Attrition continues to be a major issue in higher education. Attrition rates for classes taught through distance education are 10-20% higher than classes taught in a face-to-face setting. Educators should engage students early and often, using different learning strategies customized to the class content and the students' pre-existing knowledge.…

This study presents findings from a survey that examined school social workers' intent to stay in the field of school social work. Forty-eight school social workers from a midwestern state participated in the study. Effect size estimates were used to examine the relationship between social workers' intent to stay and years of experience,…

The National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) published "A Nation at Risk", declaring the mediocrity of American educational performances. Twenty-five years later, our nation still remains at risk even though the federal government, through the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has attempted to create a…

Beginning teachers continue to exit the classroom in alarming numbers, despite numerous recruitment and retention strategies. High teacher turnover rates result in a deficit of quality teachers and instruction; a loss of continuity and commitment; and time, attention, and funds devoted to recruitment versus support. The purpose of this empirical…

This study investigated the impact of students' conceptions of constructivist learning activities on academic achievement and drop-out. Although constructivism represents an influential view of learning, studies investigating how students conceptualize this perspective have not been conducted before. A structural equation modelling approach was…

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact that Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is having on the professional worklives of international student and scholar advisors (ISSAs) on U.S. college and university campuses. ISSAs are clearly satisfied with their work and hold their institutions in high regard. However,…

The purpose of this mixed methods sequential explanatory study was to identify factors contributing to students' persistence in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Distributed Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership in Higher Education by obtaining quantitative results from surveying 278 current and former students and then following up with…

RIT Online Learning courses have an overall course completion rate of 94%. For lower-division courses the rate is 92%, undergraduate 93%, and graduate 96%. In this case study we will share additional measurements we have used to monitor student success and describe strategies we have used to promote online discussion as a key component of…

This paper focuses on an assessment of an online certification program in K-12 library media which has a near-perfect record of retaining students. Students and graduates of the program were asked to identify reasons for enrolling (and staying enrolled) in the program as well as functions that faculty performed well. These reasons were drawn upon…

Growing concerns about the experience and achievement of Black pupils (especially Black males) underpin calls for more Black people to serve as teacher and lay mentor role models in schools. Calls for increased numbers of Black teacher role models assume firstly, that Black teachers regard themselves as role models and want to perform such a role…

Information was collected in 1993 from students who withdrew from courses in mid-term at a community college either because they were dropping a course or departing from the college. This report documents withdrawal patterns of students during the calendar year of 1994. Self-reported reasons for course/college withdrawal were identified and…

This study used survival analysis (also called event history analysis) to investigate how long specially admitted students at Northern Illinois University persist, in which year of their education they are most likely to leave, and if the risk of leaving school is affected by personal and academic background characteristics. Specially admitted…

Observations are offered regarding differences between the academic persistence, academic achievement, and general learning behaviors of male and female students in job skills classes for physical plant and security employees at a state university. Greater numbers of women tended to enroll in and continue attending classes. The men tended to…

An analysis was conducted on the employment history of teachers hired in the North Carolina public schools from 1979-80 school year through 1996. Over 81,000 new teachers were hired in this period. Overall, the loss by the end of the second teaching year is 15-18 percent. Male teachers are more likely to leave (20 percent versus 15 percent for…

Although college faculty often complain about class attendance, little data are available on why students miss classes and especially why absences are more common late in the semester. To explore this phenomenon, students' abilities to persevere in an academic setting and relate that to their actual attendance and performance in a college class…