Education Commons^™

Retention Of Community College Students In Online Courses, Sarah Krajewski

Dissertations

The issue of attrition in online courses at higher learning institutions remains a high priority in the United States. A recent rapid growth of online courses at community colleges has been instigated by student demand, as they meet the time constraints many nontraditional community college students have as a result of the need to work and care for dependents. Failure in an online course can cause students to become frustrated with the college experience, financially burdened, or to even give up and leave college. Attrition could be avoided by proper guidance of who is best suited for online courses. This …

Success And The Other[Ed] Woman: Examining The Persistence Of Female Students From Saudi Arabia, Dawn M. Winters

Dissertations

With the influx of international students on American campuses, it is imperative that universities seek solutions to unique challenges surrounding their retention. More specifically, because women from Saudi Arabia are accustomed to highly-structured gendered practices in their home country that diametrically oppose those in the United States, they represent a sub-group within a sub-group of the often-generalized international students. Relatively few studies have been conducted regarding the academic persistence of specific groups of international students. The goal of this narrative analysis was to examine the salutogenic aspects of the persistence of Saudi women using Vincent Tinto’s (1997) revised model of …

The Relationship Between Professional Preparedness And Long Term Teacher Retention, Deborah Ann Smith

Dissertations

In an effort to identify relationships between certain demographic variables (i.e. age, years of experience, type of certification) and long-term retention, a group of public school teachers from a South-Central district of Mississippi were surveyed and asked to provide both demographic and opinion data that was compared to their response to a question asking how long they expected to remain in the teaching profession.

One purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between certain demographic factors and the amount of time teachers spend in the profession. Another purpose of this study was to examine the …

Identifying Characteristics That Influence First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen Persistence And Exploring Effective And Strategic Retention Initiatives For An At-Risk Student Population, Erin Lambert Dornan

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand background and behavioral characteristics that influenced student persistence of first-time, full-time, freshmen at a four-year public institution, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). This study provided an outline for institutions of higher learning to create a profile assessment on their campus and identify students that were more likely to need additional support in order to be successful. Research has shown that understanding students’ needs can increase student retention on campus (Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994; Briceño-Perriott & Mianzo, 2006; O’Keefe, 2013). Coll and Stewart (2008), explained that research in this field was more …

The Perfect Formula: Benchmarks That Best Predict Retention In Selective Admissions Programs, Nadine Joy Menser

Dissertations

This study ascertained the admissions criteria utilized by Radiography programs with high graduation rates and determined whether a relationship exists between admissions criteria and graduation rates. With the high demands for healthcare professionals, preserving the number of students accepted into a cohort throughout the two-year program can be an overwhelming task. These programs should make every effort to admit and graduate those who meet the needs of the public, needs both diverse and subject to change. Radiography program directors and admissions committees are considered the “gatekeepers” of the profession. Yearly, more candidates apply than seats available. Therefore, the directors and …

A Study Of The Impact Of Retention On Student Achievement In Three Rural Missouri School Districts, Jon Thomas Johnson

Dissertations

A case study was performed using archival data from retained students in three rural Missouri school districts. The data were examined to determine if a correlation existed between grade level retention and improved student achievement in Math and English Language Arts. A t-test was used to determine the impact retention had on student achievement. Scores were collected from the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) data from retained students the year before they were retained, as well as the year following when they were retained. Data were collected from 2006-2014. Data from this study revealed students who were retained showed significant gains …