Transition to College and Careers was a two-year demonstration project that addressed both academic and non-academic barriers to college for adult learners. Of the 397 adult learners who enrolled in one of the six participating programs, 66% completed it, 69% attained college level reading skills, and the majority enrolled in college afterwards.…

Though counseling is one commonly pursued intervention to improve college enrollment and completion for disadvantaged students, there is relatively little causal evidence on its efficacy. We use a regression discontinuity design to study the impact of intensive college counseling provided by a Massachusetts program to college-seeking, low-income…

This article reviews current developments in state and national policies that affect rural special education. A brief overview of the federal role in rural education is provided, with emphasis on the implications for the provision of special education services in rural communities. A variety of challenges are identified, including (a) the variable…

This article presents an analysis of tracking data collected over eight years on 43,000 users on "Icelandic Online (IOL)," seven open, guided online courses in Icelandic as a second language. The main objective in this study is to (a) map out retention for all the "IOL" courses, (b) compare retention on the same course…

Islam is the world's second largest religion and the third largest religion in the U.S., yet college campuses are lacking adequate support to welcome Muslim students and make them feel safe. At the same time, international students who identify as Muslims continue to enroll in U.S. higher education in increasingly numbers. If colleges truly value…

This study was designed to better understand what drives the learning and performance of students enrolled in distance-learning courses. Between 1999 and 2015, the number of students enrolled in at least one online course increased from 10% to 30% (NCES, 2014; NCES, 2018). Of the six million students currently enrolled in at least one…

The current study investigated the intersection of race/ethnicity and two related factors, gender and bilingual status, and the experience of racial microaggressions in a sample of school psychology graduate students. We proposed that race intersects not only gender but also bilingual status, leading to significant differences in the frequency of…

This case study attempts to identify the reasons for high turnover of academic staff in private higher institutions especially in small colleges. Three small colleges that shared almost the same type of background were being selected to participate in this study. The academic coordinator from these three institutions was interviewed. This case…

This paper examines how and what teachers learn from their older and younger colleagues. Data were gathered from interviews and written reports from 27 Belgian and Finnish teachers. Thematic qualitative analysis was used. The results revealed differences in what teachers learn from older and younger colleagues. Teachers reported learning…

Social work programs in the United States (N = 74) were investigated to determine strategies used for recruiting and retaining MSW students of color. Most schools had student populations exceeding 25,000 and combined BSW, MSW, and PhD programs. Data were collected using a Graduate Recruitment and Retention Scale with corresponding and acceptably…

Research on non-cognitive factors has shown that persistence in the face of challenges plays an important role in learning. However, recent work on wheel-spinning, a type of unproductive persistence where students spend too much time struggling without achieving mastery of skills, show that not all persistence is uniformly beneficial for learning.…

Understanding reasons for drop-out, factors contributing to student satisfaction and strategies for enhancing student retention is fundamental to the success of online (language) courses. This study examines drop-out rates, student satisfaction, retention rates and attainment in fully online elementary-level courses for Dutch as a second language…

Online education continues to become an increasingly prominent part of higher education, but many students struggle in distance courses. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in predicting which students will succeed in online courses and which will receive poor grades or drop out prior to completion. Effective intervention depends…

Student persistence is a common concern for online educators. Previous research has shown that student persistence rates are effected by instructor presence, creating a sense of community in the classroom, and varying classroom activities for students (Croxton, 014). Based on the authors' experiences, there are three strategies for increasing…

Nearly one half of students planning to earn a STEM degree either change majors or leave college without a degree. The completion percentage is much lower for underrepresented minorities, of whom less than one third complete their STEM degree within six years. At the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the STEM Boot Camp program was designed to…