McNair Scholars Undergraduate Research Journal, 2011, Vol. 3
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/12449
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Item NCLB and Accountability: How Do Testing and Teachers Impact Retention?(2011) Harrison, Brittany; Costanzo, Richard; Gulemetova, MichaelaThis study seeks to uncover the role that high-stakes testing mandated by “No Child Left Behind” legislation and student-teacher ratio has on the retention of the traditional high-school student with an emphasis on the retention disparity between minority students and their White peers. This empirical, quantitative analysis uses school level data from the Common Core of Data. This data set was used to observe national trends between minority students and their White counterparts because minority students are generally the group plagued by underachievement and high dropout rates. Given the already expansive body of work surrounding what we refer to as the achievement gap, which can include issues of achievement ranging from grades to standardized test scores and even the issue of retention rates which this study focuses on, this study seeks to approach the issue from a different direction with a broader data set. Analyses showed that for minority male students (Black and Hispanic) a lower-student teacher ratio greatly contributed to their retention yet conversely White females’ retention seemed to be somewhat unaffected by student-teacher ratio fluctuations and high-stakes testing. Therefore, this study suggests that although student-teacher ratio and testing do have an impact on retention, this impact is primarily only for minority students, impacting minority males at the highest level.Item Effective Practices and Principles of an Internal College Readiness Program Based on Literature, School Staff and Student Perceptions: A Mixed Methods Analysis(2011) Evans, Khrysta A.; Southerland, Wallace, IIIThis triangulated mixed methods study explores the effective elements of college readiness programs by analyzing the existing literature and also school staff and alumni perceptions of their experiences in an internal college readiness program. This study’s significance lays in its ability to answers the call for empirical research on the specific factors of these programs that promote successful college access. While existing studies effectively incorporate either quantitative or qualitative research methods both are somewhat inadequate indicators of effective principles, a combination of the two research methods would provide a more comprehensive explanation of the effective practices and principles of college readiness programs by making note of trends and generalizations as well as an exhaustive knowledge of the participant’s perspectives (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). For this reason this study will be incorporating a triangulation mixed-methods approach. The school staff perceptions will be collected in qualitative focus group interviews while alumni student perceptions will be collected through a quantitative survey. The keys findings from the literature show that the important components of an internal college readiness program are: academic preparation; the guidance counselor; teacher involvement; parental involvement; and college publicity. Continuing this research agenda, the researchers will gather data on school staff and alumni student perceptions of their experiences in the chosen internal college readiness program: KIPP Pride High, Gaston. In order to create a blue print for successful internal college readiness programs the following recommendations would be valuable: a comparison of two or more internal college readiness programs to discover more essential components; and a study of students who attend a high school qualifying as a n internal college readiness program but are also enrolled in an external college readiness program to assess if the access to higher education is heightened for that student.