Black males in higher education continue to face persistent challenges due to overt and covert racism, hindering their progress towards graduation, particularly within Historically White Institutions (HWIs). This study examines the factors contributing to the invisibility and barriers faced by Black males, including engagement, academic…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the support and practices Black Males received to graduate high school successfully. This study is important because it details the challenges and experiences that young Black males who reside in urban areas and attend school in Los Angeles County describes the factors needed…

The college enrollment and graduation rates of Black and Latino males continues to be a persistent higher education problem. Furthermore, institutions of higher education fail the interests and educational advancement of Black and Latino men by many measures such as retention and college completion rates. More specifically, institutionalized…

As performance-based funding models have become the new norm for allocating state funds, universities have begun to focus more on meeting and exceeding persistence and graduation metrics. For those universities that have already made substantial gains in these metrics by implementing changes that address large populations of students, attaining…

A community of belonging. A space to build relationships. The opportunity to have one's success affirmed. These are qualities of many programs targeting men of color that have become fixtures in recent years at colleges and universities around the United States. The Male Student Success Initiative (MSSI) is a five-year-old program at the Community…

When it comes to higher education, finding the right school is only one obstacle in the lives of most African-American males. Studies show that even out of the number of enrolled African-American males in the nation, about one-third of them will actually complete an undergraduate degree. A lack of experience in higher education may affect the…

According to Saenz and Ponjuan (2009), "Latino males are effectively vanishing from the American higher education pipeline" (p. 54). Despite a steady increase of Latino students enrolling over the past several decades, the problem remains that Latino male student persistence and completion rates are not keeping up proportionally with…

Research has revealed a gender gap where male students have higher rates of academic difficulties and lower college enrollment and graduation rates compared with females. This study measured the relationship of male student (including first-generation and minority students) participation in a first-year seminar and their first-term grade point…

Barack Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" is designed to narrow persistent gaps that boys and young men of color confront often and to help all young people achieve their potential in college and career. An important part of this initiative is comprehensive mentoring that supports students in schools and in communities. Because…

Since the implementation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Academic Progress Rate (APR), Historically Black Colleges & Universities' (HBCU) male student athletes have disproportionately received more APR academic penalties than other groups of athletes (NCAA, 2016b). Each Division I team receives an APR score based on…

This dissertation examines the role that external factors play in students' educational attainment and success. The first two chapters examine the role of school quality. Chapter 1 examines how the timing of school quality impacts human capital formation, and Chapter 2 examines whether schools provide equal quality to all students within the…

The purpose of this study was to determine if engagement and mentoring of African American male students were a predictor of graduation. The participants of the study were engaged with mentors, instructors and learning communities from the beginning of their community college experience. This research study was guided by the two primary questions:…

The college graduation rates for African-Americans, as compared to other ethnic cohorts, remains at a continuous low level. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2014), 1,602,480 baccalaureate degrees were conferred nationwide to college students during 2009-2010. The purpose of this phenomenological research study is to…

To understand the context of urban Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their role in educating Black males, we conducted a literature review examining the academic contributions of these institutions to Black males. To bolster the literature, we examined Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data, determining a set of…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has continued to implement metrics to determine the number of student-athletes who are academically eligible to compete within their sport and ultimately earn a degree. The following study applied Tinto's Student Integration Model to three metrics that are used by the NCAA. The study examined…