Marshall University

Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

1-1-2009

Enrollment Management Administrators’ Perceptions of Community College Student Retention Practices Merle Dempsey [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Community College Education Administration Commons, and the Community College Leadership Commons Recommended Citation Dempsey, Merle, "Enrollment Management Administrators’ Perceptions of Community College Student Retention Practices" (2009). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 61.

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Enrollment Management Administrators’ Perceptions of Community College Student Retention Practices

Merle Dempsey Marshall University College of Education and Human Services

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Marshall University Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership

Committee Chair, Michael Galbraith, Ed.D. Lee Olson, Ed.D. Powell Toth, Ph.D.

Huntington, West Virginia 2009

Keywords: student retention, community college, enrollment management, educational leadership, retention practices

Copyright 2009 by Merle Dempsey

ABSTRACT

Enrollment Management Administrators’ Perceptions of Community College Student Retention Practices

The purpose of this study was three-fold: (a) to determine the retention practices most frequently used by community colleges to retain full-time, associate degree-seeking students from their first-to-second year of enrollment as perceived by enrollment management administrators; (b) to determine the level of importance placed on these practices as perceived by enrollment management administrators; and, (c) to determine if differences exist between those practices most frequently used and those considered to be the most important when the enrollment size and campus geographic setting of the institution are considered. An online survey, developed by the researcher, was distributed to a sample of 269 community colleges that hold membership in the American Association of Community Colleges. Responses were received from 135 (51%) of those surveyed. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA tests were used to address the six primary research questions, with significance noted at p