2014 - Volume 1

ISSN 2161-542X (Print)                               
eISSN 2161-5411 (Online)

• Table of Contents
• Editorial Board
• Call for Papers
• Overview
• From the Editors

Scholarly Articles

South Carolina K-12 Online Schools: A Framework for Measuring Success in Teaching and Learning

Carmen M. Stone

United States K-12 online schools are growing rapidly, but research has not kept pace with this growth. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to measure if there was a correlation between teachers’ perceptions of the Effective Schools Model and student achievement within two South Carolina online high schools. A quantitative methodology was used to measure if a relationship existed between six effective schools correlates and the academic performance of ninth through 12th grade online South Carolina students. The Effective Schools Model provided the theoretical basis for this study because of the documented effectiveness of this model within traditional brick and mortar schools. Quantitative correlational methodology answered the research question: Is there a relationship between the correlates of effective schools research and student achievement in K-12 online schoolslocated in South Carolina? The Effective Schools Survey was used to collect data by measuring South Carolina online high school teachers’ perceptions of the presence of the effective schools correlates. Archival standardized test data of grades nine through 12 online students were collected from the South Carolina Department of Education to measure academic performance. Findings revealed few statistically significant relationships between the Effective Schools Model and student achievement. However, these finding contributed to the limited research available pertaining to K-12 online schools. The findings of this study may interest educational leaders as they seek to identify specific factors or create models to effectively assess teaching and learning within online education.

The Effects of Single-Gender Education on Sixth through Eigth-Grade Female Student Science Achievement

Deanna S. Boyd & Gary W. Piercy

Currently, students are educated in either single or mixed-gender learning environments. An achievement gap between male and female students in the area of science shows there is a need for an instructional strategy that would address these learning differences, such as single-gender education. Males and females have gender differences that may contribute to the way that they learn. This quantitative, causal comparative study contains a comparison of the differences in the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards science achievement scores of middle school females in single and mixed-gender environments in a state in the Southeastern part of the United States. The researcher used several analyses to determine if group differences existed between sixth through eighth grade female students in single-gender classrooms and mixed-gender classrooms in the area of science achievement. When comparing the female students’ scores in the single-gender classes and the female students’ scores in the mixed-gender classes, there was no significant difference in achievement scores between the two groups.

Religiosity of Undergraduates in an Online Christian Worldview Course

Jo Ann Alicia Markette

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not a change in religiosity would occur in undergraduate students at a West Coast Christian university as a result of their participation in an online Christian worldview course. Twenty-six undergraduate students participated in this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study, which employed the Shepherd Scale (Bassett, Sadler, Kobischen, Skiff, Merrill, Atwater, & Livermore, 1981) and the Religiosity Measure (Rohrbaugh & Jessor, 1975). The findings indicated that students self-reported positive change in two areas: Belief component and Christian walk component. Belief component indicated p = .03, with a post hoc statistical power of .45 and an effect size of 0.36; Christian walk component indicated p = .01 with a post hoc statistical power of 0.61 and an effect size of 0.42. Ritual, consequential, theological, and experiential religiosity did not show statistical significance, p = .29, .30, .08, and .07 respectively. However, the effect sizes were 0.11, 0.10, 0.27, and 0.30 respectively, which suggests that a small negative effect occurred in the area of ritual religiosity, a small positive effect occurred in the area of consequential religiosity, and a medium effect occurred in the areas of both theological and experiential religiosity. The results of this study suggest that online Christian education may affect an increase in religiosity, which not only validates the mission of Christian colleges and universities to foster Christian growth in their student body but also validates the time, effort, and training that colleges and universities invest in their faculty and staff to provide online Christian education.

The HESI Exam as an Indicator of NCLEX-RN Success

Peggy S. Waide

A decrease in National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) passage rates has increased the pressure on nursing school faculty to identify predictors ofNCLEX-RNsuccessfortheirstudents. The purpose of this research was to verify any relationship between one such prediction tool, the Health Education Systems, Inc. Exit Examination (HESI E2) and first time NCLEX-RN success. The retrospective study reviewed the records of 216 nursing school graduatesfrom foursemesters at a rural mid-Atlantic community college. This school is considering requiring a score of 700 on up to three final HESI E2 examinations at the end of the nursing program as a requirement for graduation. The variables of the students’ overall grade point averages(GPA), HESI E2 scores, and NCLEX-RN results were compared to determine if either HESI E2 scores or GPA were indicative of NCLEX-RN success. The study concluded that the HESI E2 is indicative of NCLEX-RN success at this community college at a 93.6% accurate predictive rate. The HESI E2 also returned a moderate positive correlation with overall GPA. The HESI E2, however, was not found to be an accurate predictor of licensure failure, with only a 31% negative predictive value.