Using a longitudinal, state-wide dataset, this study assessed the effect of financial aid on the persistence of full-time students in associate's degree programs at the Oklahoma community colleges. Three financial-aid sources were examined: the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP), Pell grants, and Stafford loans. Results indicate that these forms of financial aid, alone and in combination, were predictors of persistence measured in terms of the student progressing from 1st-year status to 2nd-year status. The effect of financial aid, however, was moderated by ethnicity and income.Access and affordability have traditionally been concepts affiliated with the culture and inherent mission of community colleges (Bragg, 2001;Cohen & Brawer, 1996). Because of their relatively low costs, community colleges have been heralded as a viable path to higher education for many financially challenged student populations

This paper examines how federal financial aid packages affect college persistence of Native Americans including packages with the Oklahoma's Promise grant. Using a state dataset that includes student-level data for the 2002-2006 time span in the state of Oklahoma, this study showed that motivated Native American women with income above $40,000 thrive in postsecondary education. In addition, students with financial aid packages that included the Oklahoma's Promise grant had the highest probability of retention.

Students succeed in college by engaging with faculty, peers, and the community. Institutional leaders can utilize organizational learning strategies to learn what works to support civic learning outcomes and student success.

This study explored the impact of financial-aid on student-athletes' academic progression from freshmen to sophomore year in associates' degree programs in Oklahoma. Differences were found according to socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and race=ethnicity and between athlete and nonathlete students.Community colleges are a major provider of postsecondary education and job-related training received by students enrolled in institutions of higher education (Bragg, 2001;Cohen & Brawer, 2008). The more than 1,100 public community colleges in the U.S. currently enroll nearly 50% of all first-time students who enter higher education each year (Bragg, 2001). As a result of the growing enrollment experienced at community colleges, the scope and depth of scholarly-based and practitioner-based research on these institutions and their students has greatly expanded (Dougherty & Kienzl, 2006). Increased research has brought greater visibility to the work being done at community colleges, and has led to best practices and new policies toward increasing student success. However, despite the surge in research, there are still a number of areas and issues that have yet to be fully explored. For example, there presently exists a major gap in knowledge on the effectiveness of financial-aid programs and athletic participation on the retention of students enrolled at the community college.To further advance the theoretically-and empirically-based research on these topics, this study explored the impact of athletic participation and state and federal financial-aid programs on students' academic progression from freshmen to sophomore year. This longitudinal study used data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to examine the singular and collective effect of individual characteristics and financial aid programs-Stafford loans, Pell Grants, and the Oklahoma Higher Education Access Program (OHLAP)-on the retention of student-athletes in the state of Oklahoma.

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