One out of every three students who begin an academic school year does not return for a second year, which has remained unchanged for the past 50 years. The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education could improve the classroom learning environment, which could lead to increased student satisfaction and retention. More empirical…

This study examined the impact of collegiate recreation participation on academic success as measured by grade point average, course credit completion, and persistence or graduation. Logistic and multiple regressions were run to explore the relationship between total recreation contact hours and outcome variables. Results indicated a positive and…

Nationally, developmental mathematics courses have some of the highest failure and withdrawal rates of postsecondary courses. A wide range of factors may be contributing to students' struggles in these courses. In order to help identify these factors, we asked students enrolled in developmental mathematics to identify factors interfering with…

In a world filled with big data, mathematical models, and statistics, the development of strong quantitative skills is becoming increasingly critical for modern biologists. Teachers in this field must understand how students acquire quantitative skills and explore barriers experienced by students when developing these skills. In this study, we…

Poor academic performance and dropout are major concerns at post-secondary institutions. Influences include sociodemographic, psychosocial, and academic functioning factors. Canadian literature is limited, and little published data directly compare academic outcomes between local-born, immigrant, and international students. We conducted a…

This study examined a sample of community college students from a diverse, large urban community college system in Texas. To gain a deeper understanding about the effects of background characteristics on student borrowing behaviors and enrollment outcomes, the study employed descriptive statistics and regression techniques to examine two separate…

In the present study, we conducted a quantitative evaluation of a novel First Year Seminar (FYS) program with a coordinated curriculum implemented at a public, four-year university to assess its potential role in undergraduate student persistence decisions and academic success. Participants were 2,188 first-year students, 342 of whom completed the…

We surveyed 237 first-time college students to examine the extent to which social-cognitive factors--self-efficacy, perceptions of mentorship, high school GPA, ACT scores, first-semester college GPA, and demographic characteristics-- influence freshmen's intent to persist. Standard multiple regression and MANOVA were conducted to determine the…

This predictive correlational research study examined the effect of cognitive, demographic, and socioeconomic variables as predictors of regular and special admission students' first-year GPA and retention among a sample of 7,045 students. Findings indicated high school GPA and ACT scores were the two most effective predictors of regular and…

Using Tinto's (1993) longitudinal model of institutional departure, this study examined demographic variables, family characteristics, precollege and college academic performance factors, and extent to which mandatory placement in remedial courses predict persistence at a public research institution. This study also examined the relationship…

Guided by well-established theories on student retention, a survey was developed and implemented to collect data about the college experience of STEM students at a four-year research university. Analysis of the survey data confirms ten constructs that captured different aspects of students' academic and social experiences. Among them, academic…

The authors report the results of a three-year longitudinal study of retention among undergraduate engineering students enrolled at four major universities. The study demonstrates that self-efficacy can be a critical factor in student persistence and can be broken down into three components: work, career, and academic self-efficacy. The authors…

The rapid growth in popularity of social networking sites has spurred research exploring the impact of usage in a variety of areas. The current study furthered this line of research by examining the relationships between social network usage and adjustment to college in the academic, social, personal-emotional and university affiliation domains.…

Online course delivery continues to grow as a viable means of providing increased educational access to more students, but low student retention rates remain a major challenge. In this study, key institutional characteristics that influence student retention in postsecondary education are analyzed. These are student-faculty ratio, graduation rate,…

How children and youth deal with academic challenges and setbacks can make a material difference to their learning and school success. Hence, it is important to investigate the factors that allow students to cope constructively. A process model focused on students' motivational resources was used to frame a study examining whether engagement in…