“AIR Home.” AIR. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This website provides information about all types of research that are conducted in the university. It stipulates that the research report presented is conducted on a semester basis and therefore all information is up to date. One of the most important data this website acquire is the City Tech data, which include surveys as well as  graduation and retention rates and a wide data overview where we can see on details where the school stand on. This website will help us to make our survey more efficient. Any improvement that can be done on the data should aim at improving the scope as the data is already up to date.

Allen, Grove. “See What It Takes To Get Into City Tech.” About Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

The article provides information on the student data collected between 2012 and 2013 which provide a summary of City Tech. It presents the transfer out rate as 40% with the first year retention rate being 77%. The data is collected from National center for educational statistics which makes available data related to education in the U.S. This website is important as it provides numerical details of all the information on transfers required. This information may help us to develop questions related to our transfer rate so we can analyze the main reason why the school is getting high transfer rate.

Brckalorenz, Allison, Robert M. Gonyea, and Angie Miller. Updating the National Survey of Student Engagement: Analyses of the NSSE 2.0 Pilots (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

This research journal explains about goals and purposes of the NSSE update and the new pilot instruments used to assess student engagement in educational practices. It also explains the rationale behind the pilot instruments, the methods of analyzing the pilot instruments and the results of the pilot analyses. The pilot instruments improve certain properties of measurements and eliminate outdated content. Some of these include teaching practices, technology usage, diverse perspectives and learning strategies. The components that we deem is relevant for our project are the “engagement indicators” such as Experiences with Faculty, Diverse Interactions, High Impact Practices, Campus Environment, and Demographic Items. By doing more research on some of these “engagement indicators” it may well lead to graduation rates and transfer rates.

Koebler, Jason. “Community College Attendance Up, But Graduation Rates Remain Low.” US News. U.S.News & World Report, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This article explains why students cannot graduate from 2 year colleges or transfer from 2 year colleges to a 4 year college and what is the problem for this dilemma. The article tells how students are enrolling in college but cannot end up finishing or even transferring out. For most of the last century, community colleges were designed to expand students’ access to higher education. But in recent years, they’ve been asked to put unemployed Americans back to work. According to the article, less than half of students who enter a community college graduate or transfer to a four-year college within six years. This is important for our group project because these statistics can be used as a resource for explaining our concept of why colleges have such low graduation rates.

Kuh, George D. The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual Framework and Overview of Psychometric Properties (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

The research journal breaks down the content of the NSSE (Nation Survey of Student Engagement) Project and Questionnaire which is designed to assess whether students are engaged in optimal educational practices.  The research also shows the outcome if students emphasize good educational practices which lead to focused faculty, staff, better curriculum and a better college experience. The journal also goes over the items of the survey, and discovers whether the items are relatively stable from one year to the next. The research journal is composed of multiple components that detail the framework and structure of the NSSE. It also provides tables, correlations and graphs to give a visual representation of its findings. By acknowledging the rationale behind certain items within the survey, we can better understand which items will pertain to our project.

Moldoff, David K. “Top 10 Reasons Why Students Transfer.” College Transfer. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

The website provides information as to why students might opt to transfer from one institution to another. It identifies 10 reasons why students transfer. A few mentioned are financial circumstances in search for lower paying schools, social circumstances that involve the type of people that a person relates with in the institution, and If the students switch their majors and the current school does not have that major, they are forced to transfer and a few more.  The website is important for this study as it provides the possible reasons why a student might want to transfer. Using the above reasons, the school can work to mitigate the possibility of a student transferring by providing suitable conditions and facilities.

Ritz, Glenda. “Graduation Rate Methodology and Definitions.” Indiana Department of Education. Glenda Ritz, Dec.-Jan. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This article explains how the graduation rate is calculated. Graduation rates are the percentage of students who graduate from an educational institution. According to the article, the general formula for graduation rate is the number of students graduating divided by the number of students. Graduation rates are important because it shows how committed schools are to graduating their students. Schools with high graduation rates have fewer students who fail in school and more students earning a degree. The way it works is first the college determines the amount of students who are graduating. Then they determine who entered as freshmen, and then add students who transferred to the school plus subtract the students who transferred out. Finally they divide the number of students graduating by the number of students in the graduating class. This is important for our topic because it shows why the schools have such low graduation rates. We want to discover the major problem as to why these rates are so low.