This article examines Black educators' experiences in Grow Your Own programs along a teacher development continuum at the intersection of social and human development constructs and frameworks, such as double binds and Phenomenological Variant Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST). More robust and nuanced interpretations of how Black educators grow…

Increasing persistence and graduation of post-secondary STEM students is a topic of significant focus and research, as are strategies for identifying barriers to success and intervening to bridge related gaps. In the case of underrepresented students, there are many challenges that may impact persistence in STEM majors, many of which, while…

In a time when student persistence, retention, and graduation rates are being examined, academic advisors are being called upon to evaluate their interactions with students throughout their academic journey toward a meaningful career. This chapter addresses how integrating academic and career advising may benefit students in the current higher…

Principal turnover continues to be a problem in schools today, and urban schools experience principal turnover at the highest rate. There has been an abundance of research on turnover of school principals, yet minimal research on retention of urban school principals. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with retired urban school…

As college completion rates have remained stubbornly flat over time, four-year colleges and universities have been called upon to improve the percentage of students who earn a baccalaureate degree. In response, many campuses have introduced a new professional, non-teaching role that seeks to promote, coordinate, and advance student success. While…

Teacher attrition and teacher pay concerns are not specific to certain states or school districts. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of merit pay's initial incentive and single salary earnings on the attrition and retention rates of teachers with three to five years of teaching experience. Initially, merit pay may provide…

African American doctoral students experience the highest levels of attrition (60%) in the nation and the most social and academic challenges in higher education. Concurrently, research supports that African Americans are among the most spiritual people in America. This study applied hierarchical logistic regression to investigate the relationship…

Oklahoma City Public Schools have battled teacher shortage issues for nearly two decades. Although previous research suggests that teacher attrition and retention correlates with a teacher's perception of overall job satisfaction, there is insufficient understanding of teachers' circumstances for leaving the Oklahoma City Public Schools district…

Self-determined motivation can be observed when one engages in a behavior that is conducted out of choice and personal values per Chan, Fung, Xing, and Hagger (2014). Low student self-determination is characterized by behaviors, such as very poor class attendance, a failure to attempt to turn in assigned homework or attend scheduled exams, poor…

The American Association of Community Colleges predicts that by 2025, over 880 of the nation's community colleges will be led by a new president. Simultaneously the average tenure of presidents is shrinking. At a time of high demand the pool of qualified candidates is shrinking which has led to this being termed a "leadership crisis" by…

This is a study of three second-career teachers' experiences of self-transformation and the processes of socialization and identity formation each undergoes during his or her first three to five years as a full-time teacher. Each narrative offers a means through which to explore how liminal identity is at play during the transition to a new…

This project study addressed the problem of induction teacher attrition at a rural middle school in the Southeastern United States. The study consisted of a program evaluation of a new induction program to ascertain the program's effectiveness in reducing induction teacher attrition. The theoretical framework for this study was Social…

Students who transfer from a community college to a four-year university have a singular path to travel. Researchers have studied this population for several decades. This research dissertation has built on the findings of these pioneers in the field of transfer student persistence. As a result of this study, two additional pieces of the transfer…

A 2017 report estimates that by 2025, Millennials will dominate the workforce. This shift is affecting the teaching profession, and for Alabama to continually compete on a global scale, the teaching workforce will need to be sustained. Alabama, along with the rest of the nation, is suffering the consequences of a teacher shortage in critical…

By applying a regression discontinuity design to national data of students at four-year colleges, this study identifies the substitution effects of exogenously received increases of grant aid on hours of paid labor, earnings, and borrowing while in college. Results confirm students substitute grant aid for both paid labor and borrowing. An average…