Date of Award

8-29-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Jim Vander Putten

Abstract

About half of the students currently in public postsecondary institutions are enrolled in two-year colleges, and, 50 percent of those students are classified as non-traditional. In spite of this large proportion of non-traditional-aged students, little research has been conducted concerning persistence among this group. The purpose of the study was to test the applicability of Bean and Metzner's theoretical model on persistence for non-traditional students in two-year colleges using three different measures of persistence: (a) academic outcomes (b) intent to leave from year one to year two, and (c) graduation with an associates' degree within the three-year framework of the study. Data for this study were taken from the 2004-06 Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS:04/06) longitudinal study. Two-year non-traditional students (N=1500) served as the sample of the study. The research questions were based on the original model and were analyzed using multiple linear regression, using forward loading and pairwise elimination. Five major findings of the study were observed: (a) Background variables had the largest effect on two dependent variables: GPA, R2 = .058, p .05.

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