Education Commons^™

Identifying Key Success Indicators In Student Letters For Reinstatement From Suspension, Angela Bowlus, Jamaica Delmar

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Retaining and graduating students continues to be an issue that higher education institutions are longing to solve, especially for the growing non-traditional student body whose list of competing priorities continues to grow. As academic suspension hinders persistence, this article examines a key aspect of the reinstatement from suspension process for students: the letter of appeal. The narrative provided is impacted by how the writer expresses their acknowledgment of what went wrong and what changes will be made to ensure administrators of future success, it too is impacted by the interpretation of the institutional decision maker. By reviewing a sample of …

Manager Onboarding To Improve Knowledge And Confidence To Lead, Christine (Tina) K. Asiimwe

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Primary care (PC) is increasingly the setting for affordable, coordinated, end-to-end patient care, with PC managers in charge of organizational performance. While PC managers are central to high-functioning teams, they often receive inadequate onboarding.

Local Problem: Primary care onboarding competes with other operational priorities and faces time constraints, lack of mentorship, and cost.

Context: At an integrated healthcare system, a need was identified to develop structured, role-specific onboarding for newly hired PC managers to improve knowledge and confidence to lead.

Interventions: Bauer’s Four Cs framework for onboarding guided the development of a manager onboarding program for 12 new PC …

Connecting First-Generation Students To Leadership Opportunities, Christian Walker

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact that current outreach methods utilized by the Associated Students of UC San Diego are having on first-generation students’ engagement and pursuit of leadership opportunities, and ways that the department of Associated Students can adapt their approaches to better encourage participation from this student group. My research question was: How can I create outreach efforts that increase the number of first-generation students seeking student leadership roles? This research led to an enhanced understanding of how the department can connect members of this student group to open roles and opportunities for student …

The Art Of Nurse Mentoring: A Framework Of Support, Diane S. Kramer, Victoria Y. Mccue, Eve Butler, Andrea S. Prentiss, Maria M. Ojeda, Kayce K. Tugg, Vivian Fuentes, Sally Bonet

Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Introduction: Nursing mentoring relationships are vital to the advancement of personal and professional growth in nursing. Mentoring has been identified as an effective method to decrease turnover resulting in retention of experienced nurses. Despite the benefits of a mentoring relationship, barriers exist in creating and cultivating a formal mentoring program in the hospital setting.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive study approach that explored nurses’ perceptions of a mentoring culture within a hospital environment. Open-ended, conversational-style interviewing techniques with a semi-structured interview guide were utilized to gain a full description of nurses’ perceptions of a mentoring culture within a hospital environment.

Results: …

The Predictability Of Types Of Mentoring Relationships On The Perceived Performance Behaviors Of College Undergraduate Students, Jeffery Lindsey

Dissertations (2016-Present)

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictability of types of mentoring relationships on the perceived academic success, retention status, graduation status, and progression status of undergraduate students in the United States. Specifically, this study focused on the predictable relationship between types of mentoring relationships such as peer mentorship, faculty mentorship, e-mentorship, and group mentorship on the perceived academic success, retention status, graduation status, and persistence status of undergraduate students. For this study I utilized a correlational design. A survey was used to collect quantitative data from undergraduate students. A purposive sample of the population was necessary for …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Emergency Grant Persistence Rates, Rachel Sherlock

Culminating Projects in Higher Education Administration

I conducted a correlational quantitative study to determine whether an emergency grant program at a four-year public institution is correlated with increased student persistence, and if students’ socioeconomic status and race are correlated with their likelihood to persist after receiving an emergency grant. I studied how students’ demographics influenced persistence rates based on race, socioeconomic status, gender, first-generation status, age and grade level. I found that Black or African students, students 24 years and older, and first-year students had significantly lower persistence rates than other categories of students after receiving the emergency grant. In comparison, white students, students 23 years …

The Complicated Road From Academic Dismissal To Degree Completion: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Student Experience, Annmarie Gottner

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Graduation rates are a key metric for measuring success, both for the student who attains their degree and the higher education institution that awards the diploma. In a time of increasing social pressure to demonstrate the value of the higher education enterprise, colleges and universities have become increasingly attentive to the graduation rates for their students. Individual students are sensitive to their likelihood of degree completion as costs associated with higher education increase alongside continued perception that employability is positively impacted by a college diploma. Faculty and administrators are keenly committed to supporting students to graduation success, and the economic …

Female First-Generation College Students: A Review Of Challenges And Successes, Junghwan Kim, Sarah M. Miller, Jihee Hwang, Joann S. Olson

Journal of Global Education and Research

With increasing college access rates of underrepresented populations in recent years, first-generation college students (FGCSs), those who are the first in their family to attend college, have caught the attention of researchers and policymakers in the U.S. higher education system. This study focused on female FGCSs to identify the various challenges that are unique to this population. Through a systematic literature review, 13 studies were analyzed related to female FGCSs. Three themes were found from the analysis: role expectations, support systems, and socioeconomic background. These explain the challenges and self-identified strategies that female FGCSs discussed as contributing factors to their …

Predicting Student Success In An Electrical Engineering Program, Edward Carl Greco Jr., Matthew Garett Young

Faculty Publications - Electrical Engineering

Successful completion of course of study leading to graduation in electrical engineering was found to be linked to a couple of key gateway courses. Students that performed below a threshold in these early courses had a lower probability of graduating and could then be identified for additional assistance. Based on these results, changes were implemented in the curriculum to enhance student success in these preliminary courses to facilitate retention.

The Relationship Among Learning Styles, Achievement, And Retention In Bible College Freshmen: A Correlational Study, Frances Ann Stetler

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This predictive correlational study used a multiple regression to examine whether learning style and achievement, or grade point average (GPA), can predict retention for first-year, traditional Bible college freshmen. Four small Bible colleges were the sites for the research: one in Florida, two in Ohio (Northern Ohio and Southwestern Ohio), and one in Pennsylvania. The first predictor variable, learning style, was generally defined as the preferred method for a student to process and learn information. The second predictor variable, achievement, was generally defined as the end-of-semester GPA. The criterion variable, retention, was generally defined as a participant’s attendance in the …

An Illumination Of The Road To Resilience For Black Millennial Teachers As A Means Of Addressing The Black Teacher Shortage, Jameka Tanae Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe Black millennial teachers’ self-perceived factors of resilience in Virginia public elementary schools. The central question of this study was: “What are the lived experiences that Black millennial teachers ascribe to their resilience in Virginia public school elementary settings?” The theory guiding this study was resilience theory by Masten (2014) which described positive human adaptation through the interplay of individual and contextual risk and protective factors that contributed to resilience. This study followed a qualitative design with a transcendental phenomenological design. A sample with a minimum of 10 participants from Woodrow …

“You Shall Not Pass”: Predicting Attrition And Completion Of An Iraqi Academic Preparatory Program, Rachel Gresk, Elizabeth Niehaus

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the factors associated with student retention and matriculating from an Academic Preparatory Program to the undergraduate program at a university in Iraq. We used a logistic regression model to predict student’s probability of retention and maturation based on demographic and academic variables. We aim to ensure that institutions are identifying and implementing strategies to improve student success by first examining if the institutional enrollment approach is the best one for our students and institution. Our logistic regression analysis model found that ethnicity, initial English language placement, the Iraqi Baccalaureate Score, and …

Retention Factors Of Rural East Texas Superintendents, William Z. Crawford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify factors that influence retention of school superintendents in rural Texas. Constant turnover in the position of superintendent has created inconsistent learning environments for students and unstable working environments for staff. Small, rural schools have often served as steppingstones for superintendents who use their experience in these small rural districts to obtain positions in larger, suburban schools. The researcher used semistructured interview questions to conduct this study. In this qualitative case study, participants were recruited from the educational service center of Region VII school districts in Texas. One group included superintendents …

The Experiences Of Cohort Membership In An Alternative Certification Program, Roxanne Marie Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

Employing and retaining teachers has been a rising problem affecting employment at school districts. Nationwide school districts have noted high instances of teacher shortages and are finding it more difficult to fill positions with traditionally trained teachers. In the 2019-2020 school year, at a local district in South Florida, it was assessed that 56% of new teachers to the district were of a noneducation background or career changers.

Retention of this subgroup of teachers is pertinent to reducing teacher attrition, specifically within the school districts that most frequently employ them. Certificate expiration, due to not completing their certification requirements within …

"It’S A Lot Of Work To Be Native": Using Storytelling To Examine The Needs Of Native American Students At The University Of San Diego, Kasandra Tong

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The University of San Diego’s (USD) Race/Ethnicity Federal Reports show that for the last 17 years, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native students at USD has not risen above 1% (University of San Diego, n.d.). This data requires further disaggregation because the current data only represents students that solely checked American Indian/Alaska Native and does not include students who identify as biracial or multi-racial. The purpose of my research was to identify what efforts are needed to improve the experience of Native American students at USD. My research question was what factors are needed to improve the existing experience of …

Admitting Smarter: Refining The Admission Process Through Professional Dispositions, Catherine Snyder

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Since 2018, news agencies have shifted from reporting teacher layoffs to teacher shortages. This swift shift in the industry left many floundering to recruit enough teachers to fill classrooms. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there is still a demand for teachers, now with added online teaching skills. This article addresses one program’s admissions improvement process: an analysis of the acceptance process, improvements and changes in the process with the goal of reducing attrition, and improving the quality of candidates admitted. Several improvements were made, specifically related to introducing dispositional tools and standardizing the acceptance process across the …

Comparing Three Different Vocabulary Teaching Techniques For Retention, Nermin Punar-Ozcelik, Levent Uzun

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

In relation to all languages, communication is the key concept, so vocabulary and grammar are the basis of communication. There have been conducted some studies considering the effect of different techniques on vocabulary retention. However, these studies are mostly limited not to integrate skill-based activities to language teaching techniques for effective vocabulary retention. Based on this gap, the present study aimed to discover the differences among three vocabulary learning and teaching techniques integrated with skill-based activities (reading only, pictured reading with writing, and video watching with speaking) for vocabulary retention. Pre-experimental research was carried out, and the treatment based on …

Online Prehealth Advising: Impact Analysis Spring 2017 To Fall 2020, Alasdair Ekpenyong, Mykel Beorchia

Publications

At Utah State University, various online, Canvas-based advising programs complement the traditional in-person advising program. The online prehealth advising service assists students who are considering health professions graduate school.

This report explored the association between online prehealth advising participation and student persistence to the next term at Utah State University.

Retention Rates And Pre-Matriculation Variables Of First-Time, Full-Time Students At Three, Small, Private, Liberal Arts Universities In Georgia, Bonnie Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental, correlational, quantitative study was to provide an

in-depth understanding of the relationship between pre-matriculation variables on retention of first-year, full-time students from fall-to-fall semesters at three small, private, liberal arts institutions in the Southeast United States. The findings will help to determine the significance of the relationships between retention and pre-matriculation variables on first-year, full-time students who entered each institutions the fall 2017 and fall 2018 semesters.

Archival data at the participating institutions were used to test the significance of the relationships between retention rates and pre-matriculation variables (standardized test scores, high school GPAs, gender, …

A Quasi-Experimental Study On How Free College Influences Educational Equity In The United States Based On Analysis Of The Excelsior Program, Zhuoyao Liu

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

ABSTRACT

Educational equity has long been an important issue to which the U.S. government, academia, and the public have paid great attention in past decades. The federal government and state governments have successively promulgated policies to reduce the equity gap between well-represented and underrepresented students. As such, the Promise Program (a representative of free college policy) has become a popular tool to address the educational equity issue. New York was the first state in the United States that announced a statewide Promise (called the Excelsior Program) applying the free college policy to all public higher education sectors for its state …

A Collective Case Study Of Teachers’ Perceptions Of Factors That Impact Teacher Retention At A Title I High School In A Southern U.S. State, Laronica Deniece Gilmore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study was to understand secondary teachers’ perceptions of the factors that influenced teacher retention at a Title I high school in a southern U.S. state. Although researchers have investigated the problem of teacher retention, few have studied factors that have influenced teacher retention in Title 1 high schools. The theories that guided this study included job demands-resources theory which analyzes employee well-being. This collective case study captured the insights of 10–15 current and former teachers at a Title I high school in a southern U.S. state. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and …

First-Year Seminar And Its Impact On Retention At A Small Liberal Arts College In South Carolina, Michael A. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

First-Year Seminar (FYS) courses have been the foundational building blocks for academic and nonacademic success for first-year college freshman since the late 1970s. With the focus on improving retention and persistence, FYS courses have been viewed as the resource that connects freshmen to the faculty, staff, student, and campus environment. Therefore, it is vital to see the impact that it has had on students and how it can further develop persistence through graduation. The researcher conducted this basic qualitative study to look for emerging themes of sophomore experience in the FYS courses and how that impacted their persistence and retention …

The Examination Of Racial Identity Of Black Males Through Self-Efficacy, Social Integration, Persistence, And Mentorship At A Predominantly White Institution, Marvin Earl Dupiton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black males account for 4.3% of the total enrollment at four-year postsecondary institutions in the United States. The percentage of Black men who are enrolled in college is nearly the same as it was in 1976 (Harper, 2006a; Palmer & Strayhorn, 2008; Strayhorn, 2008a, 2010). With this low exponential growth of Black males attending institutions of higher education, there is the assumption that institutions have not done much to provide for this population of students that are recruited consistently to attend these universities. Black males do not have enough resources to reassure their cultural masculinity as well develop as an …

Better Together: The Effect Of Learning Communities On Business Student Retention And Performance, Lynn Murray, Alexander Binder, Gail Yarick, Mary K. Wachter

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

College student performance and retention have been areas of concern for higher education for decades, and increasingly so over the last quarter century. This study explores how creating a learning community comprised of a first-year seminar and two disciplinary gateway courses across two semesters affected student performance in the gateway classes and in student retention. The study found three things of interest: 1) participation in a learning community and in a residential learning community each slightly improve the likelihood that a student will enroll in the second semester; 2) performance in Introduction to Business, a disciplinary gateway course, is highly …

Tale Of The Tape: A Study Of Two-Year College Student-Athletes, Dustin Grover

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two-year athletic programs bring many unique elements to a college campus, many of which help to create a comprehensive student experience. Quantifying this experience is difficult as little data has been collected historically on two-year college athletes. The purpose of conducting this study was to create a profile of a rural two-year college student-athlete and to utilize the data to determine if participation in athletics had any effect on student success measures. This study will help college administrators build a better understanding of the two-year college student-athlete, aiding their decision-making regarding the prioritization of college athletics on their campuses. These …

The Impact Of Demographic, Academic, And Financial Variables On Predicting Four- And Six-Year Graduation At An Urban, Public, Hispanic-Serving Institution, Maria Rosado

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the rapid growth of the underrepresented population in the U.S., institutions of higher education have not experienced as rapid a growth in their underrepresented student population. Furthermore, it is estimated that in the next few years, more than 40% of jobs will require a postsecondary degree. As the underrepresented population continues to grow nationally and the job market is increasingly requiring job seekers to hold a postsecondary degree, it has become vital that the U.S. and states focus on educating and graduating its growing underrepresented population. The purpose of this study was to determine what demographic, academic, and financial …

Campus Recreation And Retention In Higher Education: A Predictive Correlational Study, Christopher John Misiano

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Campus recreation facilities and programs provide various environments and opportunities outside of the classroom for students to socialize, participate in sports, improve their physical fitness, and learn new skills. Existing research has explored the relationship between participation in campus recreation and the social, academic, and physical impacts it has on the lives of students. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if participation in various types of campus recreation held predictive significance regarding year-over-year retention of first year college students at a large, private university. The predictor variables were participation in club sports, intramural sports, outdoor recreation, …

Create An Effective Mentoring Program Based On Universal Retention Rates In The United States: A School Improvement Plan, Kati Ploeger

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

High-quality teachers are shown to be the number-one factor for student achievement (Gujarati, 2012). One way school districts around the world can retain high-quality teachers is to place them in an induction or mentoring program as new teachers. A review of the literature was conducted to support the school improvement plan and examines retention rates across the United States. The research covers these main topics: mentoring, induction, professional development, teacher retention and mobility, new teacher experiences, and teacher evaluation. In response, a school improvement plan was created to establish a high-quality mentoring program outline, which establishes support and direction for …

The Recount: Black Men's Experiences Of Predominantly White Institution Undergraduate Stem Programs In The United States, James Hairston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the undergraduate experiences of Black men who completed bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at small and large predominantly White institutions (PWIs) of higher learning in the United States. This study focused on student engagement, mentorship, and experiences of racism and discrimination as three factors that might influence Black men’s completion of STEM bachelor’s degrees at PWIs in the United States. The central research question for this study was, “What contributes to the success of Black STEM undergraduate men at predominantly White institutions of higher learning?” The …

The Relationship Of Peer-Mentoring And Online Undergraduate And Graduate College Student Retention, Stephen W. Pray

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study investigated the strength of the relationship between peer-mentoring and retention rates of online undergraduate and graduate college students. Extant literature has reported consistently lower retention rates within the online college student community when compared to the retention rates of on-campus students. One possible means for countering low retention rates is providing a mentoring program to online students, which has had a positive effect on the retention rates of on-campus students, as reported by various studies. This quantitative correlational study examined the association between peer-mentoring and retention rates of online undergraduate and graduate students. The study utilized a sample …