FINAL GRADE POINT AVERAGE FOR ALL STUDENTS AND BY ETHNICITY ASA FUNCTION OF CREDIT-BASED TRANSITION PROGRAMMING
KRISTI M. LEE
Cuero Independent School District, Texas, USA
JOHN R. SLATE *
Department of Educational Leadership, Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA
ROBERT D. YOUNG JR
Lone Star Community College, Texas, USA
GEORGE W. MOORE
Department of Educational Leadership, Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA
WALLY BARNES
Academic Success Center, Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Analyzed in this study was the extent to which differences were present in final GPA between students who participated in a credit-based transition program, namely dual credit enrollment and Advanced Placement and students who did not participate in a credit-based transition program. Participants (n = 3,954) were students at one Texas public 4-year university who had enrolled in the fall of 2007 and who were tracked for 6 years. Although students who had taken dual credit courses (n = 307) graduated college with higher GPAs than their non-dual credit peers, the difference was not statistically significant. For Advanced Placement students (n= 177), however, the results were statistically significant, with Advanced Placement students earning higher GPAs than non-Advanced Placement students (i.e. 3.46 and 3.14, respectively). The largest statistically significant difference was between Black students who had taken an exam (i.e. GPA of 3.36) and Black students who had not taken an exam (i.e. GPA of 3.16). Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are provided.
Keywords: Credit-based transition, dual credit enrollment, advanced placement, GPA, long-term achievement, academic achievement