Alumni Success

ALUMNI SUCCESS

PLOS ONE

A paper based on research done by Students from Maine-Endwell High School in Endwell, NY with guidance by Hiroki Sayama of SUNY Binghamton.

Spread of Academic Success in High School Social Network

                   Deanna Blansky, Christina Kavanaugh, Cara Boothroyd, Brianna Benson, John Endress, Hiroki Sayama

                   Published: February 13, 2013

                   DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055944

Abstract

Application of social network analysis to education has revealed how social network positions of K-12 students correlate with their behavior and academic achievements. However, no study has been conducted on how their social network influences their academic progress over time. Here we investigated correlations between high school students' academic progress over one year and the social environment that surrounds them in their friendship network. We found the students whose friends' average GPA (Grade Point Average) was greater (or less) than their own had a higher tendency toward increasing (or decreasing) their academic ranking over time, indicating social contagion of academic success taking place in their social network.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055944