Do Learning Communities Matter?: An Examination Of The Retention Of At-Risk African American Students At An Urban, Commuter, Research University

<p>The effectiveness of learning community participation on the retention of at-risk, African American students at a public, urban, primarily commuter, research institution was the focus of this research. A nonexperimental, retrospective, descriptive, cohort research design was used with a sample of 318 first time in any college (FTIAC) African American students enrolled in the Alternative Admission Division (AAD) of Metropolitan Urban University (MUU) starting in the fall 2006 semester. The primary research hypothesis was that African American students who were admitted into the AAD at MUU in the fall 2006 semester would have greater academic outcomes (e.g. grade point average and credit hours earned) and persistence (retention and graduation rates) in a six-year period than African American AAD students who did not participate in a learning community in the fall 2006 semester. Three research questions were used to test the hypothesis: </p> <p>1. Among alternative admissions college students, is there a difference in the six-year retention rates for students who participated in learning communities as compared to students who did not participate in a learning community?</p> <p>2. Among alternative admissions college students, is there a difference in the number of credit hours earned for students who participated in learning communities as compared to students who did not participate in a learning community?</p> <p>3. Among alternative admissions college students, is there a difference in cumulative GPA for students who participated in learning communities as compared to students who did not participate in a learning community?</p> <p>Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results of the descriptive statistics did not indicate any statistically significant differences between the two groups. Independent sample t-tests were used to examine the research questions. Based on the research results, there were no statistically significant differences between students who participated in learning communities and those who did not. Additional research on the effect of learning communities on student retention for African American, FTIAC, at-risk, students at MUU is warranted.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership and Policy

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• White, Cheryl Deon

Contributors dc:contributor

• Monte Piliawsky

• African American Students
• At-Risk Students
• Commuter Students
• Learning Communities
• Public Universities
• Student Retention
• Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
• Education
• Higher Education and Teaching

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1301

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-2300