Established in 2009, Complete College America (CCA) has emerged as one of the leading single-issue intermediary organizations advocating policy solutions to improve college completion in the USA. Although other entities that influenced the policy conversation at that time have ceased operation, CCA has maintained and, in fact, expanded its role in…

TICAS' [The Institute for College Access & Success'] latest fact sheet provides five proven examples of evidence-based college completion programs at four-year public institutions that increase persistence, graduation rates, and student earnings upon graduation for low-income, first-generation, and students of color.

The purpose of this phenomenological narrative study was to explore why many aged-out foster youth from the Texas and Louisiana foster care system do not complete a high school diploma. The researcher conducted eight interviews with participants who had been in the foster care systems of these states for at least five years. The interviews were…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study was to determine if and to what extent students' Cognitive Ability, first-term GPA, and ethnicity predict student graduation status from a CTE college in Texas. Student retention rates continue to be a cause for great concern for higher learning, even more so for CTE institutions.…

During economic recessions, state funding for higher education contracts (Delaney & Doyle, 2011; Hovey, 1999; SHEEO, 2022). Despite this reality, public higher education officials need to offer insights and explanations to state legislators about the current status of their institutions and their needs when discussing their budget requests. We…

Texas is booming thanks to economic opportunities that draw people to the Lone Star State. But beneath this success lies concerning trends that call into question if Texas students are ready to compete in the Lone Star economy. This report details how Texas students do not have the knowledge and skills to succeed as they move on to the next grade…

Community colleges have experienced many challenges since their establishment in 1902; however, the 21st century has brought new obstacles and opportunities. In turn, community college leaders have been called upon to address challenges such as the COVID-19 global pandemic, the demand from students for virtual course offerings, and financial…

Higher education institutions are increasingly relying on funding from the private sector (Council for Aid to Education, 2013) as state funding to higher education has decreased in recent years. Bridging the gap between university financial needs and available funding has become a high priority. In the process, higher education institutions have…

Using discrete-time hazard models, this exploratory study responds to the need for research on student veterans. Factors predicting persistence and graduation at a public university in Texas, serving a large student veteran population in the state, are examined; student veteran transfers' outcomes are compared to those of non-veteran transfer…

Nearly half of students who enter college do not graduate. The majority of efforts to increase college completion have focused on supporting students before or soon after they enter college, yet many students drop out after making significant progress towards their degree. In this paper, we report results from a multi-year, large-scale…

This study investigated the percentage of Round Rock Independent School District (ISD) graduates from 2012/13 through 2017/18 who completed one or more career and technical education (CTE) programs of study and attained outcomes after high school graduation including college enrollment, degree or certificate attainment, and employment. The study…

There is a national push for college completion. For some students, graduation may be stymied by financial status, in addition to other factors. The current study was conducted through secondary analysis of matching archival datasets from select East Texas institutions on full-time, first-time-in-college students with no previous college…

Selective college admissions are fundamentally a question of tradeoffs: Given capacity, admitting one student means rejecting another. Research to date has generally estimated average effects of college selectivity, and has been unable to distinguish between the effects on students gaining access and on those losing access under alternative…

This article describes the step-by-step process of how data science, marketing and communications, and higher education improved access and success for students. Over the last three years, strategic planning efforts helped develop a data-informed culture on campus. The work described within the playbook required time, energy, and a lot of…

Entering the middle of the 21st Century, Texas has the ninth-largest economy in the world, whose success is powered by the increasingly educated workforce. Texans have earned more degrees, certificates, and credentials over the past decade than at any time in history, and Texas has outpaced every other state in growing undergraduate and graduate…