This research proposal aims to study factors that affect retention rates among non-traditional adult learners of African descent in higher education using a mixed methods approach. The researcher will explore personal, social, and academic factors through a concurrent quantitative and qualitative study involving surveys and interviews of 300 students at a historically black college. The study aims to determine if academic support programs relate to increased enrollment and engagement for adult male learners of African descent. Results could help advocate for support programs to increase retention and graduation rates.

1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ADULT RETENTION: A LOOK AT INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS
THAT AFFECT AND INCREASE RETENTION RATES AMONG NON-
TRADITIONAL ADULT LEARNERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
BY
CHRIS THOMAS

2. INTRODUCTION
 While to date the fastest growing population on
college campuses throughout the united states are
nontraditional students who are attending 2 and 4
year programs on a part time bases
 the retention and graduation rates of this segment
of the student body continues to plummet and
Educational institutions continue to turn a blind eye

3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
 In a not so recent longitudinal study on persistence and degree attainment,
findings have shown that nontraditional students 36 percent vs 16 percent
were twice as likely as traditional students to leave or stop-out of school in
their first year (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1995).
 In addition according to Fain (2012) 43 percent of colleges and universities
surveyed by his group stated the administration valued the money
nontraditional part time students bring in but were not at all eager to provide
programs that supported that population of the student body
 The facts are that educational institutions would collect more educational
revenue if their nontraditional learners just stuck with it, does not seem to
resonate across the lines of academia and these nontraditional students just
keep coming

4. PURPOSE STATEMENT
 The intent of this concurrent mixed methods study is to
contribute to this body of study by exploring the
personal, social and academic factors that impact the
retention and graduation rates of nontraditional male
students of African American Descent.
 My reason for combining both qualitative and
quantitative data is to better understand the research
problem of retention of nontraditional students of African
American Descent by converging both qualitative and
quantitative data thus increasing my position to
advocate for change through the design and
development of credit and noncredit based courses that
engage and increase interaction among adult male
learners of African descent.

5. THEORETICAL WORLD VIEW
 The Pragmatic worldview is derived from the works
of Peirce, James, Mead, and Dewey (Creswell,
2009).
 The pragmatic concern is with applications, what
works and solutions to problems (Creswell, 2009).
 The pragmatic researcher emphases the problem
that will be studied, and then only then, will they
use all the approaches that are available to
understand it.
 The worldviews of pragmatism believes that we are
limited only by our own imagination.

6. RESEARCH QUESTION
 Does providing academic support facilities relate to
increased academic enrollments among adult
learners of African descent?
 Does academic engagement and persistence
increase for adult male learners who have actively
responded to academic support tools?

7. HYPOTHESIS
 There is a relationship between student
engagement programs such as orientation and
learning labs and increases in retention and
graduation rates among adult males of African
descent?

8. LITERATURE REVIEW
 Nontraditional Adult learners usually arrive at their
new college or university with some credits earned
from previous colleges or through some form of
prior learning assessments or maybe even the
military (Fain 2012).
 Over the years this research has gone through
many changes, from the understanding of factors
that affect the retention rates of nontraditional
students (Tinto, 2006).
 Investing resources to prevent opting out of school
are more cost effective than applying the same
resources to more recruitment (Astin,1975).

9. METHODS AND PROCEDURES
 There are three important aspects to consider when
designing a mixed methods strategy: timing,
weighting, and mixing
 Timing: our non- sequentially concurrent mixed method
model we get all the data at once concurrently both the
quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered on site
in one visit. (Creswell, 2009).
 Weighting; we will be placing greater weight towards
qualitative analysis from interviews conducted during
the 1 week survey process.
 Mixing of the data, the research question, the
philosophy and the interpretation. The mixing of data will
occur at the data collection points.

10. RESEARCH DESIGNS
 The mixed methods approach to designing
research studies is the approach we will be using,
in this approach both quantitative and qualitative
data is gathered, the data become more than just
the collection and analysis of both data sources
separated in a vacuum.
 The Research study questions of the mixed
methods will be written as separate hypotheses and
qualitative questions and placed at the beginning of
a study and then followed up by face to face open
ended interview questions.

11. MIXED METHOD ANALYSIS
 We hope the study will show that both voluntary
internal and voluntary external academic support
interventions are contributing factors in the
retention and graduation of nontraditional adult
male learners of African descent.
 In addition we hope this study will also show that
the lack of external support that engages the
learners academically and socially in learning is a
key factor in the decision by learners to opt-out of
school.

12. TARGET POPULATION
 The participants in this study will be approximately
300 current and past male students from a HBC
(historically black college).
 The college will select the students at random from
a list of those learners who either opt-out of college,
are currently enrolled, graduated or students who
had brought with them transfer credits and opt-out
or are presently in danger of opting-out.
 an invitation to participate will be sent to them from
the academic advising office.

13. BIAS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
 Some of the Ethical considerations to be mindful of
during this study are the personal reasons the
student may have that had contributed to their lack
of engagement academically which was a factor for
them not finishing school.
 To address this we have installed features that
maintain the anonymity of the student’s names and
identifiable information.

14. REFERENCES
Astin, A. W. (1975). Preventing students from dropping
out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative,
Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. (3rd
ed.) Sage
Fain, P (2012, July 11).Where Are All the Adults? [Web
log post].Retrieved from
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/11/acc
reditor-will-require-colleges-stop-ignoring-adult-
student-retention
National Center for Education Statistics retrieved from:
http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012280.pdf