As the growth of online programs continues to rapidly accelerate, concern over retention is increasing. Models for understanding student persistence in the face-to-face environment are well established, however, the many of the variables in these constructs are not present in the online environment or they manifest in significantly different ways.…

A survey instrument was designed and administered to a population of currently enrolled and dropout adult students in a post-baccalaureate distance learning program with an individual learner focus. The sample consisted of all actively enrolled students (179) and all students who had been admitted to the program since the program's inception who…

This paper applies value-added analysis to study the cognitive development of disabled high school sophomores over the period 1980-1982, in order to determine whether staying in school yields any cognitive return for students with disabilities and to identify those school factors that influence the relationship between staying in school and…

Goodwill Industries of America (GIA), like many organizations that are national or global in scope, uses distance education to deliver management training. GIA uses distance education to train staff identified as future GIA directors, pending the successful conclusion of training. One of the most serious drawbacks to this and all distance…

This monograph presents issues regarding minority student retention in higher education stressing the commitment of successful programs to campuswide cultural diversity as well as the importance of helping these students compete and succeed in the high tech world of the 21st century. In Chapter One, "Minority Student Retention: A Moral and…

This paper describes a two-stage case study of teachers and teaching between 1830 and 1988 in Vermont, with particular attention to rural environments. The preponderance of data were in the form of diaries, letters, various types of printed records, monographs, and the transcripts of numerous interviews and conversations. The central purpose of…

The performance of students who persisted or withdrew from courses was compared in a survey of all undergraduate students enrolled at Georgia State University during the spring 1981 quarter. Multivariate analysis was applied to three aspects of withdrawal and performance: course grades, the length of time withdrawing students stayed in the course,…

Individuals tend to hold on to initial impressions even after the data upon which they have formed the impression have been discredited. To partially replicate and extend a previous study (Ross et al., 1977) on belief perserverance, in which subjects were told they were to act as clinical psychologists attempting to understand and predict…

This paper presents data derived from the mandatory follow-up evaluation of Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) participants for the 13-week period following termination. Data cover the first three quarters of Program Year 89, that is, persons who terminated their involvement with JTPA between July 1, 1989 and April 30, 1990. It focuses on the…

Individual differences in same-aged children's reasoning about effort and ability, as well as the consequences of different forms of reasoning in actual achievement situations, were investigated. It was hypothesized that different forms of children's reasoning would be related to different (helpless versus mastery-oriented) motivational patterns.…

Log-linear modeling was employed to explore the conceptual relationships among community college student persistence and nine variables, including student demographics, purpose for enrolling, intentions to return, frequency of informal interaction with faculty, and satisfaction with the institution in general. The study sample was 369 new and…

In the fall semester of 1984, 66 full-time commuting university sophomores whose cumulative grade point average was between .001 and 1.99 participated in a modified replication of a diagnostic and prescriptive interview program. The program used a group session with either an agency outreach approach (N=30) or a non-outreach approach (N=36) to…

Psychological researchers continue to debate the relative contribution of ability and effort to feelings of self-worth. To investigate student preferences for ability or effort and their relationship to self-worth, and to assess the relative contribution of ability and effort to affective experience, two separate studies were undertaken. In the…

New and continuing students at Minneapolis Community College (MCC) are permitted to enroll and register through the first week of classes. Students who apply and register just before classes begin or during the first 5 days of a quarter always seem to require more staff and counselor time than normal. A study was conducted to determine whether the…

This document reviews research on the factors affecting the retention of adult students, discusses the relevance of some attrition models for adults, and presents strategies for helping adults adapt to the university and for adapting the university to adults. Reviewing factors affecting retention, the digest says that student characteristics,…