Student adjustment

The growing Haitian population in the United States is directly affecting all
institutions of higher education As institutions continue to diversify across the
country, HBCUs are also responding to this trend According to Ricard and
Brown (2008), HBCUs are changing in order to keep up with the growing demand
of institutional diversity, and they recognize that having a diversified student body
will make the institutions more competitive
Although their historic mission focuses on educating Black students, there
remains a gap in the literature on HBCUs on one of the largest Black groups in
the United States: the Haitian immigrant In the literature, the Haitian population
constitutes approximately 15% of the total US foreign-born population, and
15% of the total Black immigrant population in the US, behind Jamaicans at
18%, respectively Moreover, Haitians make up the fourth largest immigrant population from the Caribbean behind Cubans, Dominicans, and Jamaicans
(Anderson, 2015) However, these numbers do not include the hundreds of
thousands of Haitians who fled the Country after the devastating earthquake of
2010 nor the thousands of undocumented Haitian immigrants currently living in
the US
This qualitative phenomenological study sought to explore the college
choice process of ten Haitian students who chose to attend a highly selective
HBCU located in the Northeast region of the United States Moreover, this study
sought to explore how these ten Haitian students developed a sense of
belonging to the HBCU campus The primary methods for data collection
included semi-structured one-on-one interviews, a demographic questionnaire,
and artifact analysis Using the theoretical frameworks of Chapman’s (1981)
Model of College Choice and Sense of Belonging, this study discovered the
factors that influence Haitian students’ decision to attend a highly selective
HBCU centers around family Moreover, this study discovered that Haitian
students at a highly selective HBCU described their sense of belonging through
various forms of relationships

Given the diverse and substantial developmental outcomes associated with low peer acceptance, it is important to research its potential predictors. However, the developmental antecedents are not likely restricted to simple, one-lagged links within the same domain. Rather, peer status may stem from a developmental sequence of effects across several domains, particularly across those that develop at the same time and in the same environment as peer status. A developmental cascade model is best used to capture sequential changes over time, across multiple domains, and during sensitive periods of development Academic motivation and achievement likely exemplify predictors that would affect peer status sequentially over time during the early primary school years. This study examined the developmental cascade of task avoidance, academic achievement, and peer acceptance using a sample of 545 (311 boys, 234 girls) Finnish students in the 1st through 4th grade (M = 7.67, SD = 0.31 years old at the outset).

This study measured the impact of a gender-specific school counseling curriculum,
“Girl Talk” on: relational aggressive behaviors, pro-social behaviors, student
connectedness, cohesiveness, and social self-efficacy. The “Girl Talk” program consists
of five sessions and was delivered as part of a comprehensive school counseling program. Fifth grade girls in four elementary schools (N=151) from one large, Southeastern school district participated in the study. Girls at two elementary schools received the “Girl Talk” program (treatment group; n=85) and their peer counterparts (comparison group; n=66) at the two remaining schools received their regular school counseling program. A series analysis of variance and an analysis of covariance test, using an alpha level of .05, was conducted to determine if statistically significant differences existed between participants' posttest scores by group condition on the Peer Relations Questionnaire (Rigby & Slee, 1993b), My Class Inventory–Short Form Revised (Sink & Spencer, 2005), the Peers and Friends subscales of the Hemingway Measure of Pre-Adolescent Connectedness (Karcher, 2005), and the Social self-efficacy subscale of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Muris, 2001). Statistically significant differences were found in the areas of relational aggressive behaviors, pro-social behaviors, student connectedness, cohesiveness, and social self-efficacy. Partial eta square effect sizes were reported for each measure. The results support the positive impact that school counselors can have when using a systemic, gender-specific classroom guidance curriculum for reducing relational aggression among pre-adolescent girls.

This study compared three groups of ninth grade students in a selected high school in South Florida. The three groups were ninth grade students who attended Blanche Ely High School in Broward County, Florida during the 1999--2001 school years. The first program is the Ninth Grade Learning Community Academy or LCA. This program was housed on the north campus of Broward Community College. The second program is the Environmental Science Technology Program or ESTP. This program parallels the LCA program, but was housed on the main campus of Blanche Ely High School. The third group was randomly selected from ninth grade students who attended Blanche Ely High School's main campus. This random sample served as the control group. Factors that were associated with academic success such as low socio-economic status, an urban community, and ethnicity were represented equally in all groups. Special education students and those students who were classified as limited language proficiency were eliminated from this study. The purpose of this study was to determine which school environment had the most positive impact on eighth graders transitioning into the ninth grade as determined by GPA, attendance, and school climate. The significance of this research was generated by the fact that 38.2 percent of Broward County ninth graders failed to achieve a 2.0 GPA during the 1997--98 school year. The primary means of data collection for this study was through (a) transcript evaluation using grade point averages, (b) attendance records and (c) school climate survey attitudes. The data collected covered August, 1999 through February, 2001. The School Board of Broward County, Florida may determine through this study which environment was most beneficial to increasing student achievement, attendance, and school climate at the ninth grade level. There are currently 23 high schools in Broward County. Each high school enrolls approximately 800 to 1000 rising ninth graders each year and the number is growing (Broward Schools, 1999). The goal of the School Board of Broward County, Florida is to increase student achievement at all levels. By creating alternatives to the large traditional high school environment, students at the ninth grade level might be more successful in their academic pursuits thus raising the standards of excellence in the county.