Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural…

For the 2014 study, "Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap: A Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students' Academic Performance and All Students' College Transition," researchers investigated the impact of attending a moderated panel on incoming freshmen's adjustment to college. The panel featured…

First-year students experience academic, social, and emotional adjustments as they transition to college. First-year experience courses support students in this transitional phase by helping them integrate into the campus environment and by teaching them college-appropriate learning strategies. This study explored the role that participation in a…

First-year seminars have become common at liberal arts and other colleges across the United States. An accumulating body of research appears to demonstrate that this curricular element is associated with increased retention of students and is positively correlated with graduation rates, student adjustment and involvement, student satisfaction,…

Two studies evaluated outcomes of a University Experience (freshman seminar) course to ease the transition to college and enhance student retention at the University of South Florida. In the first study, course evaluations of "typical" USF students (N=540) who completed the course in fall 1998 were overwhelmingly positive in support of…

Examines the relationship between completion of a freshman orientation course at the University of South Florida and retention (enrollment during a subsequent semester following completion of the course), academic performance, and graduation. Findings show that course participants performed better on measures of retention and academic performance,…

A study investigated the academic achievement of 390 students in a freshman seminar designed to enhance academic success of three risk groups (underachievers, overachievers, and low achievers). The populations responded to seminar content in distinct ways. Comparison with a control group showed the only gain was in retention of low achievers.…