The purpose of this study was to examine preservice teachers' beliefs about retention. In spite of evidence that grade retention has negative effects on students' academic and socio-emotional outcomes, retention continues to be a common practice. Sixty-one elementary and secondary education majors at a small community college responded to an…

Free online courses, including Massively Open Online Courses, have great potential to increase the inclusiveness of education, but suffer from very high course dropout rates. A study of 172 K-12 students and 114 K-12 teachers taking the same free, online, summertime programming course finds that student and teacher populations have different…

Approximately 30% of students drop out from Norwegian upper secondary schools. Academic achievement, as indexed by grade point average (GPA), is one of the strongest predictors of dropout. The present study aimed to examine the role of cognitive, school-related and affective/psychological predictors of GPA. In addition, we examined the…

As online courses become more common, practitioners are in need of clear guidance on how to translate best educational practices into web-based instruction. Moreover, student engagement is a pressing concern in online courses, which often have high levels of dropout. Our goals in this work were to experimentally study routine instructional design…

A study examined the difficulties encountered by first-year, part-time Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students that cause them to consider withdrawing from, and in many cases, dropping out of their TAFE programs. Questionnaires were administered to 4,150 early withdrawers (persons who dropped out between January 1 and May 16, 1986), 2,940…

Methodology and findings are summarized for a three-year research project undertaken by a consortium of 28 Northern California (Nor Cal) community colleges to identify and help the potential dropouts among full-time, entering freshmen. The report first discusses the creation of the Nor-Cal consortium and then examines each of the three research…

Student attrition at the College of Staten Island was investigated. The 2,786 students who left school from the spring 1979 semester to the fall 1979 semester were selected for analysis using a survey developed by the National Center for Higher Education Management Services. Responses were obtained from 452 former students. Study variables were…

As part of a multiphase study on male and female student attitudes towards Air Force technical training and the relationship between those attitudes and student performance, the 121-item Technical Training Student Survey (TTSS) was administered to 12,666 technical training students. The attitudes of students from high attrition courses were…

A study was conducted of African American students at Contra Costa College (CCC), in California, enrolled through the Extended Opportunity Program and Services component, to examine differences between academic persisters and non-persisters. A questionnaire was used to gather information about students' pre-matriculation characteristics and…

A study was conducted at the City University of New York (CUNY) to identify the variables that distinguish students who persist through their first and into their second year of college from those who drop out along the way. Retention survey forms were sent to 2,063 students admitted to career programs in fall 1979 and to 3,291 students admitted…

A study was conducted at Schoolcraft College, in Michigan, to determine possible reasons for a drop in enrollment between fall 1994 and winter 1995. Of the 3,063 students who were enrolled in fall 1994 but did not return for winter 1995, 100 were surveyed by telephone to determine reasons for not returning, while demographic data were obtained…

In winter semester 1995, Schoolcraft College, in Michigan, experienced a 7% drop in enrollment and an 8% drop in credit hours, including 461 students who applied but did not enroll. To determine the reasons that the no shows had for not enrolling and how many planned to enroll in the future, demographic data were collected from application…

The multivariate approach of canonical correlation was used to assess selection procedures of the Air Force Academy. It was felt that improved student selection methods might reduce the number of dropouts while maintaining or improving the quality of graduates. The method of canonical correlation was designed to maximize prediction of academic…

A study was conducted at Burlington County College to investigate the relationship between the academic characteristics and course completion of students enrolled in General College Chemistry (CHE 105) in fall 1985. The study involved an examination of students' academic records and a survey of students who did not successfully pass the course. Of…

Two reports of student nonpersistence at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), are provided, taken from the Maryland Longitudinal Study. The first study, which examined four questions regarding students who become nonpersisters, found the following: nonpersisters had poor high school and first-semester study habits, were apt to have…