While loyalty has been the focus of past researchers, this study delved into the relationship between customers and organizations interchanged with commitment through socioeconomics and its impact on retention. The research problem focused on possible explanations of low retention rates at a historically black college and the students' commitment…

Large-scale international achievement studies such as PISA have been widely used to study how educational inequality compares across countries. Yet the various different biases that may affect these estimates are often not considered or are poorly understood. In this paper we draw upon the total survey error framework to provide a case study of…

The study reported herein examined the influence of school contexts on leaders' leadership practices in South Africa. To this end, deputy principals were put under the microscope to scrutinize the relationship between their leadership practices and the school contexts in which they operate. The narrative inquiry - a qualitative methodology - was…

Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family's neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child,…

Purpose: The study evaluates new approach of digital extension services for the long-term adoption of digital extension technologies. We propose an indirect adoption approach to address following research questions. What socioeconomic factors influence rice farmers' decision to prefer one business profile over another? Which business profile is…

The report "Evolution of Devolution" examines how higher education policy has diverged across the four nations of the United Kingdom--England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland--since the devolution of powers in 1999. Edited by Rose Stephenson, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute, the report…

The unwillingness of the Somali community to finance higher education has largely gone unnoticed within the academic literature and government policy documents. This study explores the role of religion and the influence of Shari'ah scholars on the use of interest-bearing student loans within the Somali community. In the absence of any theoretical…

Career selection in medicine is a complex and underexplored process. Most medical career studies performed in the U.S. focused on the effect of demographic variables and medical education debt on career choice. Considering ongoing U.S. physician workforce shortages and the trilateral adaptive model of career decision making, a robust assessment of…

Academic integrity has become one of the most discussed issues in higher education over the past decade. When writing research outputs, students increasingly search for easy fixes. The awareness and perception of plagiarism among postgraduate students and probable socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, and academic level disparities were…

Based on the classic models developed by Spady and Tinto on the link between social and academic integration and dropout, we propose a refined model to explain dropout intentions--relating to dropout from higher education (HE) and dropout from a specific study programme--that more strongly emphasises individual background characteristics (e.g.…

Teacher well-being has many implications within schools, most importantly on students. However, little research has been done to investigate the impact various mandates have on the well-being of teachers. This qualitative study gained insight into how elementary school teachers in Connecticut perceived the impact of teacher evaluation on their…

Having access to the Internet and acquiring the skills necessary to use, question, and create in a digital environment have become essential to living and working in the 21st century. Yet, this move to digitalization has created a digital divide between those who have broadband "access" and the "skills and attitudes" to…

Grade repetition is an issue with important educational implications. This study analyzes the effect of cognitive variables, socio-economic status, as well as the interaction of socioeconomic status with ethnic origin, on the probability of not repeating. Data were collected to calculate socioeconomic status using the Hollingshead Socioeconomic…

The World Bank's (WB) growing emphasis on decentralizing educational systems has sparked widespread discussion in the literature. This study examines whether WB reforms are indeed associated with decentralizing educational systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as commonly assumed. Using unique, untapped country-level panel data on…

Students enter university programs with the hope of passing courses and eventually graduating with a degree. However, many students experience challenges transitioning into their program and the first year. Some of these challenges may be influenced by their pre-collegiate experiences, as certain students come from under-resourced communities…