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Retention of Native Americans in higher education.

This dissertation was written with the intent to determine the effectiveness of a community college program for Native American students. The procedure consisted of the following steps: (1) design of a survey instrument, (2) collect and collate the survey, (3) review literature with specific emphasis in programs designed for minorities and programs designed for Native American students in higher education, and (4) summarize the findings, and make recommendation to integrate into a reconstructed program that will improve and revitalize Native American students' recruiting, retention and graduation rates at the community college level, and prepare Native American students for university transfer. The major findings in this study are: (1) 95% of all the students enrolled at this particular college had a clear vision of their educational goals, (2) 80.2% of all the students enrolled in college were planning to prepare for a career, (3) most Native American students depend on financial assistance from several sources, (4) approximately half of all Native American students were underprepared for college, (5) less than 50% of the students surveyed actually got involved in special programs to aid them in college, and (6) the demographics of these students were quite similar to the non-Native American counterpart. Recommendations for these students include: (1) strengthen the educational foundation of these students while they are in K-12th grades, (2) in addition to providing financial assistance to these students, colleges need to set up a better support system in terms of transportation, work-study/jobs and housing, (3) when recruiting students, the student should be able to prove through assessment scores that they are able to benefit from a college education, and (4) transfer strategies must be part of the Native American program.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/187325
Date January 1995
CreatorsSoroosh, Wilma Jean.
ContributorsClark, Donald C., Paul, Alice, Heckman, Paul E.
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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