Models that have appeared in the student attrition literature in the past decade and behavioral models from the social sciences that may help explain the dropout process are examined, and an attempt is made to synthesize a causal model of student attrition. The models of Tinto, Spady, and Rootman in the area of student attrition, and models of…

A significant reason for the establishment of the junior college was the desire to limit the achievement of large numbers of college entrants, because there were not enough high level jobs for all who aspired to complete traditional degrees. In the history of the junior college movement, this problem of mass education has been attacked by…

A study examined rural students' academic aspirations and expectations, their perceptions of their parents' aspirations and expectations, and their parents' actual aspirations and expectations. Surveys were completed by 3,733 seventh grade-students in 54 schools in 17 West Virginia counties. Parent response rates were lower, with approximately two…

Patterns of history and culture help define the path one finds acceptable and follows. In Tremont, Maine, out-migration coupled with the influx of summer visitors has helped create a culture that undercuts students' appreciation of their own abilities and diminishes their aspirations to postsecondary education. Maine students in the "high…

Summarizes social conditions along the border between Mexico and the United States, with particular attention to conditions around Laredo (Texas), and presents 1993 survey results that measured the educational and lifestyle aspirations of 251 secondary students in schools surrounding Laredo. Results reveal a large majority had optimistic attitudes…

This workshop for Tennessee adolescents emphasizes the importance of attitude/discipline and the necessity for youth to plan their lives, and to have a dream and work to make it come true. Participants include two University of Maryland (Baltimore) students, who discuss going to college, and one university official. (SLD)

In seeking to expand research on the actual effects of diversity on college students, this study investigated whether various multi-cultural and feminism-related variables at the individual, peer, and institutional levels significantly influenced educational degree ambitions among women. The study used data from the Cooperative Institutional…

As part of a larger exploration of the role of community colleges in bringing the poor, working class, and ethnic minorities into higher education, this study looked at how students and institutional cultures at four urban community colleges interacted to achieve unusually high transfer rates to four-year colleges and universities. In the 1994-95…

This study surveyed 133 counselors-in-training (graduate students) on their perceptions of African American/Black, Hispanic, and White males and females in a teen pregnancy situation depicted in videotaped dramatizations. Overall, females were perceived as more likeable than were males. Respondents were less likely to encourage the Hispanic male…

The effects of family background characteristics (family income, parents' marital status, parents' education, and number of children already enrolled in postsecondary education) upon parents' postsecondary educational plans for their children, parents' saving for their children, and the amount of planning parents do with their children are…

The postsecondary educational plans of black and white high school seniors in the class of 1972 were compared with those in the same racial classification in the class of 1980. Data were extracted from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and from the survey entitled, "High School and Beyond." In order to test…

Findings from a study of 1980-81 student attrition at Bethel College, Indiana, are examined, and new directions at the college for 1981-82 are reviewed. In addition, results of a survey of 120 small colleges regarding attrition efforts are discussed. Based on the study findings, four categories of grade point averages (GPA) of Bethel students are…

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) including the 1976 follow-up were used to examine the effects of interrupting or delaying school attendance on the eventual educational attainment of white male students. Background variables include socioeconomic and other family characteristics. Achievement test…

This paper models the educational process by a system of simultaneous equations. The endogenous variables (educational outputs) are a pupil's achievement, participation in a college preparatory program, need for achievement (aspirations), demonstrated motivation (effort), expectations, self-esteem, belief in his ability to control his environment…

Parent and student surveys were conducted in nine primarily rural West Virginia counties to gather baseline information on incoming seventh-grade students' and parents' awareness of and aspirations for postsecondary education. The surveys are administered each year as part of Fairmont State College's GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness…