One of the most urgent issues facing institutions of higher learning in the United States today is the problem of college student retention. The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretically and empirically supported argument for stating that there is one potent force for retention of college students that has been as yet largely unmined:…

Students with merit-based scholarships and strong high school GPAs typically have high retention rates. Yet, many high ability students did not need to study in high school, and never developed effective academic skills. Such students may expect to excel in college with the same limited effort. Unfortunately, institutions may unintentionally…

Using a multi-method approach involving fixed effects and logistic regressions, this study examined the effect of the Oklahoma's Promise Program on student persistence in relation to the Pell and Stafford federal programs and according to socio-economic characteristics and class level. The Oklahoma's Promise is a hybrid state program that pays…

This article examines definitions, rationales, and calculations associated with higher education performance measures: persistence, retention rate, attrition rate, drop-out rate, and graduation rate. Strengths and limitations of these measures are scrutinized relative to online master's programs. Outcomes of a sample of students (N = 96) enrolled…

Researchers, policymakers, and administrations have shown great concern over the efficacy of college remediation, which has prompted some states to eliminate remedial programs from public 4-year institutions. However, research suggests that eliminating these programs may have unintended consequences on college access and opportunity for…

Academic confidence cultivated within the context of learning communities may be an important key to student success. This study examined the structural relationships of four constructs on academic performance and persistence for summer bridge learning community (SBLC) and non-SBLC members. Constructs included: 1) student background; 2) academic…

The University of Ottawa (UofO) in Ottawa, Canada offers a formal supplemental instruction program, called the residence study group program (RSGP), to residence students registered in first year courses that are associated with a high degree of failure or attrition. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of this program by comparing…

College students on probation are generally considered at-risk for dropping out, as indicated by a wide range of literature. This article focuses on an action research study that explored the impact of a career workshop series on freshman students in a probation course at a medium-sized university located in the southeastern United States. The…

This study provides results regarding the effectiveness of the Bounce Back Retention Program (BBRP), a semester-long voluntary course for students on academic probation (AP). This is the first phase of a longitudinal study of spring 2007 freshmen at San Diego State University (SDSU). Results were analyzed for three samples: 1) "AP BBRP-Credit"…

Traditionally at Mississippi State University (MSU), students who are placed on academic suspension are required to stay out of school one regular semester. As an alternative, the university designed a program for early readmission for suspended students who agree to follow the requirements outlined in the "Learning Skills Support Program" (LSSP).…

This study's goals were to describe an urban, blended undergraduate/teacher preparation program and to assess its effectiveness in recruiting, retaining, and preparing diverse teachers to teach in urban schools. Methods used included a 43-item, on-line survey and semi-structured interviews. One hundred nine undergraduates (68%) responded to the…

The Biology Intensive Orientation for Students (BIOS) Program at Louisiana State University was designed to increase the success of incoming freshman biology majors in the first course in their major. The program combined content lectures and examinations for BIOL 1201-Introductory Biology for Science Majors, the first course in their major, as…

The present study utilizes a multilevel approach to assess the effects of four different types of intervention on college student retention, focusing on the interaction effects between the student characteristics and the types of intervention. The program effects on a 3-year trend are also explored. The findings of the present study reveal that…

Student retention has been one of the more researched topics in the study of American higher education over the past 20 years (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Very little of this research, however, has attempted to examine the impact of college athletics on an institution's ability to retain students. This…

The present research was a two-year longitudinal study on the effects of a six-day, optional, pre-semester, freshman orientation program on academic credits earned, GPA and college retention. Regression analyses were used to remove the variance associated with other possible predictors of academic success (gender, age, race, developmental need,…