The expansion of the American community college has not been matched by the rapid, or even consistent, progress of all entering students toward postsecondary credentials. Instead, a significant proportion of students enrolled in community colleges appear "stuck" on the road to completion. This lack of progress is due to the complex ways in which…

The study compares the degree completion and persistence rates between two cohorts?students who first enrolled in postsecondary education in academic year 1989?90 and their counterparts who first enrolled in 1995?96. The analysis focuses on the rates at which students in each cohort completed a degree within 5 years or were still enrolled at the…

This study examined reasons that some full-time students take longer than normal to complete a bachelor's degree, and whether students who extend their program are more like those who take only 4 years to graduate or are more like dropouts. One part of the study reviewed 64 transcripts of all traditionally-admissible new freshmen who entered the…

It has been more than a decade since the U.S. Congress enacted the "Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act," which requires colleges and universities to make public their six-year degree completion rates. Based on the "Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act," prospective students and their parents are being encouraged to make…

This study examined how institutional and environmental attributes of the undergraduate institution facilitate or impede African American, Asian American, Caucasian, and Mexican American students' baccalaureate degree attainment four and six years after college entry. The primary data source for this study was generated from a national survey of…

This study investigated the effects of several variables on time-to-degree using a structural equation modeling approach. It examined influences upon time-to-degree for all students earning Bachelor's Degrees in 1998-99 at one university. Dependent variables were total elapsed semesters to degree attainment and total semesters enrolled. Data on…

We reviewed the literature on "noncognitive" predictors-specifically, personality as it pertains to graduate education. The review is divided into 3 sections. In the first section, we reviewed measures typically used in studies of graduate school outcomes, such as attrition and time to degree. We also reviewed which student qualities faculty and…

The 12th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2019) is organized under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society in Montreal, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is EDM in Open-Ended Domains. As EDM has matured it has increasingly been applied to open-ended and ill-defined tasks…

Focusing on student retention and time to degree completion, this study illustrates how institutional researchers may benefit from the power of predictive analyses associated with data-mining tools. The following are appended: (1) Predictors; and (2) Variable Definitions. (Contains 5 figures.)

The Procrastination Inventory developed for use with doctoral students in clinical psychology was modified for use with all-but-dissertation students and doctoral graduates in a college of education. Factor and Rasch analyses of the revised measure identified three subscales: (1) procrastination, (2) perfectionism, and (3) graduate school comfort.…

Doctoral completion and times-to-completion are issues of growing concern in the university community. Research on student completion difficulties has focused on student characteristics and student-supervisor relations. This article addresses the administration of graduate programs--more specifically, graduate deans' knowledge of and attitudes…

This information brief examines four factors contributing to Florida's overall high graduation rates in public four-year institutions: (1) Graduation rates for the largest race/ethnic groups were higher than for the nation as a whole; (2) The gaps between racial/ethnic groups were smaller than in the nation as a whole; (3) Florida's largest…

Research indicates that students whose parents did not attend college are more likely than their non first-generation counterparts to be less academically prepared for college, to have less knowledge of how to apply for college and for financial assistance, and to have more difficulty in acclimating themselves to college once they enroll. They are…

This report presents a summary of the 1991-92 results of the national Survey of Earned Doctorates conducted each year since 1958. The report presents an analysis of the numbers of doctorate recipients including data with regard to number of degrees by selected characteristics (gender, citizenship, minority groups), fields, time-to-degree,…

To measure the amount of time it takes to earn an Associate of Arts degree at the San Diego Community College District, a study was undertaken of the number of years and number of semesters graduating students at three district colleges had been enrolled. A random sample of 300 students was drawn from the 1,130 students graduating in June 1992,…