Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

12-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Jennifer Butcher

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Jeff Cranmore

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Jennifer Duffy

Abstract

Despite the increase in diversity, institutions continue to struggle to provide, retain, and graduate students of color to the same degree as their counterparts (Banks & Dohy, 2019). The purpose of this narrative qualitative research study was to examine the perceptions of second-year, first- generation minority college students regarding the influence of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program on their persistence and academic achievement. The study was framed by Swail’s (2004) geometric model of student persistence and achievement, aimed to identify the cognitive, social, and institutional factors contributing to student retention. The following questions guided the study: (1) What are the perceptions of first-generation minority college students regarding the cognitive factors associated with AVID mentoring programs?; (2) What are the perceptions of first-generation minority college students regarding the social factors associated with AVID mentoring programs?; and (3) What are the perceptions of first-generation minority college students regarding the institutional factors associated with AVID mentoring programs? The researcher conducted interviews to reveal the perceptions of six students who participated in AVID programs in high school. The major themes that emerged were the importance of AVID and teacher support, academic rigor and learning, social support, expectations and goal commitment, and challenges transitioning to the postsecondary institution. The study demonstrated that these factors significantly contribute to student persistence and retention. The results provide educational leaders with evidence to support adjustments to their practices and initiatives essential to student retention.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.