According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), from 2000-2010, in higher education there was a 73% increase in the enrollment of African American students in college and universities nationwide, however, the tragedy is that African American students have the lowest nationwide graduation and retention rates, and from 2010-2015…

This mixed methods study examined the effects of experiential learning on student completion and academic success in a business course at Greenville Technical College in Greenville, South Carolina. Completion rates and end-of-course grades were compared between non-experiential learning participants and experiential learning participants in…

"Reinvention" chronicles an unprecedentedly comprehensive approach to community college reform and the leadership challenges encountered along the way. The book addresses cultural clashes over the role and purpose of community colleges and argues for an emphasis on success and access. As chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, Cheryl…

A decrease in West Virginia in-state college-going and graduation rates and a need for additional postsecondary degrees in the workforce in the state by 2020 require the support and implementation of an evidence-based intervention to ameliorate the pressing issue. This study considers the outcomes in regard to persistence and completion of West…

At post-secondary institutions in the United States, the frequent topics of discussion are undergraduate retention, persistence, and graduation rates. Researchers have identified specific factors that promote student retention, engagement, and degree completion; these factors involve a combination of academic and cognitive development and social…

Strengths-based education initiatives have been implemented at higher education institutions world-wide as efforts to enhance student retention and degree completion. The Oklahoma State University (OSU) College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) joined the institutions utilizing strengths identification and development…

The current change agenda to improve the persistently lower rates of access, participation and outcomes of Indigenous Australians in higher education is a broad one that attempts to address the complex range of contributing factors. A proposition in this paper is that the broad and longer-term focus runs the risk of distracting from the detailed…

We explore the effects of a statewide policy change that increased the number of high school math courses required for admission to four-year public universities in North Carolina. Using data on cohorts of eighth-grade students from 1999 to 2006, we exploit variation by district over time in the math course-taking environment encountered by…

Since social connectedness is critical to student retention, colleges and universities have vested interest in identifying and providing assistance as early as possible. When students are struggling to fit in, a great deal of campus energy is invested in welcoming each new cohort of students and planning events to facilitate a sense of belonging.…

This literature review highlights barriers to persistence, retention, and graduation for students of color at institutions of higher learning. Successful strategies, approaches, and initiatives are discussed with consideration to deficit and strengths-based approaches. It is also highlighted that universities may need to address programmatic…

Victimization and problem behaviors during middle school detrimentally influence student learning. However, less is known about how they may cooccur and collectively affect high school graduation and whether the interrelationships vary by gender. Using data from a nationally representative cohort of seventh-grade students from the National…

Researchers in higher education frequently evaluate institutional effectiveness as the difference between an actual and predicted graduation rate, but little is known about whether such a method is reliable or valid. This study examines the measurement properties of effectiveness scores derived from regression residuals for community colleges in…

We explore generalizability and fairness across sociodemographic groups for predicting on-time college graduation using a national dataset of 41,359 college applications. Our features include sociodemographics, institutional graduation rates, academic achievement, standardized test scores, engagement in extracurricular activities, and work…

About 30 percent of California's future jobs will require some training beyond high school but less than a four-year college degree. And in today's economy, jobs that offer family-supporting incomes often require some postsecondary education. Career education prepares students for these "middle-skill" jobs by providing occupation- and…

Early career academics are crucial to the long-term vitality of teaching and research, and to the future of universities. They are the next generation of teaching staff, of cuttingedge innovation and research leadership, and are a valuable resource to be nurtured and developed. There is a pressing challenge for universities to create an…