Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Jennifer Reeves

Committee Member

Barbara Packer-Muti

Committee Member

Mary Ann Lowe

Keywords

High School Equivalency Programs, Higher Education, Nontraditional Students, College Freshmen, Outcomes of Education

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was twofold: to (a) determine the postsecondary education (PSE) academic outcomes of the General Education Development (GED) credentialed freshmen that matriculated into the university from 2003 to 2008 and (b) compare the GED and the High School Diploma (HSD) cohorts’ PSE first-semester and first-year grade point average (GPA) outcomes. This longitudinal cohort analysis included the archival admission and academic records extracted from the private university’s database of all 245 GED credentialed freshmen that matriculated into the private university from 2003 to 2008 to determine the PSE outcomes as measured by academic achievement (GPA), persistence, and completion. Archival admission and academic records of subgroups of the GED cohort and random samples of the 551 HSD credentialed freshmen that matriculated into the private university’s evening on-campus program during the fall semester from 2003 to 2008 were used to compare the first semester and first-year GPAs of GED credentialed freshmen to the GPAs of HSD credentialed freshmen. Descriptive statistics summarized the GED cohort’s PSE outcomes and independent samples t tests were conducted to compare the GED and the HSD cohorts’ PSE GPA outcomes.

The study found that the GED cohort’s low academic achievement and persistence rates are consistent with the previous evidence on the PSE outcomes of GED credentialed freshmen. Correspondingly, the study found that as of the end of the 2012 – 2013 academic year, the GED cohort’s completion rate was 12.7%. The study’s low completion rate finding is also consistent with the GED credential recipients’ completion rates cited in the existing literature. The GPA comparisons between the GED and HSD cohorts yielded mixed results. While the researcher found no difference between the GED and HSD cohorts’ first-semester GPAs, the GED cohort’s first-year GPA was significantly higher than the HSD cohort’s first-year GPAs. The finding for the first semester GPA comparison is consistent with the recent literature on GED credential PSE outcomes. However, the finding for the first-year GPA comparison differs from the findings cited in the literature, which may be attributed to variables specific to the present study’s participants and institution, such as age and admission policies.

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