To help new students clarify goals, understand the demands of college, and successfully adjust to college life, Queensborough Community College (QCC), in Bayside, New York, developed the "Introduction to College" program. The program combines a 4-week orientation seminar with a writing-accross-the-curriculum approach to help QCC's…

The ALANA (Asian, Latin, African, and Native American) Mentoring Program was established at Saint Clair County Community College, in Port Huron, Michigan, to address the identity issues facing ALANA freshmen through peer mentoring. Mentors provide social and academic support, support students in thinking critically and role playing, and directly…

This paper explores the practical implications of the distributional perspective on dropping out of school--a perspective that says that the concentration of student exodus from certain schools may reflect the impact of contextual or organizational factors as opposed to those that operate simply at the individual level. Based on data from the…

Reasons why some students complete further education (FE) and others drop-out were examined in a study involving a sample of 9,000 students and staff from 31 inner city, urban, and rural FE colleges throughout the United Kingdom. Data were collected from the following sources: interviews with FE college managers, staff, and students; review of…

This paper reviews all of the 50 state plans required under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in order to identify state initiatives dealing with the recruitment and retention of special education personnel. The beginning of the report explains the requirements under IDEA relevant to recruitment and discusses the…

In 1992, a study was conducted to determine whether Grossmont College (GC) was meeting its five stated goals of excellence, retention, access, transfer, and diversity. Data were gathered on: (1) student access, including a comparison of applicants and enrollees, the ethnicity of freshmen, participation in testing and orientation programs, English…

This report updates information on trends in the participation of Hispanics, American Indians, Asian Americans, and African Americans in colleges and universities. Included are data concerning high school completion rates, college participation rates, undergraduate and graduate enrollments, and degree completion. Because the Hispanic population is…

In 1991, a study was conducted of semester-to-semester persistence patterns at Rancho Santiago College (RSC). The study involved tracking the attendance patterns of all RSC students entering as new students in fall 1983 and each subsequent fall until 1990; and comparing the persistence rates of matriculated and non-matriculated students in the…

An overview of the development and evaluation of an early alert procedure for identifying and assisting students experiencing academic difficulty at Irvine Valley College (IVC), in California, is provided in this report. The first section introduces IVC's new personal computer-based Early Alert Retention System (EARS) software, as well as the…

This report analyzes the progress made in implementing the Illinois Board of Higher Education's policies on undergraduate education, focusing particularly on public university and community college efforts to implement the Board's policies on student achievement, scholarship and general education and on faculty effectiveness and excellence in…

A study was conducted to identify the behaviors of community college faculty that contribute to student persistence and transfer. Using individual and group interviews in a grounded theory approach, teacher behaviors were analyzed from the perspectives of students, faculty, and administrators. Interviews with transfer students who were currently…

The Washington State Board for Community College Education and the Washington Center for Undergraduate Education undertook a national review of minority student success programs in 1990. Information was solicited from program directors, deans of instruction and student services, national organizations, state higher education boards, students,…

This study identified input, environmental, and output variables accounting for differences between successful and unsuccessful groups of underprepared students at Johnson County Community College (Kansas). The study applied an adaptation of Alexander Astin's input-environment-output model of assessing student and institutional effectiveness.…

This study examined factors affecting academic persistence for Hispanic college students at a private 2-year bilingual junior college (St. Augustine College, Illinois) in terms of the students' integration into the academic and social environment at the college. A sample of 277 Hispanic graduates (78 percent female) participated in the study.…

Recent changes to the student profile in higher education and calls for improved graduation rates and better quality graduates have caused consternation among academics. Greater access to higher education by non-traditional groups is supported both ideologically and pragmatically. However, the disparate needs of such a student population has led…