Undocumented children immigrants in the United States experience significant hurdles pursuing higher education due to their illegal status, resulting in lower rates of college attendance for children arriving before the age of 14 than U.S. born children. The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program aims, in part, to remove these…

Earning a bachelor's degree or work certificate can close social equity gaps and increase social mobility and economic stability in American society. Barriers exist to upward mobility for underrepresented groups (first-generation, low socioeconomic, African American, and Hispanic). Underrepresented students are falling below their peers in…

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between learned helplessness and academic baseline levels among adult students who dropped out of high school and have returned to a high school equivalency program to prepare to take the GED examination. The study controlled for the variables of the age of…

This project study addressed the problem of low persistence of Black men in community college. A southeast Texas community college study site implemented a mentoring program specific to Black men in 2013 following a data report from The Achieving the Dream program. Although the mentoring program had been implemented with progress, there were no…

To help students realize their goals, community colleges across the country are working toward redesigning the student experience utilizing the guided pathways framework. Guided pathways is an institution-wide approach to student success that is based on giving students clear, coherent, and structured educational experiences that build in a…

This study explores the high academic achievement of Excelencia Early College High School (EECHS), located along the Texas-Mexico border. An open-enrollment public school, EECHS serves students who are characteristic of the lower Rio Grande Valley. These include students of low socioeconomic backgrounds, minorities, first-generation, and those…

Background: The constructs of interest and motivation are often identified as factors that contribute to the persistence of undergraduate college women in physics, mathematics, engineering, engineering technology, and computer science. A review of the literature regarding interest development and motivation as related to women as science,…

This study was a quantitative point-biserial correlation analysis on students' motivation to go to college using the AMS-C28 survey instrument. The study implemented Self Determination Theory to explain the characteristics and traits of traditional and non traditional students' motivation to succeed in college after completing the freshmen…

The purpose of this study was to investigate achievement factors of African American males on a college campus in the state of Texas, primarily a private 4-year college that serves a predominantly African American student population. The researcher used a case study approach to determine factors that affect the persistence of these college-aged…

Community colleges serve a vital role within the American education system and as the number of nontraditional students increase, further research is warranted in understanding how these particular students can be retained. Nontraditional student enrollment is highest at community colleges; however, they have the lowest rates in being retained.…

Employing a non-experimental, ex-post facto design, the study examined the relationship of student demographic information and internal characteristics identified from the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) to student persistence, grade point average, and academic success. Cognitive Learning Theory (CLT), which focuses on the internal…

The community college as the entranceway into the baccalaureate degree is becoming a prevalent choice for students. This study was a qualitative approach to understanding attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge acquisition by successful community college transfer students. University students who transferred from a community college and were making…

This study examined the use of ARCS-based, motivational mass e-mail messages designed to improve the motivation and retention of students enrolled in an online, entry-level, undergraduate computer applications course. Data from the Course Interest Survey, based on Keller's ARCS model, were gathered and analyzed for two online groups (one treatment…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the spring 2008 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) results from a community college located in Southeast Texas to determine what relationship student engagement had to student persistence and academic performance and if that relationship differed by race, ethnicity, or academic program.…

Personalized learning: Everyone knows it needs to happen, but how? It is one thing to believe in the importance of high school reform. It is quite another to embrace a system that helps every student leave high school with a diploma and plans for postsecondary education or training that lead to productive and self-sufficient adulthoods. This…