The recent Supreme Court decision NCAA vs Alston (June 2021) has heightened interest in the benefits and costs of participation in sports for student athletes. Anecdotes about the exploitation of student athletes were cited in the opinion. This paper uses panel data for two different cohorts that follow students from high school through college…

In alignment with the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, the state of Texas created section 134.006 of the Texas Education Code in 2009 to provide grants to educational institutions for career and technical education (CTE) programs. This code allows for the creation of CTE programs that prepare students to meet business…

While Pell-grants and other financial aid offers the payment of college, students of low-income have little to no assistance for cost-of-living expenses. Frequently, students go without supplies, technology, and internet connections; they even live without the security of food and shelter. Students of low-income face barriers that leave them…

Given the increasing number of community college students aspiring to complete a bachelor's degree and the decrease in traditional college-bound high school graduates universities have started to focus their attention on the recruitment and retention of transfer students. The institution in this study is a large public research institution located…

This applied dissertation study was designed to assess a high-performing high school's dropout prevention program that increased graduation rates and decreased dropout rates among high school students. The high-performing high school was chosen because the target site achieved a 90% or higher graduation rate over 5 school years. Four of 19 high…

Black males' underperformance in urban schools has been an equation educational policymakers have been trying to solve for years. Compared to other ethnic groups, Black males in urban areas are more likely to encounter challenges on their academic journey. However, research has indicated that mentoring can positively impact academic outcomes for…

Using secondary data from a NY Kids comparative case study conducted in 2017-2018 of two positive outlier high schools, the purpose of this dissertation was to learn more about their discipline practices and the role secondary school leaders play in shaping those discipline systems. Two positive outlier high schools were studied, as they were…

Public community colleges have struggled with reduced funding allocations, unstable enrollments, low completion rates, and growing racial equity gaps while facing increased accountability for outcomes. As a result, public community colleges are trying to determine how to efficiently use limited funds to effectively meet equitable student outcomes.…

This quantitative study explored the study that female and first-generation students are often not provided with the mentoring support needed to succeed academically in STEM programs. The study focused on the Mentor Tech students that are students of color that are called proteges. The sample size was 38, and they were all STEM students of color.…

Missing data patterns are the combinations in which the variables with missing values occur. Exploring these patterns in multivariate data can be very useful but there are few specialized tools. The current paper presents a plot that includes relevant information for visualizing these patterns. The plot is also dynamic-interactive; so, selecting…

Community colleges have long been lauded for significantly increasing access to postsecondary education for individuals who may have few other options due to academic difficulties, financial constraints, or other factors (American Association of Community Colleges, 2017). The rate at which students complete degrees and certificates, however, has…

Since 1979 more than thirty states have adopted "performance funding" for public institutions of higher education. Under performance funding, a portion of the state appropriations for each institution is determined by the institution's achievement of performance goals on such metrics as retention and graduation. We argue that several…

Governments around the world use grant and loan programs to ease the financial constraints that contribute to socioeconomic gaps in college completion. A growing body of research assesses the impact of grants; less is known about how loan programs affect persistence and degree completion. We use detailed administrative data from Chile to provide…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a pre-college summer program at Missouri University of Science and Technology known as Hit the Ground Running (HGR). It used a convergent mixed-methods research design, combining data from semi-structured interviews with HGR participants and institutional data on previous HGR participants…

Retention in higher education has become a focal point for many in higher education institutions in the United States. While many institutions seek out answers, research has given some answers. Tinto (1975) asserted that attrition in higher education results from students' perceptions of their own inability to assimilate into the structure, social…