Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: William Moore. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: William Moore. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-142). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4119. Adviser: Steven Aragon. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-159) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2494. Adviser: Stanley Ikenberry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-224) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on May 2, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Dent Rhodes (chair), Nada Chang, Kenneth Jerich, Marilyn Morey. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-113) and abstract. Also available in print.

<p> The inability of California Community Colleges to produce equitable outcomes for Latina/o and African American students, and provide a successful pathway to higher education, is an educational problem. Although research shows many factors influence student success in community colleges, many of those factors are directly influenced by the availability of resources to support a variety of services, programmatic offerings, transformational practices, and quality facility and staff. The primary hypotheses of this study pertained to whether spending patterns differed with respect to either equity considerations, or to student outcomes. It was observed that colleges which considered equity in their budgetary decisions spent a significantly higher percentage of their core expenditures on academic support than did no-equity colleges however equity considerations were not observed to be related to student outcomes. Student outcome did not show significant relationships with most expenditure types, except lower expenditures on other core expenses were predictive of higher Student Progress and Attainment Rate, after controlling for input/environmental variables.</p>

<p> Community colleges are the largest segment of higher education institutions in the United States providing access to historically underserved populations and growing numbers of first generation college students. Increasing college degree attainment is a national priority with new expectations of accountability. Despite decades of educational research, community colleges have startling low completion rates. Within the framework of Tinto&rsquo;s theory of retention, a predictive analytics model could provide community colleges the opportunity to drive custom intervention and support services to students. The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy for categorizing courses for potential use in a data analytics model to identify students at risk of failure to complete. The quantitative census study used archival data from 1,759 students. Log-linear analysis was used to test the key research question as to whether there is a predictive relationship between type of course failed, as cross-categorized by the dimensions in Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy, in the first term and failure to complete a degree or certificate within 6 years. The analysis showed that a more parsimonious model, based on the interaction term for the life/nonlife and pure/applied Biglan categories, appeared related to completion, although no standardized residual was significant. A larger and more diverse sample may be necessary to determine the true effectiveness of Biglan&rsquo;s taxonomy as a classification schema in a predictive analytics model of degree completion. Based on these results, first term course failure appears to be a logical point for programmatic support that could lead to higher levels of associate degree completion opening doors of employment opportunity through education, thus supporting social change.</p>

<p> Using a phenomenological method, this study explored the higher-education affordability perceptions of a purposively-collected group of 19 students at the pseudonymous Crestview Community College (CCC) in Colorado. The defining themes of the study were: (a) knowledge of the College Opportunity Fund (COF) program and perceptions of higher-education affordability in the Colorado context, (b) how participants learned about and implemented college selection, financing, and success strategies, (c) family finances and their impact on work and college decisions, (d) participant views on the financial aid process, and (e) benefits of attending college. </p><p> The findings were: (a) the COF was not viewed as a significant source of support or well-understood as the State of Colorado&rsquo;s contribution to college students, (b) participants described difficulty in high school learning and implementing a college selection and financing strategy with some mitigation of those failures by key adults in their lives, (c) CCC was viewed as the default college choice because of price, location, dual credit experience, and peer recommendations, (d) family structural and financial context strongly influenced participants&rsquo; perceived options and decisions regarding college selection and work, (e) participant perspectives on federal financial aid and college affordability varied drastically between Pell Grant recipients and non-recipients, (f) participants uniformly held a negative perception of student loans, and (g) participants were motivated to stay in college by hope of occupational and financial benefits and discouraged by fear of debt and post-graduation joblessness.</p><p>