Inherent challenges affect first-generation students' persistence from as early as the first college year. Using cultural capital as a guide, this study is unique in that it investigates the contribution of first-year policies and programs to the success of first-generation students in 57 bachelor's degree-granting institutions across five states…

First-Year Seminar (FYS) is an introductory class offered to first-year students to help them acclimate to the college environment, develop effective strategies for studying, and learn techniques that will allow them to swiftly complete small assignments and sizable research projects. In 2014, approximately 80 percent of universities offered FYS,…

Bitter experience has shown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that if students are going to leave school, they are most likely to do it between the 8th and 9th grades. To combat that problem, the school district has launched a full-on campaign to get its rising freshmen into high school and keep them there. Two weeks before school opened, the district…

The Avon Grove School District has a middle school orientation program for incoming elementary students and their parents, which consists of several visits and open houses in the Spring and at the beginning of the Fall term. (SJL)