Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Higher Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Higher Education

First-Year Seminar And Its Impact On Retention At A Small Liberal Arts College In South Carolina, Michael A. Smith Aug 2021

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 Perceived Factors That Influenced African American Male Students’ Persistence At A Southeastern Community College, Phygenia Flowers Young Feb 2020

The Perceived Factors That Influenced African American Male Students’ Persistence At A Southeastern Community College, Phygenia Flowers Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This basic qualitative study examined the perceived factors that influenced African American male students’ persistence to acquire community college completion in the U.S. Southeast. It investigated the academic, cocurricular, and environmental intrinsic and extrinsic support systems of African American community college students who were successfully persisting toward degree obtainment. While the work highlights the challenges of these students as outlined in the published literature to frame their concerns, the study drew on Harper’s (2015) invitation to consider shifting the emphasis from Black male disadvantage to strategies that create an advantage using an antideficit framework. Harper’s (2010, 2012) antideficit achievement framework …


College, At What Cost? African American/Black Women Undergraduate Students’ Perception Of Institutional Policy Levers, Tamara D. White Jan 2020

College, At What Cost? African American/Black Women Undergraduate Students’ Perception Of Institutional Policy Levers, Tamara D. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is exploring how institutional policy levers impact retention for African American/Black women undergraduate students at a private four-year predominantly white institution in a mid-western state of the United States. Retention of African American/Black women undergraduate students is not a widely researched area. In this exploratory case study, eight African American/Black undergraduate junior and senior women, ten administrators and one focus group of six African American/Black women were interviewed. Artifacts were collected from the administrators. The data collected was analyzed using the culturally engaging campus environment model. The experiences of the African American/Black undergraduate women were examined in academic …


"Why Am I In School?": A Mixed Methods Investigation Into Stopping Out Of College., Kathryn Gardner Adamchik Dec 2018

"Why Am I In School?": A Mixed Methods Investigation Into Stopping Out Of College., Kathryn Gardner Adamchik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Higher education research often looks at student retention as a dichotomous outcome, either students stay enrolled or not; however, students’ enrollment pathways are more complicated than that as they frequently transfer, swirl between institutions, and stopout and return. This study was designed to explore students who stopout and return to the same institution within their six-year graduation window. More specifically, I sought to learn who stops out, why they stopout, what happens while out, why they come back, and what may be different upon their return. Four conceptual frameworks were applied to understand students’ experiences with stopping out including Tinto’s …


Classification Of One-Year Student Persistence: A Machine Learning Approach, Ben Siebrase Jun 2018

Classification Of One-Year Student Persistence: A Machine Learning Approach, Ben Siebrase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multilayer perceptron neural networks, Gaussian naïve Bayes, and logistic regression classifiers were compared when used to make early predictions regarding one-year college student persistence. Two iterations of each model were built, utilizing a grid search process within 10-fold cross-validation in order to tune model parameters for optimal performance on the classification metrics F-Beta and F-1. The results of logistic regression, the historically favored approach in the domain, were compared to the alternative approaches of multilayer perceptron and naïve Bayes based primarily on FBeta and F-1 score performance on a hold-out dataset. A single logistic regression model was found to perform …


Fostering Sense Of Belonging : A Multi-Case Study Of Black Male Retention Initiatives., Jarrod Elliott Druery May 2018

Fostering Sense Of Belonging : A Multi-Case Study Of Black Male Retention Initiatives., Jarrod Elliott Druery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The retention and graduation rates of Black male collegians continues to be a work in progress for colleges and universities in the U.S. Researchers have highlighted impediments to student success and degree attainment of this population at historically White institutions (HWIs)—with racism being prominent. As a result, recent efforts have been made to promote success and persistence among Black men in college. Within the last decade, Black male initiatives (BMI) have emerged on college campuses across the country. BMIs are programs aimed at increasing persistence and success among Black male collegians. Based on the newness of these initiatives, there is …


Understanding Why Women Stay: Examining Persistence Factors Of Women Majoring In Science And Technology Programs In Public Ethiopian Universities Using A Mixed Methods Design, Meseret Hailu Jan 2018

Understanding Why Women Stay: Examining Persistence Factors Of Women Majoring In Science And Technology Programs In Public Ethiopian Universities Using A Mixed Methods Design, Meseret Hailu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Amongst African nations, Ethiopia is a unique case in many respects. The country has the second largest population on the continent, is currently experiencing an economic boom, and is a relatively stable nation in the geopolitically volatile "Horn of Africa" region. In the past two decades, the higher education sector in Ethiopia has experienced rapid growth, as evidenced by an increase in both student enrollment and the number of universities. Amongst the various types of higher education institutions, public universities are especially important because they receive the greatest financial support from the Ministry of Education. Moreover, science and technology programs …


Persisting To Graduation: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women's Enrollment, Danielle Ferioli Sulick Jan 2011

Persisting To Graduation: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women's Enrollment, Danielle Ferioli Sulick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While women maintain a numerical majority in undergraduate college enrollments and degrees earned, they also represent the numerical majority among students over 29 years old, students of color, students who are in the lowest income category, students who are single parents, and students who attend college part-time (Peter & Horn, 2005; Planty, et al., 2008). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has identified seven characteristics that place students at risk of not completing an undergraduate degree; (a) delayed enrollment between high school and college, (b) part-time enrollment, (c) financial independence, (d) students with dependents, (e) students who are single …