There remains limited research on the gap between the participation and persistence to graduation rates for American Indian students in higher education. It is pertinent to explore the experiences of these students who did not persist to graduation to be able to gain a better understanding of the factors involved in this gap. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a greater understanding of why twenty American Indian college students who were high-achieving and received the Gates Millennium scholarship (AIGMS) did not persist to graduation. To achieve this greater understanding from an Indigenous perspective, it was important to utilize existing theoretical frameworks developed by Native scholars that employed critical, culturally sensitive lenses for the analysis. Through the lenses of Tribal Critical Race Theory, Cultural Models of Education and the Family Education Model, the research questions were developed with a critical focus on the institutional influence of the participants' experiences. This study employed a phenomenological qualitative approach guided by an Indigenous research paradigm. The findings of this research inquiry were broken down into five main sections. The first section discussed the pre-collegiate experiences of AIGMS. This set of findings emerged throughout the interviews as participants shared their experiences in college, they often referred back to influential moments with their families and tribal communities leading up to college. The second section highlighted the conditions that impeded AIGMS' success in institutions of higher education. What emerged as the major factors of AIGMS' non persistence within higher education was GMSP's inflexible deferment policy and missing structures on campus to represent participants’ Native and Gates scholar identities, such as space for AIGMS to practice their cultural spirituality and direct support on campus for being a Gates scholar. The third section reveals the push-pull factors influential to AIGMS' experiences on campus and back home in their tribal communities. The main push factor from the institution was the lack of support they felt from key institutional agents, such as from a multicultural center director, financial aid officer or academic advisor. The fourth section describes the impact of the campus racial climate on AIGMS' experiences on their respective campuses. Some AIGMS assumed that being awarded this prestigious scholarship would be acknowledged either through their faculty or staff on campus. Instead they described examples of exclusion, lack of belonging, marginalization, isolation and invisibility on campus. The final section described the experiences of AIGMS who returned to higher education, including those who have found success in tribal colleges as well as those who have since completed their degrees without funding from GSMP. This finding is of particular importance because it demonstrates that the loss of financial aid affected the type of institution AIGMS' returned. Principally, AIGMS were thoughtful and rational about their decision to defer from higher education, taking into account the factors pulling them from outside the institution – such as family/medical/health issues. They were also impacted by their experiences within their institutions that pushed them out from within – such as experiences with invisibility and marginalization on campus. Faculty, institutional agents and their peers played into these experiences. The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program and institutions’ lack of cultural understanding of how to serve these AIGMS led to a disconnection with these students. These AIGMS’ experiences with push and pull factors places more responsibility on the institution and the scholarship program for their non-persistence.

Academic writing programs are one way universities seek to increase the academic achievement of first-year students and decrease attrition. This paper examines data from an evaluation of a first-year academic writing program at Canadian Mennonite University. The original program evaluation was conducted to determine student attitudes toward the program and whether the academic writing lab program increased students’ writing abilities. This thesis goes further by examining relationships between affective outcomes (motivation, self-regulatory ability, perceived writing ability), writing ability, and cumulative grade point average. Data was collected using student surveys and writing samples. The results indicated that academic attainment was positively correlated with: writing ability, motivation, and self-regulation. Motivation and self-regulation, but not perceived writing ability, correlated with actual writing ability. Participation in the Academic Writing Lab did not affect student affective characteristics. However, student writing ability did improve which indicates that even a small program can improve students’ writing skills. / October 2016

This study was designed to identify and examine certain individual factors that contribute to Louisiana Technical College (LTC) student success in Web-based developmental education (DE) courses among the academically underprepared students. The independent variables (IV) selected for this study included students' prior academic preparation (PAP), comfort with technology (CWT), interaction with faculty (IWF), and motivation (MOT). The dependent variable (DV) was students’ course success measured by their mid-term scores (MTSCORE). Research methodologies included correlational statistics using multiple and logistic regression, and t-test for group comparisons. Data were gathered through an online survey using SurveyMonkey.com from the DE students at LTC that use PLATO Web Learning Network using a survey instrument (WBLSS) designed by the researcher for this study. The study found two predictor variables, IWF and PAP, to be statistically significant and two variables, MOT and CWT, statistically not significant. Based on the IVs' combined identified relationship with the DV, the researcher designed a predictive model of LTC students' course success in Web-based DE courses. The model employed in this study explained 17% of the variance in the MTSCORE. For many academically underprepared students at LTC, college and career success first depend on their success in the DE courses. Therefore, identifying individual characteristics related to course success is the key to building academic success models for underprepared students at two-year colleges like the LTC.

Narratives of successful navigation are the personal stories of 13 Latin@ undergraduate students who navigated the public school system and completed high school in the United States. Their words recount their individual journeys resulting in their enrollment at a 4-year research university in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to a 2-year community college. More than half of the study respondents begun their postsecondary studies at a community college. The navigation of these particular individuals were experienced differently than those respondents whose trajectory led them straight into the university. Three categories corresponding to the study’s three research questions were analyzed. First, common challenges produced two themes, low social economics status (SES) and ethnic identity. Second, the category on persistence characteristics formulated only one construct, academic self-efficacy. Third, three interlocking themes of supportive factors fostering academic success were identified, the support of parents/ family members/peers, non-familial agents in the form of teachers, and lastly college readiness including AP or honors coursework. The thematic analysis of the respondents’ stories was influenced by the literature that documents challenges historically impeding Latin@ academic achievement and by the research on both persistence and supportive factors. The analyses of the individual navigational experience of the study participants found similarities within their experiences, but it also revealed the complexity of their own singular stories. The study centered more on the aspirations of Latin@ students rather than the damaging effects of their schooling experiences. While some of the respondents’ stories contain examples of challenges, the premise was in representing examples of successful navigation of the Chican@/Latin@ education pipeline (Solórzano, 1998).

Institutions of higher education are replete with programs designed to position incoming undergraduate students to successfully persist toward a degree and to do and be well along the way. This longitudinal field study of incoming students’ transitional year focused on outcomes associated with two common types of program: bridge programs and living-learning programs. Bridge programs are intended to boost achievement and persistence of structurally disadvantaged (e.g., low-income) students to close the gap between them and their more advantaged peers, usually with some combination of financial and academic support. Living-learning programs are intended to generally promote achievement and persistence through the intentional formation of communities in which groups of students live together in wings of residence halls and engage in curricular and/or cocurricular activities together. Social-psychological interventions have been inspired by critiques that such programs inadequately support students who are at a structural disadvantage. Specifically, critiques have argued that financial and academic support are insufficient, that students also need psychological support. To strongly test that claim, I replicated one of these interventions within a bridge program and examined whether it affected students’ wellness and success at the end of their transitional year, over and above the bridge program itself. I also examined whether living-learning programs contributed to students’ wellness and success over and above living in conventional residence halls, and whether either of those two types of residential groups differed from students living off-campus. Results from the intervention did not fit the theoretical framework on which it was based, the same framework contextualized in the bridge program, or an alternative framework on which other similar interventions are based. Results regarding residential groups suggest that living-learning communities did not augment wellness or success, at least at the particular institution under study. Rather, living on campus generally is associated with a greater sense of social-belonging, higher life satisfaction, more extracurricular activity, and taking advantage of campus resources. Practical advice and recommendations for administrators and researchers are outlined in the Discussion.

As part of a nationwide effort to increase the postsecondary educational attainment levels of citizens, colleges and universities have expanded offerings of courses and programs to more effectively meet the needs of students. Online courses offer convenience and flexibility that traditional face-to-face classes do not. These features appeal to students with family and work responsibilities that typically make attending classes on campus difficult. However, many of the students who tend to take courses in this instructional format have characteristics that place them at high-risk for academic failure. Because of the traditional mission of community colleges, they generally serve more students who fit this high-risk profile. The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences existed in student success at the community college level in online courses as compared to face-to-face courses. In addition, the researcher investigated the relationship between selected demographic, academic, enrollment, and external environmental factors and student success in online courses. Success was demonstrated by the final course letter grades earned by students. The identification of factors associated with student success in distance education could help improve online course development, evaluation, instruction, student advisement, and support services. The study involved secondary data analysis of quantitative data relevant to students enrolled in course sections taught by instructors who taught both online and face-to-face sections of the same course within the same semester from fall 2012 through spring 2015 (excluding summer sessions). The target population included 4,604 students enrolled at a public 2-year community college located in southern Middle Tennessee. Results indicated there was a significant difference in success between students taking a course online and students taking a course face-to-face. Also, there was a significant difference in success based on instructional method when the following factors were considered: age group, gender, composite ACT score, student load, student classification, Pell Grant eligibility status, and marital status. There was no significant difference in success based on instructional method when first-generation college student status or dependent child status were considered.

As part of a nationwide effort to increase the postsecondary educational attainment levels of citizens, community colleges have expanded offerings of courses and programs to more effectively meet the needs of students. Online courses offer convenience and flexibility that traditional face-to-face classes do not. These features appeal to students with family and work responsibilities that typically make attending classes on campus difficult. However, many of the students who tend to take courses in this instructional format have characteristics that place them at high-risk for academic failure. Because of the traditional mission of community colleges, they generally serve more students who fit this highrisk profile. Despite the promise and potential of online delivery systems, studies have associated distance education with higher student withdrawal rates. In addition, research has indicated that online students tend to earn lower grades than students in comparable face-to-face classes. The existence of contrasting findings in the literature exposes the need for additional empirical research relative to the overall success of students in online courses, as well as on factors associated with success in distance education. This is especially true for community college students. The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences existed in student success at the community college level in online courses as compared to face-to-face courses. In addition, the researchers investigated the relationship between selected demographic, academic, enrollment, and external environmental factors and student success in online courses. The study involved secondary data analysis of quantitative data relevant to students enrolled in course sections taught by instructors who taught both online and face-to-face sections of the same course within the same semester from fall 2012 through spring 2015. The target population included 4,604 students enrolled at a public 2-year community college located in Tennessee. Results indicated there was a significant difference in success between students taking a course online and students taking a course face-to-face. Also, there was a significant difference in success based on instructional method when the following factors were considered: age group, gender, student academic classification, and Pell Grant eligibility status. There was no significant difference in success based on instructional method when first-generation college student status was considered.

Embedded tutoring and Supplemental Instruction have the potential to benefit all students, helping to even the playing field in terms of college preparedness and academic skill development

Research about retention of nursing students has focused on either specific student characteristics or on nursing students at the university level. A problem experienced by a community college nursing program in Maryland is low completion rates, which can affect the institution and the nursing profession. This qualitative case study explored faculty-related factors leading to success of students in the nursing program at this school, so the low completion rate can be addressed. The conceptual foundations for this study were Tinto's theory of student retention and Jeffreys' nursing undergraduate retention and success model. The research questions addressed how faculty-related factors affected students' success in the nursing program. The study was conducted with 9 second year nursing students and 7 nursing faculty providing information through face to face interviews at a community college in central Maryland. Data analysis was conducted using inductive processes to code, identify, and analyze the themes. The findings of this case study suggested that students can benefit from improving their critical thinking abilities. The findings of this case study also suggested that faculty affect students' critical thinking abilities when faculty are approachable, provide a nurturing environment, and are helpful to students. A professional development workshop for nursing faculty and staff was developed based on the findings from these study results. This workshop will provide guidance to faculty and staff on strategies to assist student with improving critical thinking abilities. Implications for positive social change include addressing the nursing shortage by increasing the number of qualified nursing students from this program, understanding the perspectives of nursing students, and helping to meet the needs of nursing students.

Nursing administrators are exploring interventions to increase student retention rates in order to decrease college costs, improve faculty effort and time developing courses, decrease administrative resources, and to continue their accreditation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there was a correlation between the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) reading comprehension scores, American College Test (ACT) reading comprehension scores, Comprehensive Computer-Adaptive Testing (COMPASS) reading comprehension scores, and the cumulative college grade point average (GPA) of the first-year nursing student. The theoretical foundation for this study was Tinto's retention theory, which claims that students' past academic performance predicts retention. A correlation approach within a cross-sectional nonexperimental design was used by analyzing data from admission testing and the first-year cumulative GPA from 151 associate degree nursing students from a private college in the Southeast Missouri area. According to study results, there was no correlation between GPAs and reading comprehension scores. Additionally, ACT, TEAS, and COMPASS reading comprehension scores did not correlate with student retention rates. Administrators in the associate degree nursing program can use the results of this study to determine what interventions might determine the success of the first-year nursing student. Positive social change will result from a more diverse set of admission criteria for acceptance into the program and will assist the admissons committees to find the best candidates for the program.