Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at community colleges nationwide. While several factors affect graduation rates, many researchers focus on how a student's status as declared or undecided may impact their likelihood of graduating. This study aims to examine the potential relationship between…

Community colleges across the nation face many challenges in terms of institutional funding. As legislators in the Southeast continue to define metrics for funding mechanisms that define the amount of funding an institution receives legislators have used performance-based funding to channel funds into higher education institutions since 1979.…

Reversing the trend of US STEM graduation rates lagging other industrialized nations requires that we look at the entire pipeline of potential STEM students, including the vast number that start their journeys in remedial math classrooms in two-year colleges. Most research to date has focused on either Learning Support (LS) success or STEM…

The lived experiences of Black/African American male students at a suburban community college in North Carolina were explored in this qualitative narrative study. Institutional data from the North Carolina Community College System revealed these students had the lowest percentages of persistence toward degree completion and of graduation. In an…

For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional…

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to explore the relationship between the implementation of the Tennessee Promise scholarship program and the two-year Tennessee community college retention rates and graduation rates of first-time, full-time Tennessee students from rural Appalachian counties. Results from this study may…

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative, comparative study was to determine whether there were significant differences in fall-to-fall retention and graduation rates, between first-time, full-time students who engaged in at least one early post-secondary opportunity (EPSO) while in high school and those who did not. Archival data for…

There was a recognized high rate of students enrolled in technology programs who did not graduate college. Scholars who had studied predictors of college completion surmised there were several behavioral traits associated with a student achieving their college objectives through graduation; one of those factors was persistence. Persistence, the…

This dissertation was a multiple case study research project designed to identify whether the "Men of Merit Program" (MOMP) met its goal of increasing persistence, retention, and graduation rates of African American male students at a Western New York Community College. Earlier statistics reported that other American colleges had shown a…

School officials, policymakers, administrators, and colleges and universities express concerns express concern regarding issues that affect the persistence of community college students. Graduation rates from community colleges continue to decline at colleges across the United States. The problem investigated in this study was how the negative…

This dissertation is composed of three studies linking general education astronomy to student performance, course-taking, graduation, and identity. The first study examined demographic and academic predictors of astronomy performance among a cohort of N=1,909 community college students enrolled in astronomy courses in a large suburban community…

Community college students graduate at low rates nationwide which prevents many noncompleters from benefiting from the economic and employment advantages of a degree or certificate. Despite myriad strategies to address this problem, little is known about the impact of faculty job satisfaction on student completion. The purpose of this study was to…

Student success courses are a common strategy for addressing student retention in higher education. Though the literature implies positive effect on student outcomes, few studies have explored factors contributing to their efficacy, especially within the community college context. The purpose of this modified Delphi study was to identify essential…

This quantitative study examined non-TRIO participating first-generation college students' graduation rates and the impact of academic and social integration in one community college setting. This study used archival data to analyze tutoring, purchasing a meal plan, and living in campus housing. The study used Tinto's (1993) Model of Student…

Students with disabilities in U.S. community colleges continue to disproportionately experience lower degree attainment compared to students without disabilities. Furthermore, students with disabilities are twice as likely to choose community colleges for postsecondary education compared to four-year colleges. Students with disabilities in…