Due to the overwhelming number of teachers exiting the profession each year, recruitment and retention efforts continue to be a high priority for stakeholders within agricultural education. Specifically, teacher attrition has been identified as one of the leading problematic issues hindering growth of school-based agricultural education (SBAE)…

Differences in student persistence remain between at-risk students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and those less challenged in college. There is a need to understand the perceptions of faculty and other professionals whose primary role does not focus on mentoring but who serve as mentors to low income and minority students, in order to…

A small public historically Black college and university (HBCU) is offering the Providing Opportunities with Education and Readiness (POWER), a summer program to improve precollege high school students' academic performance and subsequent retention once in college. The problem investigated by this study was the low retention rates and grade point…

The act of incivility frequently occurs in higher education, and the effects are detrimental to the faculty's health. The purpose of this study, guided by the Element of Transformational Leadership Influencing Civility and Wellbeing theory that when leaders provide a shared vision, connection, empowerment, and encouraged growth, was to investigate…

Using the Gap Analysis problem-solving framework (Clark & Estes, 2008), this study examined collaboration around international student enrollment and retention to the Midwest English Center (the Center) at a large Midwestern public university. The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge and skills, motivation, and organization…

Since the 1970s, the college enrollment of Latinx first generation students (FGS) has increased nationally and within the research site. In this vein, the purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding regarding the actual academic and nonacademic experiences that prevent Latinx FGS from graduating community college. This…

Teacher attrition is an ongoing issue in the United States and more specifically in the state of Missouri. This dissertation, using a three-tiered analytical approach, offers suggestions, recommendations, and strategies, aside from raising salaries or increasing benefits packages, that schools, their districts, and leaders can implement to bolster…

For nearly three decades, public colleges and universities in the United States have suffered a sharp decline in the level of state funding that they receive (Chronicle, 2014). As a result, in order to remain not even competitive but simply financially stable, institutions of higher education have found it necessary to seek other means and sources…

First-generation college students who enroll in 4 year institutions are significantly less likely to complete a baccalaureate degree than their non-first-generation peers (Gibbons et al., 2019; RTI, 2019; NCES 2020; NASPA & COE, 2020; Ruiz Alvarado et al., 2020). Given that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) determined that…

Teacher retention is at the top of current hot topics in education. This study explores the retention of teachers in high-poverty secondary schools in Southeastern South Carolina. To gather data for this study, the researcher surveyed fifty-two teachers from four high-poverty secondary schools in Southeastern South Carolina. Evidence was collected…

This is a qualitative study of teachers in high-poverty elementary schools in an urban school district. Participants who have been employed for at least 5 years in a high-needs school responded to surveys tracking their perceptions of their school environment. Follow-up interviews were conducted to provide a more in-depth study to gain further…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of students with disabilities at Golden Technical Institute (a pseudonym) in the eastern belt of Ghana. The theories guiding this study were Hosking's critical disability theory and Tinto's student persistence theory. This study sought to understand…

First-generation students currently represent the vast majority of the student population in South American higher education institutions (Castillo & Cabezas, 2010; Cuenca, 2015); however, these students also have significantly lower persistence, especially during their first year of studies (Fanelli, 2017). The most relevant theories on…

The focus of this research was to better understand the characteristics and behaviors of novice teachers in urban schools who return for another school year by examining their decisions to return for another year of teaching. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews of five secondary teachers from the same alternative licensure…

Given the recruitment and retention crisis within the teaching profession, it is essential that the factors contributing to this are examined. Studies suggest that there has been a general decline in teacher wellbeing since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and student conduct problems are known to be a key negative contributor to poor teacher…