The purpose of this study was to examine the expectations of African American and Hispanic males in a for-profit university (TTU). This study specifically explored student perception of the retention efforts of faculty, staff, policies, procedures and services within the institutional environment. It further examined how these experiences promoted or impeded the African American or Hispanic male's persistence to graduation. The higher education institution is identified as TTU throughout this study. It is a commuter university established in the early 1900s. A qualitative case study approach was used and two campus sites were selected. Data collection included interviews of 19 students, along with 2 faculty (identified by students), as well as document analysis, and various on site observations at each campus. The data were then transcribed, coded, and analyzed to ascertain the overall views and perceptions of the participants. / by Carole Comarcho. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model for assessing the effects of student aid on community college student persistence. A sample consisting of all students who had entered a public community college during the 1980 fall term was drawn from the database of High School and Beyond, 1980 Senior Cohort. Omitting transfer students brought the sample size to 1,364 students. The model of student persistence was based on Tinto's theory of student integration and prior research that suggested student aid may be related to the persistence of community college students. Persistence was defined as the number of terms of enrollment over a two year period (1980-81 and 1981-82). Receipt of aid was associated with lower socioeconomic status, higher tuition charges, above average high school grades, and an ethnic background other than Asian or non-Hispanic white. Aid recipients considered college costs and the availability of aid more important factors in their college choice. A model of student persistence composed of eight exogenous and five endogenous variables was tested through path analysis. It was found that the receipt of student aid did not have significant effects on any of the subsequent variables in the model. Estimation of a reduced path model omitting the aid variable did not result in a significant reduction in explained variance. Degree goals, initial expectation regarding higher education, encouragement to attend college, academic integration, and full-time work were the most important influences on persistence. These findings validated the importance of some of the major constructs in the theory of student integration, but they did not support the research hypothesis that student aid recipients would have a higher rate of persistence than nonrecipients when other factors were held constant. Since encouragement from significant others had a strong and positive association with student persistence, it was suggested that future research consider the role of encouragement on persistence. / Ph. D.

Using factors of low income, parents' levels of education, and family composition as determinants of educationally at-risk status, study investigated differences between first generation, undergraduate college students from families in lowest quintile of income in the U.S, One group consisted of students from single-parent households and the other of students from two-parent households. Data were from CIRP 2003 College Student Survey (CSS) and its matched data from the Freshman Survey (Student Information Form - SIF). Differences examined included student inputs, involvements, outcomes, and collegiate environments. Included is portrait of low income, first generation college students who successfully navigated U.S. higher education. The number of cases dropped from 15,601 matched SIF/CSS cases to 308 cases of low income, first generation college students (175 from single-parent households and 133 from two-parent households). Most of the 308 attended private, 4-year colleges. Data yielded more similarities than differences between groups. Statistically significant differences (p < .05) existed in 9 of 100 variables including race/ ethnicity, whether or not English was first language, and concern for ability to finance education as freshman. Data were not generalizable to all low income, first generation college students because of lack of public, 4-year and 2-year colleges and universities in dataset. Graduating seniors' average expected debt in June 2003 was $23,824 for students from single-parent households and $19,867 for those from two-parent households. 32% from single-parent households and 22% from two-parent households expected more than $25,000 of debt. Variables used on SIF proved effective tools to develop derived variables to identify low income, first generation college students from single-parent and two-parent households within CIRP database. Methodology to develop derived variables is explained.

Despite declining community college funding being allocated increasingly on the basis of student success, U.S. community college student retention and completion rates over the past decade have either remained steady or decreased, especially for Latino students. Using descriptive statistics and multiple regression models with secondary data procured from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I analyzed student success rates—full time student retention and completion rates—based on community college financial allocations and Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) status. To equitably analyze community colleges in the sample (n = 909), I separated them into four groups based on institutional size as defined by the Carnegie Classification. Descriptive results indicated that instructional divisions spent an average of 43% of the college's total allocated budget—often more than three times the allocated budget of any other division. Regression results indicated that instructional expenditures had the most consistent impact on student success regardless of college size and that scholarship expenditures and academic support expenditures generally had a negative impact on student retention and completion rates. Regarding Latino student success in particular, findings indicated that the manner in which colleges allocated their funds impacted only small and medium-sized community colleges. Of the nine different types of institutional expenditures, only student services expenditures and public services expenditures had a statistically significant impact on Latino student success. Additionally regression analysis indicated that community college HSI status did not have a large impact on overall full-time student retention and completion rates but did have a significant impact on full-time Hispanic student retention and completion rates for all institution sizes. Findings of this study confirmed that HSI status does impact Latino student success in public community colleges. This finding is consistent with prior studies on the positive impact of instructional expenditures on student success rates. Further research on the specific elements within these expenditure areas is needed to capture how or why they are having this impact on student success. Current and prospective Latino students and their parents seeking to identify higher education institutions conducive to students' academic success should be aware of such findings as they conduct the college search process.