Using secondary data from a NY Kids comparative case study conducted in 2017-2018 of two positive outlier high schools, the purpose of this dissertation was to learn more about their discipline practices and the role secondary school leaders play in shaping those discipline systems. Two positive outlier high schools were studied, as they were…

Public community colleges have struggled with reduced funding allocations, unstable enrollments, low completion rates, and growing racial equity gaps while facing increased accountability for outcomes. As a result, public community colleges are trying to determine how to efficiently use limited funds to effectively meet equitable student outcomes.…

This quantitative study explored the study that female and first-generation students are often not provided with the mentoring support needed to succeed academically in STEM programs. The study focused on the Mentor Tech students that are students of color that are called proteges. The sample size was 38, and they were all STEM students of color.…

Missing data patterns are the combinations in which the variables with missing values occur. Exploring these patterns in multivariate data can be very useful but there are few specialized tools. The current paper presents a plot that includes relevant information for visualizing these patterns. The plot is also dynamic-interactive; so, selecting…

Community colleges have long been lauded for significantly increasing access to postsecondary education for individuals who may have few other options due to academic difficulties, financial constraints, or other factors (American Association of Community Colleges, 2017). The rate at which students complete degrees and certificates, however, has…

Since 1979 more than thirty states have adopted "performance funding" for public institutions of higher education. Under performance funding, a portion of the state appropriations for each institution is determined by the institution's achievement of performance goals on such metrics as retention and graduation. We argue that several…

Governments around the world use grant and loan programs to ease the financial constraints that contribute to socioeconomic gaps in college completion. A growing body of research assesses the impact of grants; less is known about how loan programs affect persistence and degree completion. We use detailed administrative data from Chile to provide…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a pre-college summer program at Missouri University of Science and Technology known as Hit the Ground Running (HGR). It used a convergent mixed-methods research design, combining data from semi-structured interviews with HGR participants and institutional data on previous HGR participants…

Retention in higher education has become a focal point for many in higher education institutions in the United States. While many institutions seek out answers, research has given some answers. Tinto (1975) asserted that attrition in higher education results from students' perceptions of their own inability to assimilate into the structure, social…

This article aims to examine how Cuban higher education has implemented and created frameworks for key performance indicators (KPIs) to enhance its higher education accountability and quality. Referring to the past 15 years of available data on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's website (2005-2020), this study…

How school districts measure homelessness among their students has implications for accountability and funding, as well as for supporting student success. Yet, measuring homelessness among high school students is challenging because students move in and out of experiencing it. Using administrative student-level data from a mid-sized public school…

Latinx student enrollment in higher education institutions has been increasing and will continue to rise (McFarland et al., 2018), yet Latinx students have lower degree completion rates than their peers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Higher education institutions need to learn directly…

The primary purpose of this mixed-methods study is to define the problem and to understand the system that has been leading to unacceptably low graduation outcomes for historically excluded Trio Student Support Services (Trio SSS) students at Mid-Atlantic University (MAU), a pseudonym. To achieve the primary purpose extant documents and…

Florida State University (FSU) has a long-standing commitment to promoting success for all students. FSU's strategies for student success and equity have resulted in increased and more equitable graduation rates and record fall-to-fall retention rates. This article provides an inventory of student success and equity initiatives at FSU. The…

In 2019, the Legislature passed House Bill 1599, which established graduation pathways as a requirement for graduation. These pathways must be aligned with a student's postsecondary goals as described in their High School and Beyond Plan. This report includes the unique pathway options, a data summary, and disaggregated pathway completion data for…