There is a well-documented relationship between academic match and bachelor's degree completion; students who undermatch are less likely to complete a BA than those who match or overmatch, net of academic qualifications and demographic characteristics. Little is known, however, about whether this association has changed over time. I argue that…

Adult students without a high school credential are consistently denied access to programs offered by community colleges and four-year institutions. With a workforce that is in need of employees, employers have identified soft skills that are necessary for success in the workplace. Alabama offers a free program for students that includes these…

This report is developed with dual foci: (1) justifying attainment of the grant milestones in Year 2; and (2) supporting ongoing improvement of the program performance, to evaluate the second year operation of a five-year grant, "Promoting Excellence in Graduate Education and Increasing Hispanic STEM Related Degree Completion".…

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.…

Background: Over the past decade, schools across the United States increasingly turned to online learning (Gemin, Pape, Vashaw, & Watson, 2015; Queen & Lewis, 2011). While many espouse the promise of online credit recovery (OCR) courses, the abrupt shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic renewed concerns about theses courses'…

Students returning from suspension remain a focus for institutions that aim to improve retention and persistence rates and graduate all admitted students. Institutions need more precise mechanisms to identify students who will be academically successful upon return from suspension and to know what support those students will need. Previous…

This narrative inquiry documented a university student's graduation policy appropriation from a sociocultural perspective and explored how various factors may have affected this appropriation process in a particular higher education context. Longitudinal data from various sources, such as semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and…

Access to post-secondary education for first-generation college students (FGCS) has become even more important after COVID-19 brought to the forefront the most affected in the workforce: those who had a high school degree or less. College access programs play a vital role to move the needle in closing the educational achievement gap. These…

With community colleges struggling with the completion rates of their students, it is important to understand the social and academic integration of community college students and their relationships to retention and completion. Research focuses on the critical role of internal college actors such as faculty, staff, and students in these…

Recent research on curricular analytics suggests that the structure of a college major may impact major persistence and degree completion. Contributing to this line of research, we propose and test a new measure of the "lived curriculum" that captures the extent to which cohorts within a major take the same exact course-taking path as…

Given the current surge in student participation in dual enrollment programs, an updated synthesis of literature relating to how these programs impact students is warranted. Furthermore, while there are qualitative literature reviews relating to dual enrollment and student outcomes, there has not been a quantitative synthesis of literature…

Data in this report reflect responses from 296 four-year and two-year colleges and universities that collectively enroll approximately 1,700,000 undergraduate students (according to data reported to IPEDS). Respondents participated in the Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) national electronic poll of Effective Practices for Student Success, Retention, and…

We estimate labor market returns to terminal associate's degrees and certificates, with a particular focus on how returns for different credential types evolve over a longer period of time (eleven years post entry) than most of the prior literature. We also explore how returns vary depending on labor market conditions and on which labor market…

Risk management and insurance (RMI) is facing a talent gap that is exacerbated by an increasing employer demand for technology-based skills. This research explores whether an undergraduate curriculum-based professional certificate influences college students' RMI career choices. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the researcher surveyed a…

The retention of undergraduate students through graduation must be integral to the ongoing mission of higher education institutions. Students with a working knowledge of hope theory and positive psychology interventions can increase their sense of hope surrounding academic goal attainment, thereby reinforcing their path to graduation. A one-group…