First-year undergraduate students enter college with varying expectations, motivations, and goals and are being bombarded with messages about the importance of grades, sometimes to the detriment of learning. This descriptive, cross-sectional study employs LOGO II to describe the learning and grade orientations of first-year students and identify…

This Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) report examines patterns of fall to spring retention rates of first-time students. The report is divided into five sections: (1) retention rates analyzed by students' educational objectives; (2) retention rates by program placement and award type; (3) retention rates of three cohorts of students:…

Parents' educational attainment, mothers' careers, and religious upbringing were the background variables that most strongly predict traditional/nontraditional goals and sex role attitudes as expressed in the responses of 763 students to a questionnaire. The predictive powers of the background traits differed for men and women. (Author/GC)

Describes a study of variables associated with student intentions to attend community colleges or other higher education institutions, based on responses to the student profile section of the American College Testing Assessment Program. Indicates that community college students were generally lower achievers than others but had taken more advanced…

A two-phase study was conducted to gather data on the persistence of adult women enrolled in a 1-semester re-entry program at a community college. Specifically, the study sought to develop a model of persistence that took into account the effect of student characteristics, initial goals, academic and social integration, goal changes, and external…

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 12 community colleges in 6 states to determine the relationship between student and faculty characteristics and the colleges' transfer rates. Transfer rate was defined as the percentage of students with 12 or more credits who transferred to an in-state institution within 4 years, while findings were compared for 3 colleges…

In an effort to inform program assessment efforts and provide more accurate indicators of student outcomes, Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), in Pennsylvania, conducted a study of student educational objectives. Responses to questions related to goals on the college registration form were analyzed for 9,927 students enrolling in spring…

This review of the Northern California (NorCal) Cooperative Research Project on Student Attrition, which was conducted between 1968 and 1970, provides detailed information on how to use the findings of the study to identify those students who are most likely to drop out of college during their first term. Chapter I provides background information…

A study with 652 community college students investigated whether the relationship between intention to stay in or transfer from the institution and departure is moderated by semester grade point average, commitment, and encouragement to stay. Results show the interaction effects of intention by commitment, and intention by encouragement to stay,…

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…

Retention and graduation rates have been topics of concern for undergraduate institutions. These indicators are not as applicable for two-year institutions where students' goals are more varied. This study examined the retention over four semesters of 678 first-time, full-time community college students with respect to their initial educational…

A study involving 513 developmental math students at eight Illinois community colleges was conducted to determine the correlation between student success or failure in developmental math courses and nine independent variables: (1) instructional method, i.e. "traditional," in which the instructor sets the pace for learning, and "nontraditional," in…

In 1990, a study was conducted at Illinois Central College (ICC) to identify pre- and post-enrollment variables that could serve as predictors of student persistence and to compare persistence between vocational and academic program students. From a population of 656 Applied Science students and 671 Arts and Science students who were first-time,…