Using data from a national study of 13,499 faculty at 134 colleges and universities, this study explores the impact of faculty of color on undergraduate education. This study finds compelling evidence to suggest that faculty of color do provide an important contribution to undergraduate education in two ways. First, faculty of color employ a…

This paper estimates the effect of students' background characteristics on the academic outcomes of their college roommates. It uses data from four classes of students at Wellesley College, where roommate assignment is credibly random, conditional on student responses to a housing preference form. In linear specifications, there are no peer…

Using national survey data, multilevel modeling techniques, and descriptive statistics, this study makes an effort to understand the influence of the financial context of institutions on the chance of college completion for low socioeconomic status (SES) students at four-year colleges and universities. This research shows that college completion…

Anchored in national longitudinal data analyzed through hierarchical linear and non-linear modeling, this study found that African-American students have a similar probability of obtaining a BA degree whether they attended a historically Black college or university (HBCU) or a historically White college or university (HWCU). Among…

Although recent research suggests that congruence between students and their academic environment is critical for successful student outcomes, little research has been done on student college major choice. Using Holland's theory of careers, we analyze college major choice using a multinomial logit model. We use the CIRP Freshman Survey and…

This study of the impact of doctoral adviser mentoring on student outcomes was undertaken in response to earlier research that found (a) students with greater incoming potential received more adviser mentoring, and (b) adviser mentoring did not significantly contribute to important student outcomes, including research productivity [Green, S. G.,…

This study examined contextual and personal factors related to the use of cognitive strategies by undergraduates. Specifically, students' goal orientations (intrinsic or extrinsic) and perceptions of the classroom environment (i.e., task or performance structured) were evaluated as predictors of student use of deep or surface level cognitive…

Over the last decade, policymakers, educators, and researchers have increasingly sought to understand community college policies and practices that promote students' success. This effort has been partly driven by an increased emphasis on outcome accountability, but it has also promoted a productive discussion about improving institutional…

A common finding in the literature is that institutional structures have little to no impact on student engagement and development. I argue that theory suggests peer ability (as measured by selectivity), institutional density, the differentiation of the curriculum, and the research orientation of the institution should all affect student…

Multilevel SEM was used to examine the extent to which student, instructor, and course characteristics affect student ratings. Data were gathered from 1867 students enrolled in 117 courses at a large teacher training college in Israel. Four alternative two-level models that differ in only the nature of the relationship among interest in the course…

Holland's theory of vocational preferences provides a powerful framework for studying students' college experiences. A basic proposition of Holland's theory is that individuals actively seek out and select environments that are congruent with their personality types. Although studies consistently support the self-selection proposition, they have…

The happy ending is that The Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah has arrived at a clear statement of aims and objectives, and the long story is the 20 years of theatre making within the field of theatre in education, involving moments of clarity followed by periods of complete confusion as to why we were doing what we were doing. The question which…

This paper discusses the impact that teaching and research on African theatre in the Workshop Theatre of the University of Leeds' School of English may have had in Africa and elsewhere. After surveying the productivity and influence of the Workshop Theatre to the present, the authors ask if they have contributed meaningfully to the development,…

The authors facilitated a Theatre for Development training workshop for Save the Children UK with a number of children in three villages in northern Bangladesh in 2000. In 2005 they revisited the young people, unofficially and informally, to assess for themselves if there had been any impact of the TfD on their lives. They asked what the young…

In the South African context, "impact" is one of those words that has gathered a set of layered meanings in the field of research and evaluation. It is generally used to mean the "effect" an activity or experience has had on its target audience. Has the experience changed things in any way? Has it made a difference? This paper explores what is…