A psychological model of student persistence

The present study examines the validity of the Eccles model of achievement behaviors (model of academic choice) for its predictive validity when the outcome (behavior) is student persistence in the postsecondary educational system to completion of at least the baccalaureate degree. Patterns of effects hypothesized by the theoretical model were only partially supported by the results forthcoming from the estimation of the model. Of the two constructs hypothesized to directly influence persistence—the value placed on college attendance and expectations for success in college—only value had significant influence. Two measures of goal orientations—business/financial and humanitarian/social—exerted indirect influence as hypothesized, but level of degree aspirations had as strong a direct influence on persistence as did value. Prior achievement had the strongest total effects of any of the variables in the model.     

BOOK REVIEW

This study examined whether community college students of differing ethnic backgrounds report differential perceptions of growth and development as a function of their community college experience. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted on survey data from the Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire (J. Friedlander, C. R. Pace, &; P. W. Lehman, 1990). A national sample of 15,263 community college students was used. The ethnic groups under investigation were African‐American, Hispanic, White, and Asian. Tukey‐Kramer tests revealed several statistically significant differences among ethnic groups. However, effect size and omega square analyses suggest that these differences were small in magnitude.     

Sex differences in quantitative and analytical GRE performance: An exploratory study

The exploratory data analysis method of median polishing was used in this study to examine patterns of differences in male and female performance on the Graduate Record Examination quantitative and analytical tests. Consistent with results of previous studies using a younger cohort of students, males were found overall to outperform females on the quantitative measure but not on the analytical measure. However, this pattern was found not to be consistent across all undergraduate majors. Women in the engineering and physical science majors were found to perform higher on both measures than would be expected.     

The Mediating Effects of Student Engagement on the Relationships Between Academic Disciplines and Learning Outcomes: An Extension of Holland’s Theory

This research examined the relationships among students?? academic majors, levels of engagement, and learning outcomes within the context of Holland??s person?Cenvironment theory of vocational and educational behavior. The study focused on the role of student engagement as a mediating agent in the relationships between academic majors and student learning. Drawing on data from a stratified random sample of 20,000 seniors who participated in the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement, results revealed that students?? academic majors were significantly related to levels of engagement and learning outcomes. Student engagement was also significantly related to learning outcomes. Students?? academic majors generally were not indirectly related to learning outcomes through levels of engagement. An important exception to this result was found for students in Enterprising environments where indirect relationships among Enterprising disciplines and Enterprising learning outcomes were positive, statistically significant, and substantially larger than the direct relationship.     

Persistence to graduate education

This paper examines the process by which students arrive in graduate school by estimating a causal model incorporating measures of socioeconomic background and undergraduate institutional characteristics and experiences. The student's background was found to influence strongly the initial choice of undergraduate institution, but the direct impact of background became nonsignificant as the student progressed through the educational process. However, background variables do affect decisions to enroll in graduate school, although indirectly, through intervening variables. Primary direct influences on graduate school attendance were found from variables associated with the undergraduate experience. Although both academic and social integration are significant for men and women, academic integration has greater influence for men, whereas for women, social integration has a slightly larger effect.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, April, 1985.     

Long-term persistence of two-year college students

This paper employs a theoretical model to explain the long-term persistence of students who began their postsecondary education in two-year institutions. The model was estimated on a national sample of 825 students who initially enrolled in 85 two-year institutions in the fall of 1971, and who were followed over a nine-year period. Although there were differences in the factors associated with persistence for men and women, the results tend to confirm the importance of person-environment fit as a salient influence on degree persistence and completion in postsecondary education. Measures of academic and social integration had the most consistent pattern of positive direct effects, and much of the influence of student precollege traits was indirect.     

Influences on women's entry into male-dominated occupations

This article focuses on women's entry into male-dominated occupations in the United States. It looks at the impact of Title IX and related legislation which opened access to colleges and universities to women and examines the effects of initial or pre-enrollment student characteristics, organizational attributes of the college of university, student performance and experiences in higher education and the attributes of employing organizations on women's entry into male-dominated occupations. The article concludes with a model for measuring the relative influence of each.     

Institutional and departmental satisfaction of women faculty

Using the exploratory data analysis method of median polishing, this study examined the institutional and departmental satisfaction of women who relatively recently entered the academic profession. Results indicated that women's satisfaction with both department and institution differed by institutional type (Carnegie classifications) and discipline type (pure versus applied). Women in applied fields in Research II and Doctoral-Granting II institutions were much less satisfied with both their departments and their institutions than would be expected given their institutional and discipline types. Similarly, the institutional satisfaction of those women at Research I institutions and the departmental satisfaction of women in pure fields at Doctoral-Granting I's was lower than would be expected. Higher levels of departmental satisfaction were shown by women in pure fields at Liberal Arts I institutions.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, St. Louis, November 1988.     

SELF-REPORTED BELIEFS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS REGARDING THEIR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: ETHNIC AND ENROLLMENT STATUS DIFFERENCES

This study examined whether community college students of differing ethnic backgrounds and enrollment status differed in their perceptions of their growth and development gains as a function of their college experience. The sample consisted of four ethnic groups intending to transfer to four-year institutions. Four gain scales were created to operationalize the student's perceptions of gains. The multivariate test for the interaction of ethnic group and enrollment status was nonsignificant; differences in perceived growth among ethnic groups did not depend on their enrollment status. Significant main effects were found in differences among ethnic groups and between full-time and part-time students.     

An Examination of Pace's Model of Student Development and College Impress

ABSTRACT

For 8 years Washington State has operated a performance funding policy, the Student Achievement Initiative (SAI). The policy allocates appropriations to the state’s 34 community and technical colleges based on points earned through student achievement of college-readiness, retention, and completion milestones. Grounded in a conceptual framework of principal-agent theory, this study explored one community college case to examine knowledge of, perspectives on, and responses to the SAI. Through semi-structured interviews with seven faculty, administrators, and staff, combined with document analysis, five themes emerged: information transmission, initiating the initiative, the point of the point, consequences of imperfect data, and faculty skepticism. This study concludes with implications and recommendations for practice and policy.