In recent years, the United States of America has fallen in international rankings regarding completion of degrees (ATD, 2011c). "The U.S. has fallen in international education rankings. In one single generation, America went from 1st to 12th in college completion rates for young adults" (ATD, 2011c). Community colleges specifically struggle with assisting students in degree attainment; less than half of community college degree-seeking students graduate within six years of matriculation (ATD, 2011d). Community colleges are in need of interventions that will help them increase the number of students who are retained, who transfer to four-year colleges and who graduate; essentially, they must increase student success. Achieving the DreamTM seeks to assist community colleges in increasing their student success through four primary areas: institutional change, impacting public policy, engaging the public and developing knowledge on campuses. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any difference in the graduation, retention and transfer rates of the community colleges that participate in Achieving the Dream and of those who did not, during the 2004-2007 time period. This study used Propensity Score Matching and independent t-tests to compare participants' performance with that of non-participants. Additionally, multiple regression was used to verify the results. The only statistically significant result was graduation rates in the multiple regression model. Graduation rates were 4.23% lower at Achieving the Dream schools than non-Achieving the Dream schools. The conclusion of this study is that Achieving the Dream schools were not able to reach the goals articulated by Achieving the Dream, but additional research is necessary to answer why. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2012. / May 3, 2012. / Achieving the Dream, Community College / Includes bibliographical references. / T. K. Wetherell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Diana Rice, University Representative; Robert A. Schwartz, Committee Member; Joseph Beckham, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182988 |
| Contributors | Luczyk, Sarah (authoraut), Wetherell, T. K. (professor directing dissertation), Rice, Diana (university representative), Schwartz, Robert A. (committee member), Beckham, Joseph (committee member), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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