<p> In 2010, the United States ranked fourth among the Organization for Economic Development member-nations in overall educational attainment. This has been attributed to the lower rates of sub-baccalaureate degree and certificate completion for students attending public community colleges, especially Black and Hispanic who attend these colleges in increasingly higher proportions than other racial and ethnic groups. The purpose of the current study was to determine if specific fixed, compositional, and financial characteristics of community colleges have a significant influence on the success rates gaps between White students and their Black and Hispanic peers. This seminal exploratory study used a quantitative correlational prediction design and a hierarchical multiple regression technique to show the relationships between these characteristics and the success rate gaps for Black and Hispanic students attending community colleges in Florida and Texas. The researcher found that these characteristics had minimal correlation with the success rate gaps between these students, with the exception of Black students attending community colleges in the state of Texas. Hispanic students showed a widening gap in both states during the decade of data analyzed for the current study. The findings would suggest that a different set of quantitative factors, and even qualitative information, should be explored to determine what institutional characteristics had a significant influence the success rate gaps between majority and minority students attending two-year colleges in Florida and Texas. Keywords: Blacks, community colleges, educational attainment, Florida, graduation rates, Hispanics, institutional characteristics, minorities, student success, success rates, Texas, transfer rates.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10106979 |
| Date | 26 May 2016 |
| Creators | Jenkins, Sandra A. |
| Publisher | Dallas Baptist University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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