Engagement and Persistence of First-generation College Students
Engagement and Persistence of First-generation College Students

Author: Eva Frey Johnson

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13:

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"This study explored the persistence and engagement of first-generation college students at a four-year institution with relation to engagement variables in order to determine the engagement behaviors that support first-generation college student success. Specifically, Astin's (1984) input-environment-output (I-E-O) model was used to investigate the differences between first-generation and non first-generation college students' behaviors of engagement. Recent literature suggests that first-generation college students and non first-generation college students have similar educational experiences when independent variables are controlled (Kuh & Pike, 2005; Tinto, 2002; Hurtado & Carter, 1996). The null hypothesis stated that first-generation college students and non first-generation college students would have similar educational experiences. The inputs for this study consist of the independent variables of sex, student of color status, income level, standardized test scores high school GPA, and generation status. The environment was compromised of the five benchmarks from the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE). The outputs consist of the dependent variables of persistence to the next semester or graduation. The college students included in the sample data are from a mid-sized regional, religiously affiliated institution located in the Pacific Northwest. The sample was 1,280 first year and senior students, of which 232 were first-generation students and 1,048 were non first-generation students, who had completed the NSSE instrument in 2005, 2007, and 2009"--Abstract.

First-Generation College Students
First-Generation College Students

Author: Lee Ward

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-05-25

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1118233956

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FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS "...a concise, manageable, lucid summary of the best scholarship, practices, and future-oriented thinking about how to effectively recruit, educate, develop, retain, and ultimately graduate first-generation students." from the foreword by JOHN N. GARDNER First-generation students are frequently marginalized on their campuses, treated with benign disregard, and placed at a competitive disadvantage because of their invisibility. While they include 51% of all undergraduates, or approximately 9.3 million students, they are less likely than their peers to earn degrees. Among students enrolled in two-year institutions, they are significantly less likely to persist into a second year. First-Generation College Students offers academic leaders and student affairs professionals a guide for understanding the special challenges and common barriers these students face and provides the necessary strategies for helping them transition through and graduate from their chosen institutions. Based in solid research, the authors describe best practices and include suggestions and techniques that can help leaders design and implement effective curricula, out-of-class learning experiences, and student support services, as well as develop strategic plans that address issues sure to arise in the future. The authors offer an analysis of first-generation student expectations for college life and academics and examine the powerful role cultural capital plays in shaping their experiences and socialization. Providing a template for other campuses, the book highlights programmatic initiatives at colleges around the county that effectively serve first-generation students and create a powerful learning environment for their success. First-Generation College Students provides a much-needed portrait of the cognitive, developmental, and social factors that affect the college-going experiences and retention rates of this growing population of college students.

College Student Retention
College Student Retention

Author: Alan Seidman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-08-09

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1475872364

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College student retention continues to be a top priority among colleges, universities, educators, federal and state legislatures, parents and students. While access to higher education is virtually universally available, many students who start in a higher education program do not complete the program or achieve their academic and personal goals. In spite of the programs and services colleges and universities have devoted to this issue, student retention and graduation rates have not improved considerably over time. College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success, Third Edition offers a solution to this vexing problem. It provides background information about college student retention issues and offers the educational community pertinent information to help all types of students succeed. The book lays out the financial implications and trends of retention. Current theories of retention, retention of online students, and retention in community colleges are also thoroughly discussed. Completely new to this edition are chapters that examine retention of minority and international students. Additionally, a formula for student success is provided which if colleges and universities implement student academic and personal goals may be attained.

The First Generation Student Experience
The First Generation Student Experience

Author: Jeff Davis

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1000981037

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Co-published with More first-generation students are attending college than ever before, and policy makers agree that increasing their participation in higher education is a matter of priority. Despite this, there is no agreed definition about the term, few institutions can quantify how many first-generation students are enrolled, or mistakenly conflate them with low-income students, and many important dimensions to the first-generation student experience remain poorly documented. Few institutions have in place a clear, well-articulated practice for assisting first-generation students to succeed. Given that first-generation students comprise over 40% of incoming freshmen, increasing their retention and graduation rates can dramatically increase an institution’s overall retention and graduation rates, and enhance its image and desirability. It is clearly in every institution’s self-interest to ensure its first-generation students succeed, to identify and count them, and understand how to support them. This book provides high-level administrators with a plan of action for deans to create the awareness necessary for meaningful long-term change, sets out a campus acclimation process, and provides guidelines for the necessary support structures.At the heart of the book are 14 first-person narratives – by first-generation students spanning freshman to graduate years – that help the reader get to grips with the variety of ethnic and economic categories to which they belong. The book concludes by defining 14 key issues that institutions need to address, and offers a course of action for addressing them. This book is intended for everyone who serves these students – faculty, academic advisors, counselors, student affairs professionals, admissions officers, and administrators – and offers a set of best practices for how two- and four-year institutions can improve the success of their first-generation student populations.An ACPA Publication

First-Generation Professionals in Higher Education
First-Generation Professionals in Higher Education

Author: Mary Blanchard Wallace

Publisher:

Published: 2022-03-15

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781948213363

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First-generation Professionals in Higher Education: Strategies for the World of Work explores complexities related to the transition from college/professional school to the work world of higher education, as well as the advancement from mid- to senior-level leadership, and how first-generation professionals navigate these transitions. Framing their chapters in the asset-based lens of cultural capital, the authors approach topics of navigating the field of higher education as first-generation professionals through personal experience as well as evidence-based approaches and strategies. Organized in three sections--Professional Identity, Purposeful Interaction, and Career Path--the book examines concepts such as imposter syndrome, politics, financial literacy, resilience, networking, mentoring, career progression, and more. Each chapter includes activities, exercises, and questions for reflection, offering readers an opportunity to discern strategies for their own professional development.

At the Intersection
At the Intersection

Author: Robert Longwell-Grice

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1000980081

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The experiences of first-generation college students are not monolithic. The nexus of identities matter, and this book is intended to challenge the reader to explore what it means to be a first-generation college student in higher education. Designed for use in classrooms and for use by the higher education practitioner on a college campus today, At the Intersections will be of value to the reader throughout their professional career.The book is divided into four parts with chapters of research and theory interspersed with thought pieces to provide personal stories to integrate the research and theory into lived experience. Each thought piece ends with questions to inspire readers to engage with the topic.Part One: Who is a First-generation College Student? provides the reader an entrée into the topic, with up-to-date data on both four-year and two-year colleges. Part One ends with a thought piece that asks the reader to pull together some of the big ideas before moving on to look more closely at students’ identities.Part Two: The Intersection of Identity shares the research, experience and thoughts of authors in relation to the individual and overlapping identities of LGBT, low-income, white, African-American, Latinx, Native American, undocumented, female, and male students who are all also first-generation college students. Part Three: Programs and Practices is an introduction to practices, policies and programs across the country. This section offers promise and direction for future work as institutions try to find a successful array of approaches to make the campus an inclusive place for the diverse population of first-generation college students.

Persisting Through College
Persisting Through College

Author: Deborah M. Glenn

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13:

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"Over the past few decades, institutions of higher education have experienced an increase in the enrollment of women, people of color, and those of lower socioeconomics. The literature suggests that some students from these populations—first-generation college students (FGCS)— have contributed to a decrease in college retention. To address persistence and retention concerns, institutions established student engagement programs (SEP) to assist FGCS in the academic and social integration needed to acclimate to college and persist through graduation. The purpose of this mixed-methods, descriptive case study was to explore the characteristics and experiences of FGCS of color attending a majority institution and participating in the institution’s student engagement program for FGCS. Quantitatively, the ex post facto data explored student characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, ACT admissions score, final high school GPA, cumulative institutional GPAs, and the athletic and housing status of the first-generation college freshmen participating in the SEP. The data were used also to discover associations among selected student characteristics. Qualitatively, the interview responses of senior-level, Hispanic and African American FGCS revealed the pre-college and college experiences that impacted their academic and social integration. The results of the study support most of the limited literature on first-generation college students of color and provide insight regarding the persistence and completion of FGCS of color to the institution under study as well as to similar institutions. ."--Page 2.

Student Persistence Through Involvement
Student Persistence Through Involvement

Author: Margarida Baganha Vieira

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13:

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The number of first-generation students entering higher education has increased over the years. Unfortunately, their retention rates are lower than their peers (Cahalan & Perna, 2015; Robb et al., 2012). The Portuguese comprise the largest immigrant population in southern New England, many of whom are first-generation students (MAPS, 2016). Researchers have suggested various student engagement programs that help improve student retention (Astin,1999; Stephens et al., 2014), yet there is a lack of research showing persistence rates for first-generation Portuguese students. This study was guided by the following research questions: 1. Is there a significant difference in self-reported involvement for first-generation Portuguese compared to continuing-generation and first-generation students? 2. Is there a significant difference in identified obstacles to involvement for first-generation Portuguese compared to continuing-generation and first-generation students? 3. How do first-generation Portuguese students perceive academic and extra-curricular involvement? 4. How do first-generation Portuguese students describe their college experience and challenges on their journey to graduation? This explanatory sequential mixed methods study began with a survey of undergraduate students (N=389) to investigate if there were differences in student involvement and challenges among the three groups. This was followed by interviews with seven ( n=7) first-generation Portuguese students to further explore their perceptions of involvement and challenges. Major findings included significant differences in obstacles such as family financial support (F=5.95, p=.003, n 2=.03sm) and the level of parent loans (F=6.77, p=.001, n2=.03sm) among continuing-generation (M=3.56; M=4.53), first-generation (M=3.00; M=4.24), and first-generation Portuguese (M=3.09; M=4.95) students. First-generation Portuguese students had the lowest number living on campus (9.1%), the highest number living with their parents (63.6%); and the highest number working over 25 hours per week (54.5%) compared with continuing-generation (32.2%; 37.7%; 26.1%) and first -generation students (42.5%; 36.2%; 16.3%). There were no significant differences in many areas such as academic engagement outside the classroom, emotional support, encouragement, and objection to education received from family. The study also revealed the following themes: cultural differences, indebtedness to family, financial burden and time management, college involvement, experience and mentors. The results and recommendations of this study may assist institutional leaders in enhancing and implementing programs to improve persistence rates, especially for Portuguese students.

The Impact of a Sense of Belonging in College
The Impact of a Sense of Belonging in College

Author: Erin Bentrim

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1000980375

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Sense of belonging refers to the extent a student feels included, accepted, valued, and supported on their campus. The developmental process of belonging is interwoven with the social identity development of diverse college students. Moreover, belonging is influenced by the campus environment, relationships, and involvement opportunities as well as a need to master the student role and achieve academic success. Although the construct of sense of belonging is complex and multilayered, a consistent theme across the chapters in this book is that the relationship between sense of belonging and intersectionality of identity cannot be ignored, and must be integrated into any approach to fostering belonging.Over the last 10 years, colleges and universities have started grappling with the notion that their approaches to maintaining and increasing student retention, persistence, and graduation rates were no longer working. As focus shifted to uncovering barriers to student success while concurrently recognizing student success as more than solely academic factors, the term “student sense of belonging” gained traction in both academic and co-curricular settings. The editors noticed the lack of a consistent definition, or an overarching theoretical approach, as well as a struggle to connect disparate research. A compendium of research, applications, and approaches to sense of belonging did not exist, so they brought this book into being to serve as a single point of reference in an emerging and promising field of study.