While student diversity continues to increase in public schools, the racial demographics of teachers instructing this changing student body has not kept pace. Although research and policy have addressed the issue of recruitment of more diverse educators, more focus on the retention of the teaching candidates that are already in the field may have…

A suburban school district in the midwestern United States experienced concerning teacher attrition rates of teachers with 5 or fewer years of experience. The gap in practice addressed in this study was that district administrators had little knowledge about how newly hired teachers experienced the contextual conditions that occur at their schools…

Nontraditional students in Nebraska colleges have lower graduation rates than traditional students. Approximately 40% of nontraditional students at a private college withdraw before completing a degree. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover barriers preventing nontraditional students from completing a degree. The conceptual…

Grit and mindset are two of the hottest topics in education today, but research on their predictive power for academic success is inconclusive and rife with gaps and limitations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between grit, mindset, self-regulated learning (SRL), and academic outcomes for adult students attending…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) aims to prepare students for a career or college. CTE teacher attrition negatively affects students and school districts. CTE teacher attrition also leaves schools with talent gaps concerning educators. Recruitment and induction are two critical points for new teachers, especially CTE educators, who do not…

Information literacy is an important skill for college students, yet many first-year undergraduate students enter college lacking information literacy skills. A lack of information literacy contributes to lower academic performance for college students, which can impact their persistence. Higher education administrators are consistently looking at…

This research study examines the relationship between socioeconomic barriers students encounter and the interventions to address those factors at Lenoir Community College. Specifically, the study seeks to determine the barriers and motivators that influence their education in regards to retention and persistence in academic programs. The study…

This dissertation utilized an asset-based, qualitative approach to learn what Black first-generation alumni of the Kauffman Scholars, Inc. program attribute to their college success. By utilizing the voices of these college graduates, this study sought to understand what they found beneficial from their experiences in the Kauffman Scholars program…

This document is an analysis of the problems facing public school string education and what is actively being done currently to help with the problems. It catalogs the issues of teacher retention, teacher recruitment and failure to reach underserved populations. This document also examines what current solutions are in place such as after school…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to follow three teachers from their university teacher preparation programs into their first 3 consecutive years of teaching to better understand their teacher's professional identities. One of the reasons they were invited to this study was because they were strong candidates in their student teaching.…

This phenomenological study explores the personal and professional attributes of six elementary special education teachers who have taught in an urban school district for five or more years. The ongoing shortage of special education teachers and the increasing attrition rate have caused further analysis of the innate traits of long-serving special…

This phenomenological study investigates the narratives of six Black women faculty to ascertain how their experiences contributed to their retention and persistence in Computing. This study, which incorporates Anti-Deficit Achievement Framework, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality Theory, is guided by phenomenology and the following key…

With graduation rates under strict scrutiny, American institutions of higher education (IHEs) are examining ways to improve student retention. Students go through several monumental transitions throughout their undergraduate and graduate careers, which affect the trajectory and nature of their academic experiences. One unanticipated transition for…

The goal of this qualitative study was to learn more about how online Ed.D. students are persistent and resilient in pursuing their academic goals during the Coronavirus pandemic. With the ongoing pandemic and remote learning circumstances, doctoral students are facing more challenges they must overcome to stay on track with their academics. More…

March 2020 changed the lives of many as the SARS-CoV-2 virus which was responsible for what became known as the COVID-19 pandemic, caused communities to isolate indoors and shift the workforce to mostly online or virtual, including higher education. This critical ethnographic study looked at the experience of the higher education teacher through…