As an increasing number of students take online courses, lower completion rates in these online courses have created a crisis of attrition and turned the reversal of dwindling retention and graduation rates into a national priority. This descriptive quantitative study with "de facto" data investigated a subset of undergraduate online…

The purpose of this study was to examine student experiences from Mid-Atlantic community colleges during the COVID-19 pandemic and the related impact on their perceived stress levels and academic performance. Adopting a cross-sectional survey research approach, this study aimed to critically examine how students navigated their academic lives…

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first aim was to better understand the selection criteria that college students of varying demographic backgrounds find most important when making a final selection of a college or university during their college search process and the promotional information they find to be most useful, particularly…

The shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in the way education is delivered. The online environment provides a new avenue for physical therapy education. With a majority of undergraduate students taking at least one course online, their perceptions of online learning are critical in the…

Title 1 middle schools have always faced unique challenges. Students belonging to families with low socio-economic status and financial stress have to overcome various barriers before they are academically successful and ready for college, career, and life. The COVID-19 pandemic forced students to engage in education outside of traditional school…

There is growing evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic had a large and negative impact on student learning. This dissertation explores the effect of the pandemic on one of the most vulnerable student subgroups: English Learners (ELs). In this work I examine existing disparities among subgroups of ELs, and the different ways the pandemic has impacted…

There is extensive research over the decades around health care services utilization trends, however, limited data and research exists around student utilization of campus health centers. Furthermore, there is very minimal data on student utilization trends of campus health services since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since a crucial…

First-generation college students are the first in their families to pursue postsecondary education. As a result, they may lack the information and resources to navigate the college process and its transitions. More research is needed on how focusing on first-generation students' strengths can inform programs and support to assist with the…

The purpose of this study was to discover what contributive factors caused students to be chronically absent from school before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three guiding questions supported the research: (1) How did teachers' perceptions of reasons for students' absenteeism compare to parent attendance reasons for students' absenteeism…

Access to pass/fail grading was liberalized for courses designed to be delivered in-person but moved online due to social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic at many universities in the spring 2020 semester. There was little research to inform liberalizing access to pass/fail grading as a tool to support student performance and persistence…

School climate is comprised of experiences of school life that reflect norms, values, relationships, teaching practices and systemic structures. A student's perception of school climate can be impacted by individual-level (race and gender), school-level (school socioeconomic status, school size, and schoolwide practices), and district-level…

This phenomenological study aims to illuminate Black men's academic experience in undergraduate education during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Specifically, what is the academic experience of Black men in undergraduate education during the COVID-19 pandemic within the United States? The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic on the…

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced educational systems to transition into an emergency remote learning modality. This quantitative study compared retention and productive grade rates of two 16-week academic semesters and compared face-to-face (fall 2019) and remote (fall 2020) emergency remote instruction. The study sample was drawn from…

Secondary students from a mid-sized school district in the rural Midwest who had chosen an asynchronous learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed to determine predictors of academic achievement and perceptions of their learning during the pandemic. An explanatory, mixed methods case study was conducted to sequentially analyze…

The 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic affected nearly all aspects of life for most of the world. Education's adaptation called for a swift, unplanned, and widespread shift to distance education. The rising trend of distance education before the pandemic did not buffer the apprehension and critique of the modality. Though evidence of its inferiority…