Strategies for Success: Developing the HERO Within to Increase Persistence of Community College Students Returning From Academic Dismissal

Author

Angela CavazosFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

1-2025

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5570-9920

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Gary Railsback

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Deardra Hayes-Whigham

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Colleen Ramos

Abstract

Students are enrolling in college at a higher rate than ever before, yet retention rates continue to be problematic for higher education institutions across the United States. Many students fail to persist beyond their first year and are often forced out due to academic difficulties. Students who return from academic dismissal are likely to be dismissed again. This quasi-experimental quantitative action research study aimed to evaluate the impact that a student success intervention course designed through an asset-based positive self-leadership framework and focused on the development of psychological capital constructs of hope, efficacy, resilience, and self-efficacy (HERO) had on the persistence rates for students returning from academic dismissal at a large community college in Texas. A sample of 44 students returning from academic dismissal were enrolled in one of two online intervention courses through random sampling methods, and the effectiveness of the intervention was measured through the evaluation of end-of-semester GPA, enrollment eligibility, and enrollment status in the following semester. Archival data were analyzed using SPSS, and both chi-square and logistic regression tests were run to address the research questions. The results of this study found that students exposed to the intervention had higher mean course grades, end-of-semester GPAs, higher persistence eligibility, and higher persistence rates, with 93% of those eligible to persist enrolled in the following semester, suggesting that self-leadership development through psychological capital may play a role in students’ persistence efforts after having experienced an academic failure. The results of this study added to the sparse literature on the impact of interventions that utilized positive psychological capital HERO to develop self-leadership on the persistence, retention, and degree completion rates of returning academically dismissed students.

Creative Commons License

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

Recommended Citation

Cavazos, Angela, "Strategies for Success: Developing the HERO Within to Increase Persistence of Community College Students Returning From Academic Dismissal" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 847.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/847