The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative correlational study was to investigate whether any significant relationships existed between one-way student commute distance and retention for first-time, community college freshmen. Additional student success metrics such as three-year graduation rates, enrollment status, credit hours attempted…

Four-day school week schedules are being adopted with increasing frequency, particularly in rural areas. In this paper, we consider the academic implications of students in Oregon attending a four-day school week for the first time when they enter high school. We find 11th grade math achievement in 0.09 standard deviations lower among four-day…

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington have programs designed to address college enrollment and completion gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to low-income middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to…

Students are the core of higher education. At its best, higher education and "college" transforms students, equipping them with life-long learning skills, a degree in hand, and well-rounded academic coursework, experiences and advising to prepare for life and a career. Critical student issues, however, challenge this transformation by…

Each year, roughly 30% of first-year students at US baccalaureate institutions do not return for their second year and billions of dollars are spent educating these students. Yet, little quantitative research has analyzed the causes and possible remedies for student attrition. What's more, most of the previous attempts to model attrition at…

The returns to higher education have increased dramatically in recent decades with the rise of the global, knowledge-based economy. Research shows that the college earnings premium has increased more than 10 percent over the last fifteen years and that the returns to college are concentrated among completers. Despite these benefits, many students…

We examine whether college students' persistence in finding a suitable major field of study influences the likelihood of graduation. We find that students who make an effort to select a suitable major early in their college careers graduate in a more timely fashion. Although changing majors is associated with delayed graduation, struggling…

A recent report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) tracks college students over six years and examines their outcomes by race/ethnicity, institutional type, and enrollment intensity. Distinct trends in college enrollment, persistence, and completion emerge among Latino college students, including: (1) Most Latinos…

This qualitative study describes the experiences of 16 successful first-generation college students (FGCS) utilizing a theoretical lens, informed significantly by bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which guided our qualitative analyses of interview transcripts to examine the activities, roles, and relationships of these students…

As Utah's public institutions enroll the vast majority of Utah high school graduates, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) is the primary workforce pipeline in the state. But USHE institutions are expecting over 52,000 new students by 2025, and will need to grow capacity academically, physically, and virtually to keep pace. Seeking to…

Black males lag behind their female counterparts in bachelor's degree completion. This study examined why Black males leave higher education, eventually return, and complete their degrees. Researchers are aware of some of the challenges that Black males encounter in higher education, but there is little information factors affecting successful…

Few words have dominated the vocabulary of college retention as has the word "persistence." Many institutions still struggle to engage faculty and administrators in building campuswide retention efforts, to find the organizational levers that translate the abstractions and complexities of retention theory into scalable and durable initiatives, and…

Educators are increasingly focused on ensuring that students experience a rigorous curriculum in high school and graduate college and career ready. One way of introducing rigorous course work is to have students take college-level work, often in the form of either an AP® course and exam or a dual enrollment course. This study compared the outcomes…

Socioeconomic status as measured by race, ethnicity, income, and parental education is highly associated with college degree receipt. It is difficult, however, to identify the separate effect of each of these measures given their substantial overlap, and it is difficult to statistically differentiate between the impact of academic…

Essential to tracking student success at community colleges is the availability of solid data and commonly defined metrics that go beyond measuring the traditional (and limited) enrollment and graduation rates that these colleges report to the federal government. In particular, what is needed are metrics that illuminate what happens to students…