Region 9 Comprehensive Center (R9CC) and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) collaboratively collected and analyzed teacher workforce data to identify barriers for recruiting and retaining an effective and diverse teacher workforce. R9CC and ISBE used the Teacher Shortage Tool from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders to identify equity…

Foster care alumni are a unique subset of college students who enter post-secondary education having faced significant socio-economic challenges and emotional trauma. These students often understand how attending post-secondary education can help create a more stable life. However, the graduation of this population is extremely low. The purpose of…

Nontraditional students are increasing in enrollment as one of the most significant demographic groups on American campuses. Since this number grew exponentially from 30% to 50% in a ten-year period (Forbus et al., 2010), universities may need to prioritize the needs and services of nontraditional students on their campuses to promote retention…

Nearly half of students who enter college do not graduate. The majority of efforts to increase college completion have focused on supporting students before or soon after they enter college, yet many students drop out after making significant progress towards their degree. In this paper, we report results from a multi-year, large-scale…

Of the 3.5 million first-time in college, full time students who began college in fall 2017, 74% returned for fall 2018, with 61.7% retained at their starting institution. Covid-19 has negatively impacted retention; in addition to normal attrition, one of every five students did not return to campus in fall 2020. Researchers have gauged both…

In 2020-2021, APIE aimed to align programs and resources to help AISD students navigate the new educational landscape brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures. While APIE's goals continued to focus on supporting ECHS students in acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to enroll, persist, and succeed in postsecondary education,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between grit, mathematics self-efficacy, students' career interest in STEM, and student achievement in Algebra I. The study was intentional in examining the concepts of self-efficacy, achievement, and career interest as part of STEM education research. The research was completed during the…

The research conducted for this study explored the experiences of eight Latina college students and their stories of struggle and persistence in higher education Borderlands. This research was framed by LatCrit theory and the work of Chicana Feminist Epistemologists who investigated raced and gendered experiences and their relationship to power,…

The District has received the FY20 high school graduates' college matriculation data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). The Department of Research & Evaluation (DRE) has performed a preliminary analysis of college enrollment for students who graduated from the District between FY16 and FY202, persistence rate for students who…

Nontraditional college student enrollment in the United States is rapidly growing and is predicted to continue to increase. Similarly, female students are currently the majority student population on college campuses. Although numerous studies document college student experiences, few focus on first-generation Latinas who are student-mothers at…

Researchers and policymakers are interested in the pathway to the STEM workforce given projections about a workforce shortage and the underrepresentation of women and people of color in STEM. These examinations often rely on the STEM pipeline model as a framework for understanding STEM persistence, which uses a STEM degree as a proxy for future…

Mathematical literacy and numeracy are critical for students during school and post-graduation, however, many U.S. students do not develop the mathematical skillset needed for college or the workplace, despite curricular importance placed on solving problems encountered in mathematics classrooms and spaces. Part of this skillset for critical…

Since the inception of the guided pathways model in 2015, most related research has focused on the interconnecting processes and practices that lead to student persistence and completion. While the processes and practices are the basis of the model, scholars acknowledge that the model's human capital and change management components are just as…

This constructivist grounded theory study explored how Black women studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs) demonstrate persistence. Utilizing a strengths-based approach, the current study involved semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation to better understand the…

A significant population of higher education students are first generation students; students who come from a home where neither parent has completed a bachelor's degree (Vasil & McCall, 2018). These first generation students experience a gap of education, knowledge, and support which creates a persistent problem of unequal access to higher…