Given low rates of student retention in community colleges, there has been growing interest in understanding characteristics that put students at-risk and that serve to buffer against academic difficulty. In particular, research on student success has focused on demographic predictors that are difficult to change, whereas motivational…

Building and sustaining students' sense of belonging at school has been proposed by teachers and researchers as a means of stimulating students' intent or desire to learn and of reducing student attrition. This article will present the results of an inquiry into the literature on belonging to support the perspective that is it necessary, not only…