College Readiness, Early Post-secondary Academic Performance and the GED Degree: Evidence from Kentucky

We use detailed administrative data from Kentucky to provide robust descriptive evidence on the relationship between the General Educational Development (GED) degree, college readiness, and early post-secondary (PSE) academic performance. Following previous work in this area, we address selection issues by focusing on a sample of students who are identified as at-risk prior to high school entry. Our results suggest the GED credential is not a credible signal of PSE readiness, particularly in mathematics. GED graduates attain a lower first semester GPA and are also less likely to re-enroll in second semester courses. We also find that changes made to the GED exam in 2014 to enhance student readiness in PSE institutions did not yield meaningful improvements. Finally, we investigate the extent to which differences in math coursework can explain estimated GED-related math readiness gaps, finding coursework to account for about for about 40 percent of the observed gap.

Improving Engineering Students’ College Math Readiness by MSEIP Summer Bridge Program

This paper details improvement of the Engineering Summer ridge (ESB) program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Here we provide some of our experiences to fine-tune the program depending on the student need. Initial goal of ESB program was to challenge the freshman students intellectually, improve student communication and socialization skills, and provide student an early introduction to the University expectations and culture. The students who are graduating from the high school has lack of these qualities and the ESB program at UTRGV prepares engineering students to cultivate these qualities and to meet the challenges of University requirements. First-year college students require developmental education in Reading, Writing, or Mathematics will become “college-ready” in those subject areas through the ESB program. In our 2017 ESB program, we focused mostly with the Calculus-ready component. Specific goals of our ESB program include improving the College algebra and Pre-calculus level math expectations, and help students eliminate the math gap by passing the COMPASS Test as well as the Pre-calculus Test by UTRGV math department in the summer to get ready for Calculus I in their first semester. Study to the six-year tracking data suggests that, participants in ESB program demonstrated higher engineering interests. Improvement of engineering math readiness and overall the success rate in the selected engineering major will be presented in this paper.

INTERVENCIÓN EN FUNCIONES EJECUTIVAS EN EDUCACIÓN INFANTIL

INTERVENTION IN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATIONExecutive functions defined as the set of higher-order cognitive processes that allow an intentional and directed behavior towards a goal, are vital for success in life, at school, and at work. Improving executive functions in the early stages is very important because problems in executive functioning, in the preschool stage, predict cognitive achievement in later stages and have a central role in school readiness and in the first academic skills acquisition. Recent studies have found positive relationships between executive functioning capacities and math readiness in preschoolers. Likewise, an extensive bibliography suggests an inverse relationship between executive functions and aggressive behavior in humans. For this reason, the objective of this research is to conduct a review of the programs and activities aimed at improving the executive functions in the preschool stage. Various activities and programs have been shown to improve children executive functions, such as computer games, martial arts, yoga, mindfulness and programs included in the school curriculum. The results of studies conducted on the implementation of some of the above activities or programs are promising and suggest that different strategies can be useful in improving executive functions during the preschool years.Key words: executive functions, early childhood education, evaluation, Intervention, development, inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility.Resumen.Las funciones ejecutivas definidas como el conjunto de procesos cognitivos de orden superior que permiten un comportamiento intencional y dirigido hacia un objetivo, son vitales para el éxito en la vida, en la escuela, y en el trabajo. Mejorar las funciones ejecutivas en las primeras etapas es muy importante porque los problemas en el funcionamiento ejecutivo, en la etapa preescolar, predicen los logros cognitivos en etapas posteriores y tienen un papel central en la preparación escolar y en la adquisición de las primeras habilidades académicas. Estudios recientes han encontrado relaciones positivas entre las capacidades de funcionamiento ejecutivo y la preparación de matemáticas en niños en edad preescolar. Igualmente, una extensa bibliografía sugiere una relación inversa entre las funciones ejecutivas y la conducta agresiva en los seres humanos. Por esta razón, el objetivo de la presente investigación es realizar una revisión de los programas y actividades destinados a la mejora de las funciones ejecutivas en la etapa preescolar. Diversas actividades y programas han demostrado mejorar las funciones ejecutivas de los niños, tales como los juegos computarizados, las artes marciales, el yoga, la atención plena y los programas incluidos en el currículum escolar. Los resultados de los estudios realizados sobre la aplicación de algunas de las actividades o programas mencionados son prometedores y sugieren que las diferentes estrategias pueden ser útiles para mejorar las funciones ejecutivas durante el período preescolar.Palabras clave: funciones ejecutivas, educación infantil, intervención, desarrollo, control inhibitorio, memoria de trabajo, flexibilidad cognitiva.