This article maps recent progress on 5 key questions about "the academic pipeline problem" of different rates of persistence through school among ethnically diverse students across the nation. The article shows the complementary development of the Overlapping Spheres of Influence Theory and Sociocultural Theory and aligns concepts and measures…

Achievement goal theory and the expectancy-value model of achievement choice were used to examine fourth-grade students' motivational changes in an elementary physical education running program. In fall and spring of the school year, participants (N = 113; 66 boys, 47 girls) completed questionnaires assessing achievement goals, expectancy beliefs,…

In their pursuit of an education, students from migrant farmworker families experience multiple challenges such as high mobility rates and a lack of curriculum alignment and credit transfer across local, state, and national boundaries. Despite these challenges, many of these students graduate from high school and successfully transition into…

Many school districts experience difficulties attracting and retaining teachers, and the impending retirement of a substantial fraction of public school teachers raises the specter of sever shortages in some public schools. Schools in urban areas serving economically disadvantaged and minority students appear particularly vulnerable. This paper…

This study examines the experiences that 10 Latino recent undergraduate students reported having at a large midwestern university. Five persisted through graduation, and five stopped out. Both groups described similar home environments, a lack of social integration, and feelings of academic unpreparedness. Differences among groups were academic…

The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a challenge for schools and school administrators throughout the United States, particularly in large urban districts. Because of the importance of this issue, there is a large empirical literature that investigates why teachers quit and how they might be induced to stay. Here we build upon…

The authors present the findings of a qualitative study (N = 33) of doctoral student persistence in counselor education programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001). Using in-depth interviews with students representing 17 different doctoral programs, the findings revealed factors that…

High rates of faculty turnover can be costly to the reputation of an institution and to the quality of instruction. Community colleges may expect high rates of faculty turnover as an aging workforce retires. Other sources of attrition, however, can be attributed to organizational characteristics and the structural properties of faculty work. This…

Self-efficacy and perseverance of mid- to late-life adults committed to extraordinary involvement in challenging new pursuits was the subject of dissertation research conducted as a constructivist grounded theory. Eight participants over age 50 were purposefully selected for homogenous criteria. Findings disconfirmed perseverance as a contributor…

The results from this study indicate similarities and differences in the factors related to the persistence of White and African American students in their freshman and sophomore years in college. Using random samples of data from students enrolled in public institutions of higher education in a Midwestern state, OLS regression analyses indicated…

This study attempts to unravel the complex relationships between faculty entrepreneurialism and teaching. Specifically, this study (1) compares the extent of entrepreneurial activities (i.e., using funds for research and consulting activity) across disciplinary fields and levels of teaching commitment and (2) examines the relative effects of…

Tinto developed a model to predict the attrition process. The model respects a longitudinal perspective and regards persistence as a function of the quality of a student's interactions with the academic and social systems of the college. Tinto asserts that the two primary factors related to student withdrawal are the personal characteristics of…

This study explored the relationship between participation in sport and non-sport activities and freshmen persistence in college. Three categories of persistence behavior were employed: (1) continuing at the same institution, (2) changing institutions, and (3) dropping out of college completely. For men and women, involvement in sports increased…

Recent research suggests that humans and other animals have sophisticated abilities to extract both statistical dependencies and rule-based regularities from sequences. Most of this research stresses the flexibility and generality of such processes. Here the authors take up an equally important project, namely, to explore the limits of such…

Following up on the transition to university and university persistence, 119 (44 males; 75 females) students who had not graduated (within seven years) from a large, commuter Canadian university were interviewed. "Leavers" were not a homogenous group but could be divided into categories of departure: transferred to another university…