Findings revealed that CTE research most commonly addresses access and participation, measured by high school graduation rates and GPA. Few studies disaggregate outcome measures by student subgroups to better assess equity. Furthermore, a dearth of large-scale, comparative, and longitudinal research limits generalizability. Most extant research on secondary CTE programs in the United States examines a single state, district, or school. This article identifies promising policies and practices for enhancing equity in CTE conveyed by extant literature and recommends important directions for future research.

What Lies beneath Sustainable Education? Predicting and Tackling Gender Differences in STEM Academic Success

In many societies across the globe, females are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields), although they are reported to have higher grades in high school and college than males. The present study was guided by the assumption that the sustainability of higher education critically rests on the academic success of both male and female students under conditions of equitable educational options, practices, and contents. It first assessed the persistence of familiar patterns of gender bias (e.g., do competencies at enrollment, serving as academic precursors, and academic performance favor females?) in college students of a society in transition from a gender-segregated workforce with marked gender inequalities to one whose aims at integrating into the global economy demand that women pursue once forbidden careers thought to be the exclusive domain of men. It then examined how simple indices of academic readiness, as well as preferences for fields fitting traditional gender roles, could predict attainment of key competencies and motivation to graduate (as measured by the average number of credits completed per year) in college. As expected, females had a higher high school GPA. Once in college, they were underrepresented in a major that fitted traditional gender roles (interior design) and over-represented in one that did not fit (business). Female students’ performance and motivation to graduate did not differ between the male-suited major of business and the female-suited major of interior design. Male students’ performance and motivation to graduate were higher in engineering than in business, albeit both majors were gender-role consistent. Although high school GPA and English proficiency scores predicted performance and motivation for all, preference for engineering over business also predicted males’ performance and motivation. These findings offered a more complex picture of patterns of gender bias, thereby inspiring the implementation of targeted educational interventions to improve females’ motivation for and enrollment in STEM fields, nowadays increasingly available to them, as well as to enhance males’ academic success in non-STEM fields such as business.

Zeroing in on the best early-course metrics to identify at-risk students in general chemistry: an adaptive learning pre-assessment vs. traditional diagnostic exam

ABSTRACT General chemistry are key gateway courses for many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. To improve student outcomes, it is critical both to identify at-risk students and implement evidence-based instructional strategies and interventions. These remain active areas of investigation, with recent literature showing that cognitive, affective and demographic characteristics all contribute as risk factors. Here we report an assessment of demographic characteristics and early-course cognitive measures in predicting student outcomes in first-term general chemistry (GC1), comparing an adaptive learning pre-assessment using ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) with a traditional diagnostic exam. Student performance was evaluated across three sections (345 students) in a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design using a common ACS final exam. We find that ∼57% of variance in ACS final exam scores and ∼60% of variance in final course grades is related to three predictors: initial ALEKS knowledge check, diagnostic exam score, and predicted first year QPA, an internal metric based upon high school GPA, ACT/SAT scores, and college of admission. While no single metric could identify even one-half of students scoring lowest in the course (i.e. in the bottom 15%, consistent with the percentage of D’s, F’s and withdrawals in our sections), in combination ∼ 80% were identified.

The effects of attendance and high school GPA on student performance in first-year undergraduate courses

Research has established that class attendance and High School Grade Point Average (HSGPA) play a significant role in student academic success in higher education. The study uses census data and re...

The Importance of Peer Quality for Completion of Higher Education

Using detailed Danish administrative data covering the entire population of students entering higher education in the period 1985 to 2010, we investigate the importance of a student's peers in higher education for the decision to drop out. We use high school GPA as a predetermined measure of student ability and idiosyncratic variation in peer composition across cohorts within the same education and institution. Our findings suggest that peer ability is an important determinant of students' drop out decisions as well as later labor market outcomes. Overall, we find that a one standard deviation increase in peers' high school GPA reduces the probability of dropping out by 4.6 percentage points. This number masks considerable heterogeneity by level and field of study. Allowing for a more flexible specification, we find that low quality peers have adverse effects on the probability of dropping out while high quality peers have beneficial effects. These effects are more pronounced for lower ability students.

The process of attrition in pre-medical studies: A large-scale analysis across 102 schools.

The important but difficult choice of vocational trajectory often takes place in college, beginning with majoring in a subject and taking relevant coursework. Of all possible disciplines, pre-medical studies are often not a formally defined major but pursued by a substantial proportion of the college population. Understanding students' experiences with pre-med coursework is valuable and understudied, as most research on medical education focuses on the later medical school and residency. We examined the pattern and predictors of attrition at various milestones along the pre-med coursework track during college. Using a College Board dataset, we analyzed a sample of 15,442 students spanning 102 institutions who began their post-secondary education in years between 2006 and 2009. We examined whether students fulfilled the required coursework to remain eligible for medical schools at several milestones: 1) one semester of general chemistry, biology, physics, 2) two semesters of general chemistry, biology, physics, 3) one semester of organic chemistry, and 4) either the second semester of organic chemistry or one semester of biochemistry, and predictors of persistence at each milestone. Only 16.5% of students who intended to major in pre-med graduate college with the required coursework for medical schools. Attrition rates are highest initially but drop as students take more advanced courses. Predictors of persistence include academic preparedness before college (e.g., SAT scores, high school GPA) and college performance (e.g., grades in pre-med courses). Students who perform better academically both in high school and in college courses are more likely to remain eligible for medical school.

The Road to Retention Passes through First Year Academic Performance: A Meta-Analytic Path Analysis of Academic Performance and Persistence

ABSTRACT This meta-analytic path analysis presents evidence that first-year academic performance (FYAP), measured by first-year grade point average (FYGPA) plays the major role in determining second-year student retention and that socioeconomic status (SES), measured by parental income, plays a negligible role. Based on large sample data used in a previous study, we conducted additional analyses that included corrections for measurement error and created path models using precollege academic achievement, measured by ACT Composite scores and high school GPA (HSGPA), and SES to predict FYAP and then second-year retention. Precollege academic performances had direct effects on FYAP, and FYAP fully mediated their effects on second-year retention. SES did not contribute to the prediction of FYAP, and it had only a trivial effect on second-year retention. The results of this study point to the criticality of FYAP, and supporting first-year student academic success may serve as the central vehicle for retention efforts.

The relationship between high school GPA and information literacy pre and post-test scores

Although many studies explore the effect of library instruction on information literacy test scores, there are far fewer studies exploring the relationship between high school Grade Point Average (GPA) and scores on information literacy pre- and post-tests of first year college students. This research study compares the scores of three cohorts of Franklin Pierce University students--honors students, Center Scholars (students with a cumulative high school GPA of below 2.5) and Average GPA students --on an information literacy pre-test administered in the first two weeks of the fall, and a similar post-test administered after students have attended a library instruction session. The results of this study show a relationship between high school GPA and pre-test scores and reveal an even stronger relationship between high school GPA and scores on the post-test, with honors students attaining the highest scores and Center Scholars the lowest. This article proposes explanations for these results as well as recommendations for addressing the test score disparities between these three cohorts.

Predicting time to graduation at a large enrollment American university.

The time it takes a student to graduate with a university degree is mitigated by a variety of factors such as their background, the academic performance at university, and their integration into the social communities of the university they attend. Different universities have different populations, student services, instruction styles, and degree programs, however, they all collect institutional data. This study presents data for 160,933 students attending a large American research university. The data includes performance, enrollment, demographics, and preparation features. Discrete time hazard models for the time-to-graduation are presented in the context of Tinto’s Theory of Drop Out. Additionally, a novel machine learning method: gradient boosted trees, is applied and compared to the typical maximum likelihood method. We demonstrate that enrollment factors (such as changing a major) lead to greater increases in model predictive performance of when a student graduates than performance factors (such as grades) or preparation (such as high school GPA).

Predicting success in teacher education: Revisiting the influence of high school GPA, admission, and standardized test scores on academic and licensure performance

This predictive study explored the influence of three admission variables on the college grade point average (CGPA), and licensure examination ratings of the 2015 teacher education graduates in a state-run university in Northern Philippines. The admission variables were high school grade point average (HSGPA), admission test (IQ) scores, and standardized test (General Scholastic Aptitude - GSA) scores. The participants were from two degree programs – Bachelor in Elementary Education (BEE) and Bachelor in Secondary education (BSE). The results showed that the graduates’ overall HSGPA were in the proficient level, while their admission and standardized test scores were average. Meanwhile, their mean licensure examination ratings were satisfactory, with high (BEE – 80.29%) and very high (BSE – 93.33%) passing rates. In both degree programs, all entry variables were significantly correlated and linearly associated with the CGPAs and licensure examination ratings of the participants. These entry variables were also linearly associated with the specific area GPAs and licensure ratings, except in the specialization area (for BSE). Finally, in both degrees, CGPA and licensure examination ratings were best predicted by HSGPA and standardized test scores, respectively. The implications of these findings on admission policies are herein discussed.