Recognizing the current administration's focus on improving postsecondary access, this study examines resource allocation patterns and the predictive power of these resources in increasing the likelihood of 2- and 4-year college enrollment among low-income students. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, college choice decision-making…

This study examines whether feelings of relatedness constitute a substantial means by which learning communities (cohorts) improve learning outcomes in higher education. It applies Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory to an analysis of the National Survey of Student Engagement. The SDT hypothesizes that environments that support perceptions…

In an effort to identify policies that foster an institutional "culture of teaching," or encourage use of effective pedagogies, this study uses data from 5,612 faculty members at 45 institutions to examine connections between institutional policies and faculty members' perceptions and practices related to teaching and learning. A series of…

A number of studies over decades have examined determinants of educational expectations. However, even among the subset of quantitative studies, there is considerable variation in the methods used to operationally define and analyze expectations. Using a systematic literature review and several regression methods to analyze Latino students'…

Counseling instructors using evaluations made by their students has shown to be a fruitful approach to enhancing teaching quality. However, prior experimental studies are questionable in terms of external validity. Therefore, we conducted a non-experimental intervention study in which all of the courses offered by a specific department at a German…

The authors examined factors associated with membership of university graduates in the dues-based alumni association of their alma mater. Logistic regression was used to analyze variables that came from survey responses and from an existing database. All participants had attended a public doctoral-granting research university in the South.…

Although many studies have addressed the issue of response quality in survey studies, few have looked specifically at low-quality survey responses in surveys of college students. As students receive more and more survey requests, it is inevitable that some of them will provide low-quality responses to important campus surveys and institutional…

In this study, I capitalize on a natural experiment to examine the effect of federal Pell Grant eligibility on college enrollment for students who graduated from high school in spring 2004 and who completed the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" (FAFSA). Data from the "Education Longitudinal Study of 2002" are used to array students on the…

This study shows that financial aspects of state higher education policies, particularly tuition, have an impact on the level of enrollment of adult undergraduates within a state. This study also demonstrates how stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) can be utilized to examine the "potential" maximum enrollment of adult learners in postsecondary…

Using multilevel models, this study examined "whether" and "why" the strength of association between student-faculty interaction and student cognitive skills development varies across academic majors. The study utilized data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) and a sample of 43,014 students from 119…

Most studies of curricular diversity have focused on the effects of participation in diversity courses on student outcomes. Though the results have been positive, these studies have used limited measures of curricular diversity and there is a great need for a complimentary body of research demonstrating what faculty and what types of courses are…

Researchers investigated the impact that a first-year college experience course had on students' first-year grade point averages (GPAs) and retention rates. A sample of 109 first-year students enrolled in the course was compared to a sample of 326 students from the same university who had not taken the course. The goals of the experience course…

This study examines student responses to the question, "What circumstances, if any, could make cheating justified?" It then assesses how well those responses can be classified by existing theories and categories that emerge from a qualitative analysis of the data. Results show considerable support for techniques of neutralization, partial support…

Based upon a national longitudinal dataset of 14,527 college students generated by the UCLA Spirituality in Higher Education Project, this study used structural equation modeling to test the applicability of a model of ecumenical worldview development for students of diverse genders, races, and worldviews. The model suggests that challenging…

Using a national longitudinal sample of 14,274 college students generated as part of the UCLA Spirituality in Higher Education Project, this study employed structural equation modeling to analyze how students develop an ecumenical worldview. The findings suggest that challenging co-curricular experiences and the salience of religion and…