The research entitled, "The Factors That Affect Retention Rates of African-American Students Pursuing Stem Degrees from Historically Black Colleges and Universities" is a quantitative study that analyzes academic factors, specifically in the first year of college, and their impact on the retention of African-American Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students at HBCUs. Since 2004, the proportion of STEM degrees awarded to African-American students have been falling (Smart, 2020). According to Nguyen (2015), as it pertains to first-year college students departing STEM majors, 28% of those students departing STEM majors in the first year of college classify as White, while 36% of those students departing STEM majors in the first year of college classify as African-American. Poor high school GPAs, ACT scores, and low and failing grades made in introductory STEM courses are often a contributing factor that pushes students out of STEM majors (Ost, 2010). This quantitative study endeavors to provide college administrators, instructors, and educators with guidance to increase success and retention of African-American STEM students. Tinto's (1993) Schema for Dropout from College, the Academic System, is used as the theoretical framework for this study. Notwithstanding, logistic regression was used to evaluate the results of the quantitative analysis employed in this research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]