Dropout and low academic performance at university level constitute a big current challenge. In this work, materials comprising different interactive tools were developed following instructional design, rooted in the cognitive load theory. They were applied in a first-year lecture chemistry course to tackle low academic performance and high…

Students who are the first in their family to go to university (first-generation students [FGS]) are still underrepresented at universities. One of the considered reasons for this is their lack of social support. Our study followed a group of German students at two time points: after their first educational choice and at the end of their first…

Early School Leaving (ESL) is a challenge that concerns countries all over the world. This is because it directly affects both the lives of the students who drop out and society in general. This study investigates Primary Education teachers, Compulsory Secondary Education teachers, and Baccalaureate teachers' perspectives of school dropout factors…

In many low- and lower-middle-income countries, key barriers to girls' secondary school access and learning include poverty, school inaccessibility, poor school quality, and lack of gender-sensitive practices in the classroom. The nongovernmental organization, Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), provides a range of financial, pedagogical, and…

This study presents the formulation of a quantitative and qualitative index of quality for accredited institutions based on their performance in five components related to institutional quality: research, students' performance, dropout rates, employability, and accreditation. This index will allow each accredited institution to identify its…

The study investigated head teachers, and, education administrators' view of the Home Grown School Feeding Program and the associated sociodemographic variables. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional design. Fifty-four government owned primary schools in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, participated in the study. Head teachers and education…

The identification of predictor variables for students at-risk of dropping out of university has received increased attention in higher education settings internationally concerning the context of origin in which they are developed and the different academic context in which they are introduced, often lacking schema-theoretic perspectives to offer…

Educators develop and implement various academic/behavioral intervention programs designed to specifically address academic shortcomings or aimed at disrupting behavioral cycles that impede success in the classroom. The purpose of this research was to identify gaps in behavioral Response to Intervention (RtI) programs and to design a RtI program…

According to The College Board (2009), many institutions express concern with their retention rates, but few allocate the necessary resources to affect long-term change at the institution. Retention initiatives are often carried out across many departments and units in an institution, and many institutions lack a full-time coordinator for these…

Measures of student disadvantage--or risk--are critical components of equity-focused education policies. However, the risk measures used in contemporary policies have significant limitations, and despite continued advances in data infrastructure and analytic capacity, there has been little innovation in these measures for decades. We develop a new…

Community colleges enroll nearly half of the students in public undergraduate programs and a disproportionate number of first-generation, low-income, underprepared, and minority students. The new national completion agenda initiated by President Barack Obama had brought both visibility and pressure to community colleges, which had completion rates…

The issue within education reform of high dropout rates has been an enduring problem for education in the United States (U.S.) since the 1960s. Dropping out of high school is associated with a broad range of social pathologies in adulthood, including poor job prospects, the propensity to engage in criminal behavior, out-of-wedlock births, low…

This paper examines whether colleges and universities in the United States striving to diversify their student communities are creating an inclusive environment that will effectively support these students throughout their academic careers. Current research on the experiences of students who identify as minoritized members of college communities…

Purpose: The present study investigates the influence of five personality traits based on the Big Five model, i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience and personal innovativeness on learners' intention to complete MOOCs. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed model was empirically tested using…

The Open Distance Learning (ODL) commenced in Nigeria in the year 2003 by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and many universities in the country have also adopted it. The study focused purposely on four ODL centers in Kwara state. Five research questions and three research hypotheses were formulated. The student samples were selected…