Earning a college degree has been shown to have a number of positive socioeconomic impacts on individuals and society as a whole. Although researchers acknowledge that the decision to attend college is a complex process involving multiple factors, studies have focused primarily on individual reasons as part of a linear college choice paradigm. Individual obstacles to college attendance that consistently emerge in this strand of research include academic preparation, socioeconomic status, cost, family background, parental influence, motivation, and guidance counselor support (Harris & Halpin, 2002). College attendance rates are particularly low among students living in rural areas. Nationwide, only 59 percent of students from rural America choose to attend college, compared to 62 percent of their urban counterparts and 67 percent of students from suburban areas. (National Student Clearinghouse, 2015). The purpose of this study was to examine the college decision-making process of high school students in rural Vermont to better understand why fewer than 61 percent choose to attend college, despite more than 90 percent aspiring to do so at some point during their K-12 academic career (VSAC, 2016). A qualitative ethnographic case study approach was used to provide a unique student-focused perspective on the complexities of the college-decision making process as they go through it during their senior year of high school. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 students at two rural high schools throughout their senior year as they wrestled with an influx of information from multiple sources creating a series of pushes and pulls from guidance counselors, family members and friends with varying motives. Individual case study analyses were conducted on the following three groups of students based on their level of commitment to attend college at the start of their senior year: College Confident, College Considering and College Conflicted. A cross-case analysis of those three groups was also conducted. The result is a detailed account of how students in each group internalized and acted upon new information about their post-secondary plans, which depended heavily on when they received it, who they received it from and its quality. In most cases, the experience proved to be a frustrating, convoluted process that waxed and waned with each new piece of information. Ultimately, students made final college-going decisions based heavily on a combination of information that was not always accurate, sometimes misleading, and on the advice of at least one parent they perceived as having their best interest in mind.

The 1st-year retention rate of the Structured Education Program (SEP) is 90%, yet the 6-year graduation rate of SEP students is 29%. The gap between SEP 1st-year retention and graduation rates is the problem that this study addressed. The low graduation rate of SEP students is an important issue because graduation rates are used to measure the quality of higher education institutions. The purpose of this study was to understand the low graduation rates of SEP students. Tinto's retention theory, which seeks to explain dropouts from higher education institutions, was the main framework of the study. The study's research questions focused on former SEP students' experiences with required and optional support services that were first introduced to students while enrolled in the SEP. This study used a qualitative, intrinsic case study research design. Data were collected through 12 semistructured interviews with participants who met the criteria of former SEP students who have completed the program within the last 5 years. Interviews were transcribed, member checked by interviewees, and then coded to identify 6 themes that focus on participants' commitment to support services. The findings revealed that required exposure to support services in SEP students' 1st year had a meaningful influence on each student's journey toward graduation. An outcome of this study was a policy recommendation paper designed to increase the study site's graduation rates through increased support service requirements for 1st-year students. This study may provide positive local social change through more student commitments to support services and increased retention and graduation rates.

Officials in the juvenile and public education systems are working to address the education gap for incarcerated juveniles and to implement turning point programs. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of previously incarcerated young adults and their perceptions of graduation success and long-term juvenile incarceration. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory, Merton and Agnew's general strain theory, Homan's theory of exchange, and life course theory informed this study. Research questions were developed to understand the experiences and perceptions of young adults related to graduation success during or after juvenile incarceration. Convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling techniques were used to identify 10 young adults who experienced juvenile incarceration and completed high school with a high school diploma or GED. In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the participants' lived experiences and how they were able to overcome their challenges and succeed academically. A combination of a priori and open coding was used to support inductive analysis. Eight themes were identified: challenges of incarceration, support systems, overcoming patterns, turning points, juvenile justice staff, advice to other young offenders, experiences of incarceration, and graduation success. Recommendations include enhanced training for staff members in schools and facilities and conducting a follow-up study to assess the continued success of young adults in this study. Positive social change contributions include identifying ways incarcerated juveniles can be reengaged in schooling and continuing education to decrease recidivism and enhance productive citizenship.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-04, page: 1954. Adviser: Sally W. Vernon. Includes bibliographical references.

This study assessed if there were differences in the academic performance, persistence, and degree completion for Associate in Arts transfer students in selected majors who enrolled in the different campuses of a multi-campus university. This causal comparative study analyzed historical student enrollment data from a large, urban, public, research university. Multiple and logistic regression techniques were used to simultaneously control for important independent variables identified in the literature. Variables that were significant (p < .05) for at least one of the three dependent variables included campus, major, community college GPA, gender, and ethnicity. Significant campus differences were found in academic performance, but not for persistence or degree completion. Significant differences by major were reported for academic performance, persistence, and degree completion.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The College of San Mateo institutionalized information competency proficiency as a graduation requirement in Fall 2010. This session will trace the evolution of the requirement from conception to implementation, the multiple ways that the requirement can be satisfied, and its impact on students and library services.

The quality of asphalt depends on quality and type of components. The e main characteristic of asphalt is the composition – binder content and aggregate graduation. There are developed many methods for the evaluation of asphalt content. This work analyzes the methods of asphalt content determination. Also there are compared to methods: solvent extraction and ignition method. For the evaluation of these methods the researches of 50 samples have been made. The samples were taken from the asphalt pavement and others were made in laboratory. When results of research were analyzed by principles of statistics. The conclusions and recommendations are presented at the end of the research paper.

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of graduation coach services in reducing student risk factors for dropping out of high school and increasing student academic performance, a strong correlate of student persistence to high school graduation (Battin-Pearson et al., 2000). The study employed a quasiexperimental nonequivalent control group design utilizing student risk ratio and individualized Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) scores in English/language arts and mathematics as measures to compare students who received the services of a graduation coach to those who did not. The sample for this study included 39,326 Georgia students continuously enrolled in the 11th grade during the 2008 – 2009 school year and characterized as at risk for high school noncompletion by virtue of possessing a student risk ratio greater than zero. Of these students, 9,076 (23.08%) were selected as caseload students to receive the intervention and support services of a graduation coach (GaDOE, 2009c). To assess the differential effects of graduation coach services on student risk ratio across school improvement regions, gender, and ethnicity, the researcher conducted a series of general linear model (GLM) multivariate repeated measures analyses. Risk ratios for students served by a graduation coach were found to be significantly lower in May 2009 than in August 2008. Differences in student risk ratios existed regionally across the state regardless of graduation coach caseload status. While analyses related to the differential effects of graduation coach service provision revealed no significant difference in the student risk ratio metric according to gender, they did reflect a significant difference in the student risk ratio metric according to graduation coach caseload status and ethnicity. Regression analyses determined that student risk ratio may account for 12.5 percent of the variance in student GHSGT mathematics scores and 9.6 percent of the variance in student GHSGT English/language arts scores for first-time 11th graders. Adding student caseload status into the equation increases the variance accounted for to 12.9 percent in mathematics and 10.4 percent in English/language arts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110). Also available on the Internet.