Academic achievement, often measured by GPA, has been extensively studied in the literature of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, including its impact on student persistence and success in college (Rask, 2010). However, most research has only looked at students' performance at a single point in time, such as their…

This article-based dissertation consists of two manuscripts related to factors affecting the success and persistence of pre-nursing students. The first manuscript was a matched cohort study that compared selected academic variables between two groups of pre-nursing students admitted to a pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing program via two…

This study examined the relationship between selected demographic, academic and family related factors on the persistence rate among college students attending an urban university in the southern region of the United States. Although there is no conclusive explanation for what affects persistence of first-year students nationally; increasing…

The Back on Track Support Group is a four-to-six-week academic coaching initiative at Rutgers University-New Brunswick developed specifically to improve academic resilience in students who have self-identified as struggling academically. To measure out comes after participating in the process, the Academic Resilience Scale-30 (ARS-30) was chosen…

Background: Grades in college and university STEM courses are an important determinant of student persistence in STEM fields. Recent studies have used the grade offset/grade penalty method to explore why students have lower grades in STEM courses than their GPAs would predict. The results of these studies are in doubt; however, as they use GPA as…

The value of a college degree has grown significantly for both society and individuals over the last decades. Research shows a large earning gap between individuals with a high school diploma or GED and higher education levels. Many individuals start their postsecondary journey with a public institution. Community colleges must design academic…

This correlational study utilized secondary, longitudinal data to examine the extent to which student-influenced and institution-influenced factors predict the academic success and degree completion of engineering transfer students at public four-year institutions in North Carolina. The sample included students who transferred from community…

Information literacy is an important skill for college students, yet many first-year undergraduate students enter college lacking information literacy skills. A lack of information literacy contributes to lower academic performance for college students, which can impact their persistence. Higher education administrators are consistently looking at…

The proliferation of Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment taken by high school students expanded over the past few decades due concerted efforts to make the accelerated mechanisms more available to historically underrepresented groups and to reduce the cost of higher education. Supported by years of research correlating improved first-year…

The present study investigates the effect of pre-service teachers' cognitive abilities and personality traits on graduation and teacher self-efficacy using data from the German National Education Panel Study (N = 5 520). Applying latent profile analysis, we found four different profiles of pre-service teachers based on high school grade point…

The industry of higher education has consistently grappled with the issue of student persistence and institutional retention efforts due to the failure to improve student completion rates. Nationwide, only four out of every ten students graduate. According to the Completions Report by the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2006 and…

Unlike university classrooms, academic support services provide students opportunities for enactive mastery of a skill with immediate feedback in a low-risk learning environment. Given that this environment likely alters affective states, this study tracked support-seekers' perception (n=107) of their anxiety and confidence before and after…

The national need for workers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is continuously growing. The National Science Foundation has called "for a focus on STEM education" in response to the deficit in the workforce (Hagedorn & Purnamasari, 2016, p. 146). Attrition rates of STEM majors are a concern with…

Purpose of the Study: In a time of rising costs, social discourse questioning value of an undergraduate degree, and declining enrollment, institutions of higher education are under increasing pressure to provide stakeholders and potential students with measures of accountability and student success. These pressures renew the need to leverage…

The retention of students is a challenge faced by many universities in countries where participation rates are high. Living learning communities (LLCs) have been adopted by college administrators to increase retention, even though evidence of their effectiveness is largely anecdotal. This paper uses propensity score matching to address selection…