The effectiveness of the Plattsburgh Freshman Seminar program, which was designed to increase student retention, was evaluated. The 45 hour, three credit program was designed to help students clarify educational and personal goals, to increase faculty-student contact, to develop communication skills, and to familiarize the student with the…

Research on attrition of university students has recently examined "dropping out" as the culmination of a complex interactive process. In order to examine differences between successful students (persisters) and students who officially withdrew from a major university, and to examine the accuracy of faculty and staff perceptions of students'…

An earlier path analytic study of the predictive validity of Tinto's theory of college student attrition was replicated using an independent sample of students from another university. Tinto conceived of the attrition/retention process as a series of sociopsychological interactions between the characteristics students bring with them to college…

To meet the growth and achievement needs of teachers and to build career commitments among teachers, school administrators need to understand what influences the internal work motivation of classroom teachers and to adjust their supervisory styles to meet those needs. Accordingly, after an extensive review of the literature on adult learning, this…

In 1987, a study was conducted of the characteristics and graduation rates of students who transferred to the University of California, Davis (UCD), between fall 1974 and spring 1986. The study included all undergraduates who enrolled at UCD with advanced standing, focusing on their academic level at entry, previously attended college, and…

About a quarter of all students who either intend to or actually attend college indicate their intention to pursue a major in science. From this group, there is a slow attrition from the science pipeline as students move along in their educational lives. The aim of the analyses for this project is to characterize the science-oriented behavior of…

A 5-year longitudinal study of 15,000 community college students was conducted to examine student behaviors and outcomes. The importance of longitudinal studies in the analysis of student outcomes data and as a baseline for future student tracking systems is discussed. The computer methodologies by which the data were collected and analyzed are…

A study tested the precursors to vocational teachers' commitment to teaching as suggested by the commitment model proposed by Pierce and Dunham. Important consequences of commitment were examined by identifying relationships between commitment, behavioral intentions, and resulting turnover. The study examined the entire population of teachers…

This report presents comparative information on full-time students at Hudson County Community College who were required to take basic skills courses and full-time students who did not have to take basic skills courses. Data are provided on 413 students (291 basic skills and 122 non-basic skills students) whose progress was followed from their…

Higher standards in public schools have made it necessary for educational reformers to identify at-risk students and to develop effective programs for preventing their failure. This pamphlet begins by delineating the characteristics of at-risk students and discussing evaluation instruments that are useful for identifying such students. Successful…

A pre- and posttest academic year longitudinal design was used to document the early transition experience of adult women entering or returning to college who differ along motivational dimensions and expectations. In 1981 and 1982, two cohorts of volunteer subjects were recruited from Fordham University's EXCEL program, a special entry program for…

A project was designed to identify factors that predispose young women to choose and remain in sex-atypical jobs in the military and in civilian firms. Data were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Behavior, a longitudinal study with annual interviews from 1979 through 1983 of youth between the ages of 14 and 21 in the…

The background concerning educational programs and practices designed to promote the development, retention, and grade point averages of black college students is traced. The literature reveals historical events and legislative statutes that brought a system of educational inequality to blacks in America. A dual educational system has meant that…

A study was conducted at Stark Technical College (STC) to determine whether high risk students who participated in STC's developmental program experienced a higher degree of academic success than similar high risk students who did not participate in the program. High risk students entering STC in fall 1980 were identified on the basis of composite…

The pre-college entrance variables of freshmen computer science majors (N=256) were reviewed to determine which variables were related to persistence in the major. Students who persisted in computer science, engineering, or another science differed from those students who left for an academically dissimilar goal in their SAT-Math and SAT-verbal…