Date of Graduation

5-2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Adult and Lifelong Learning (EdD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders

Advisor/Mentor

Nafukho, Fredrick

Committee Member

Collier, Marta D.

Second Committee Member

Brooks, Catherine

Third Committee Member

Hinton, Barbara

Keywords

Student support services; first-generation; disabled

Abstract

This study identified and examined the service variable combination(s) provided by Student Support Services (SSS) TRIO program that had a statistically significant relationship with program participants’ academic performance and retention. SSS is a federally funded program designed to increase the retention and graduation rates of undergraduate first-generation, low-income, disabled college students. While SSS has played a significant role in the retention of disadvantaged students, scarce empirical research exist which examine the combination of SSS services that affect students’ academic performance and retention. Considering SSS programs will probably not experience large increases in federal support in the future and given the limited resources available to projects (Eisener, 1997), the purpose of this study was to determine the most efficient combination of services that had a statistically significant relationship with program participants’ academic performance and retention.

The target population for this study included 307 students who participated in the program for the 2003-2004 academic year. Multiple and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the total minutes devoted to services provided by SSS and program participants’ academic performance and retention rates.

The findings from this study indicate that in combination the variables total minutes devoted to the services cultural enrichment and personal counseling were found to have statistically significant with academic performance for all subjects in the study. Personal counseling, cultural enrichment activities, career counseling, tutoring and academic counseling were found to have a statistically significant relationship with the academic performance of specific subpopulations of subjects in the study.

Personal counseling had an inverse relationship with academic performance for all combinations of services found to be statistically significant. With regard to student retention, the program had a 93.5% retention rate. Academic counseling predicted student retention. However, certain services predicted student retention for specific subpopulations of students. Implications and recommendations for SSS programs and higher education are presented.

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