Policy, financial, and transportation barriers have limited participation in dual enrollment for marginalized (low-socioeconomic, first-generation, and ethnic minority) students in Oklahoma. This chapter presents a collaborative effort by education and community leaders that has successfully eliminated these barriers and increased the number of…

The study captured the essence of the core ideas, prevalent themes or events in the student's time in higher education that helped him or her become engaged in such a way as to prevent departure from the university prematurely. It helps understand successful first-generation students. It examined their resiliency, motivation, self-efficacy,…

This paper revisits Diana Leonard's seminal paper "Keeping close and spoiling in a south Wales town", by drawing on one mother and daughter case study. Leonard focused on geographical closeness and the strategies employed by parents to keep their children living at home, rather than sending them to university. In contrast, this paper…

This paper quantifies the extent of student-college "academic undermatch," which occurs when a student's academic credentials permit them access to a college or university that is more selective than the postsecondary alternative they actually choose. Using a nationally representative dataset, we find that 41 percent of students…

The purpose of this study was to describe how low-income and first-generation community college students perceive the notion of social and educational sustainability. The study focused on research participants' understanding of (a) the meaning of social sustainability and its importance in developing human agency; (b) the notion of…

First-generation students are more likely than non-first-generation students to depart from a postsecondary institution before a degree is attained. Factors that could impact academic persistence among first-generation students include low self-efficacy, lack of financial resources and parental support, poor college planning, and minimal school…

The purpose of this study was to examine students' perceptions of entrepreneurship at a historically black university in central Mississippi. The study examined five areas of students' perceptions: entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial opportunities, entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurship and technology, and demographic…

This study explores how low-income, African American college students obtain social capital resources from university contacts to set and achieve career goals. Students knew little about career options available to future college graduates beyond jobs that were related to their current jobs. Few students utilized the information, influence, and…

The proliferation of postsecondary programs for working adults is not surprising, given the importance of a bachelor's degree to employment and higher earnings. However, the demographics of adult learners have changed significantly over the past 30 years, when degrees for adults targeted a middle-class population. Adults now return to college…

The disparity between the educational attainment of Mexican heritage and White individuals illustrate a need for research on factors associated with the high educational attainment of some immigrant and first-generation students of Mexican descent. Using autobiographies, student interviews, and family interviews as data sources, this article…

This longitudinal study of first-generation, low-income students considers the impact of their participation in a multicultural learning community designed to combat the isolation and marginalization they experience at a large Midwestern research university. The study explores the extent to which multicultural curriculum and critical pedagogy…

Although more high school graduates are attending college, many are not graduating (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2004). First-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students are especially at risk for falling through the cracks. To help address this issue, programs such as TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) assist…

Patrick McGhee, vice chancellor of the University of East London, has a lot in common with many of the 28,000 students at the large urban institution he leads. He was the first in his family to attend university. And he dislikes much about the government's higher-education reform efforts, which he has deemed "misguided, premature, unproven…

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) sought to identify those institutions helping students overcome barriers to college completion and achieve a livable wage. This analysis of Illinois 4-year postsecondary institutions highlights those institutions which fostered degree completion and job success with less debt for underrepresented…

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) sought to identify those institutions helping students overcome barriers to college completion and achieve a livable wage. This analysis of Illinois 4-year postsecondary institutions highlights those institutions which fostered degree completion and job success with less debt for underrepresented…