Minority student retention program: Student Achievement and Success Program at Anne Arundel Community College

The purpose of this study was to examine the academic performance and retention rates of minority, first-generation, and low-income students at a metropolitan community college. The academic success measurements used in the study were overall Grade Point Average, total credits earned, and fall-to-fall retention rates. The study tried to increase the understanding of how the academic achievement for the high-risk community college students was influenced through the participation in a structured developmental retention program called the Student Achievement and Success Program. The performance of these students was measured against three other student cohorts (Summer Bridge, SASP Eligible, and Not SASP Eligible) during the course of four academic years.;This study used a comparative study design to gain a better understanding of how the community college students in the "SASP" cohort and "Summer Bridge" cohort who took full advantage of the college-wide retention tools compared academically to the "SASP Eligible" and "Not SASP Eligible" cohorts who chose not to use the retention tools.;The final analysis of the study substantiates the findings in current literature as it relates to the academic performance of high-risk minority, first-generation, and low-income community college students. The "Not SASP Eligible" students performed better than all the other three cohorts when comparing the three academic performance measurements. (Grade Point Average, credits earned, and fall-to-fall retention) However, this study concluded that the high-risk students who participated in the "SASP" cohort performed almost as well as the "Not SASP Eligible" cohort students. The most surprising conclusion of the study was the "Summer Bridge" cohort. These students didn't achieve at the level, as current research would predict; however, these students did perform better than the students who were "SASP Eligible" but chose not to join SASP.