Since the early 1970s, exponential and unprecedented growth of incarceration rates of Black youths became a critical issue. One in twenty persons, or 5% of the total United States population serve at least six months in federal state prisons by age 40. Recidivism rates in excess of 50% compounded the problem. The purpose of this qualitative…

For Jewish immigrants to benefit from the resources and access job opportunities in the United States, they need to integrate. Acculturation is an important achievement in an immigrant's adaptation goals (Rosenthal, 2018) because it influences behavioral, affective, and cognitive functioning (Guler & Berman, 2019). Yeshiva schools were…

With the 84th Legislature's House Bill 505 expansion of dual credit in Texas in fall 2015, students became eligible to begin coursework as early as ninth grade. Allowing students to begin college earlier in their high school journey triggered questions about their college and career readiness during transition to postsecondary coursework, which…

Mandatory choice programs, like the one currently in place in New York City, have created a situation in which many students commute to schools outside of the neighborhood they live in. While the intent is to provide expanded access, students often find themselves on public transportation commuting to schools they know very little about and where…

In this qualitative case study, I examined the perspectives of first-generation and second-generation African American alumni of an early college high school in order to better understand the role of this model of education in their high school diploma attainment, accumulation of college credits, and aspirations to continue their post-secondary…

The purpose of freshmen orientation is "bridging the gap to college" (Tinto, 1993, p. 159). All college orientation programs have three objectives: provide information, set expectations, and provide social integration (Greenfield, Keup, & Gardner, 2013; Schofield & Sackville, 2010). Research supports a positive relationship…

This dissertation examined whether student social integration through participation in a learning community is associated with the retention of freshman minority students from the first semester to the second semester of their first year in college. A web-based Qualtrics survey questionnaire was administered through social media to the target…

This qualitative study explored lived experiences of eight youth-camp alumni who were enrolled in colleges. This study was grounded in four paradigms: knowledge application, positive youth development (PYD), personal skills, and social integration. The key findings of this study were transfer of learning between skills learned in youth programs…

It is beneficial to any institution of higher education to be able to understand why some students are able to persist to graduation and why some students leave college prematurely. Factors concerning retention and persistence of African American men have been a "hot topic" of discussion in higher education. The purpose of this…

This quantitative research study examined Iu Mien high school students of one high school in the Sacramento Valley for possible connections between their acculturation level and academic achievement to address the following research questions: 1. What impact does the degree of acculturation have on the academic success of the Iu Mien high school…

Researchers express growing concern over the increasing higher education achievement gap between subgroups of Black American students (e.g., Massey, Mooney, Torres, & Charles, 2007). Whereas the number of degrees awarded to Black females has consistently grown for each of the past twenty years, the number of degrees awarded to Black males during…