Term of Award

Spring 2017

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

Teri Denlea Melton

Committee Member 1

Saba Jallow

Committee Member 2

Meca Williams-Johnson

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Complete College Georgia (CCG) is an initiative that has the University System of Georgia institutions strategizing ways to develop plans that will increase the number of college graduates by the year 2020. Governor Nathan Deal has indicated that graduation rates need to increase from 42% to 60% within the next 7 years. With the anticipation of approximately 20% more students graduating to meet the 250,000 target, a closer look is needed at how an additional 50,000 graduates can be produced to make this goal a reality. To fulfill this goal, there needs to be an increase of approximately 7,143 graduates each year for the next few years. This means approximately a 3% increase in students graduating each year. Under the paradigm of retention, progression, and graduation (RPG) and CCG, this descriptive research study used a questionnaire to collect data from academic advisors regarding how they plan to approach the mandate in an effort to support Governor Deal’s plan to increase the graduation rate in the state of Georgia. The findings of the study indicate that both faculty and professional academic advisors support that there are two key elements which are strong factors in obtaining RPG. One is when students come to college academically prepared to do college work and the other is having an intrinsic motivation to learn. Collectively, advisors recommend a stronger high school curriculum that will produce scholarly students. Equally divided were results on funding, revealing 50% colleges from the state should be based on enrollment while the other 50% indicate funding should be based on the number of graduates an institution has per term (performance-base). Finally, this study gave academic advisors a voice. The disconnect between policy makers and implementers of the policies is palpable. Academic advisors are valuable and significant in fulfilling the RPG and CCG initiatives.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

Yes

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