Ensuring smooth transitions to college may be difficult for the children of immigrants since their families are likely unfamiliar with the U.S. system of higher education, which is horizontally stratified and requires a number of steps before admission. Bridging social science literature on immigrant assimilation, cultural, social, and human…

Community colleges have changed notably over the past quarter century, as have the demographics and educational trajectories of the growing proportion of traditional-age college students who attend them at some point along their transition to adulthood. This dissertation extends the literature on how institutional attendance intersects with change…

Adelman (2006) observed that a large quantity of research on retention is "institution-specific or use institutional characteristics as independent variables" (p. 81). However, he observed that over 60% of the students he studied attended multiple institutions making the calculation of institutional effects highly problematic. He argued…

Though rural schools have closed a long-standing high school graduation gap compared with urban schools, they struggle to achieve parity in college graduation rates. Sociology of education literature on college attendance explains this stratification using race/ethnic or social class differences, but has not fully explored spatial stratification…

In this two-paper dissertation, I examine U.S. Census data from the Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotating Groups to understand how undocumented-student high-school-diploma, college-enrollment, associate's-degree, and bachelor's-degree attainment odds have been impacted by the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act…

As computing technology continued to grow in the lives of secondary students from 2002 to 2006, researchers failed to identify the influence using computers would have on the highest level of education students attempted. During the early part of the century schools moved towards increasing the usage of computers. Numerous stakeholders were unsure…

The purpose of this research was to provide evidence of the impact career and technical education courses have on students after graduation. Numbers of Career and Technical Education (CTE) completers have continually dropped at the participating schools for the past five years. Five categories of placement after graduation were studied including…

The purpose of this study was to determine what life is like for foster youth pursuing postsecondary education. At a time when few foster youth are pursuing and completing higher education, this study attempted to gain an understanding from foster youth about 1) the reason(s) for their success in pursuing postsecondary education, 2) how they were…

The qualitative study involved twelve students at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) who involuntarily lost jobs and as a result, made the decision to attend college. Study participants were students with no postsecondary credential beyond high school, and in most cases, had no intentions of attending college until they lost their jobs. Students…

The purpose of this explanatory-descriptive study was to investigate the demographic, systematic risk, and systematic promotive factors that best predicted higher educational attainment among foster care youths and young adults who exit the foster care system. The researcher conducted a secondary data analysis on National Youth in Transition Data…

A college education is an essential component to obtaining many successful careers which lead to financial stability. Entering college can be a stressful transition that involves academic, emotional, and social adjustments for adolescents, and can be especially challenging for first-generation college students. A wealth of research has found that…

This mixed-methods research study investigated the effects of Appreciative Inquiry on student-course engagement and attendance in core academic classes at a community college in central Mississippi. In an increasingly competitive global economy, most individuals need education or technical skills beyond high school to secure employment offering…

Students with physical disabilities attend college at significantly lower rates, and have a lower college graduation rates, than students without disabilities. Research addressing graduation rates of students with physical disabilities indicates that wheelchair basketball athletes graduate at significantly higher rates than students with physical…

Prior research highlights that high schools in which a "college-going culture" is intentionally fostered yield higher rates of postsecondary participation among underrepresented populations than do high schools where such a culture is absent. Central to the production and maintenance of a high school's college-going culture is the…

The purpose of this dissertation was to compare the perceived impact of federal financial aid on the decisions of college-aged African American and Hispanic males to attend college. Participants in the study were delimited to XYZ University, a regional university in Northeast Texas. A modified version of the College Experience Survey, originally…