The Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) is a publicly financed, residential early college entrance institute at the University of North Texas at Denton. Created in 1987, TAMS enables high-achieving students planning STEM careers to complete their last 2 years of high school simultaneously with their first 2 years of college. Admission…

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the retention of African American students at predominately White colleges and universities continues to be problematic. Although many of these institutions have implemented retention programs for African American students, few have incorporated a comprehensive program that utilizes multi-program…

This paper describes an experiential learning activity designed for a New England university freshmen course, BUS101-Marketing First-Year Experience (FYE). The purpose of the activity is to teach basic principles of marketing, develop a general perspective of business, and provide FYE activities that facilitate the college transition. The specific…

Do learning communities with pedagogies of active learning, collaborative learning, and integration of course material affect the learning, achievement, and persistence of first-year Latino university students? The data for this project was obtained from a survey of 1,330 first-year students in the First-Year Learning Community Program at Texas…

This study involved students enrolled in a first-year service-learning course and explored the relationship between service-learning, academic self-confidence, and integration into the college experience. Descriptive statistics and qualitative document analysis of participant-produced texts were used to depict the students' perceptions regarding…

Increasing student retention and improving graduation rates continues to remain a critical issue for undergraduate institutions. Previous research suggests that student attrition is predominantly voluntary, and is influenced by institutional characteristics. The importance of academic and social integration as a strategy to reduce attrition is…

As an open-access institution and a tribal college, Salish Kootenai College (SKC, Pablo, Montana) accepts all students who walk through the doors. Part of SKC's mission is to provide educational opportunities and access for students who are historically underrepresented in higher education. In recent years, national attention has focused on the…

This study hypothesized that student performance in a First Year Introduction program (FYI), representing an initial sampling of students' academic behaviors, would correlate with subsequent academic success. Subjects were 1,501 first-time, first-year students attending Columbia Basin College in fall quarter 2007, whose FYI performance was graded…

The Crimson Connections Learning Community was designed as a means of providing support to a select population of students as they became members of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) community. The program provided students who were exploring majors with a shared experience, strived to blend the academic and residential experience, and…

Purpose: The purpose of this directory was to identify, describe, and evaluate evidence that the education practices improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. Method: The sample for the…

This 2016 directory identifies, describes, and contains evaluative data evidence-based practices that improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. The directory was a production of the…

This study compared two approaches to a first-year seminar, special academic theme vs. college transition theme, to determine if one approach was more effective in terms of one-year retention rates, first-year grade point averages (GPAs), and student perceptions of the course experience and outcomes. Participants included 177 first-semester,…

Higher education continues to wrestle with the challenge of engaging and retaining traditionally marginalized populations, particularly first-generation college students of color from low-income backgrounds. The typical North American campus, as a privileged space, has failed to successfully address or dismantle systems of power and difference…

This study examines the Student Success course in two urban community colleges in the Northeast. Through analysis of student interview data, we find that the Student Success course helps students learn about the college, receive course advice, and develop stronger study skills. The course also acts as a catalyst for building important…

Academic departments have expanded the typical persistence agenda of First-Year Seminars to use them specifically as tools for in-major retention. This article reports the empirical results of a four-year longitudinal study assessing the successful efforts to improve the persistence-to-graduation-within-major of business students. The pedagogy can…