College and Career Readiness Effects on Minority Male College Retention

Author

NaQuiyah HodgesFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

5-2024

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1190-2340

Document Type

DNP Project

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Dr. Bryan Patterson

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Dr. Dean Campbell

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Dr. Mary Christopher

Abstract

Abstract

The continuously low college retention and low degree attainment of African American and Hispanic men is a generational and decades-long hindrance to the elevation of these marginalized communities in the United States and the state of Texas. In Texas, the last 3 years’ worth of data has proven college-readiness rates of African American and Hispanic college students were significantly lower by large margins than White students in English language arts, math, and both subjects by large margins. Consistent low college retention rates of minority men produce a need to conduct further research of how this phenomenon affects minority men who are first-year, first-generation college students attending institutions of higher learning in the state of Texas. Little research is available on the effectiveness of Texas’s college, career, and military readiness efforts and how its efforts influence students’ perceptions of what it means to be college ready or their perceptions of their own level of college readiness and self-efficacy when it comes to college persistence. Therefore, a qualitative, narrative inquiry study was conducted to understand the lived experiences of current, first-generation and continuinggeneration, minority male college students that attend Texas colleges and universities. The study aimed to examine participants’ perceptions of their college and career readiness efficacy and their college retention decisions. It also examined how the social and emotional components of college, career, and military readiness efforts may be linked to aspects of college retention among first-year, first-generation African American and Hispanic male college students. The intention was to present new data on connections between college and career readiness efforts and the college retention rates of minority male college students. The researcher collected data from five first-generation and continuing-generation, minority male college students who graduated from Texas public school districts and enrolled in Texas colleges and universities after v graduation. Several factors were identified as having significant correlations with college readiness and college retention, such as preentry attributes (background, skills, abilities), goals and commitments, institutional experiences, academic and social integration, self-efficacy, time management, early exposure to college, activity involvement, family support, K-12 and university support, and social network.

Keywords: African American, Hispanic, college retention, first-generation, college and career readiness, social and emotional learning

Creative Commons License

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

Recommended Citation

Hodges, NaQuiyah, "College and Career Readiness Effects on Minority Male College Retention" (2024). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 791.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/791