ANALYSIS OF INSTITUTIONALLY SPECIFIC RETENTION RESEARCH: A Comparison Between Survey and Institutional Database Methods

This study empirically explores the comparability of traditional survey-based retention research methodology with an alternative approach that relies on data commonly available in institutional student databases. Drawing on Tinto’s Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition (2nd Ed.), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.] theory of student integration, this project utilizes an information-theoretic approach Burnham, K.P., and Anderson, D. R. (2002). Model Selection and Inference: A Practical Information-theoretical Approach (2nd ed.), Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.], in which a set of candidate models was developed using institutional integration survey variables and variables drawn from institutional student databases. An information-theoretic approach to selecting the most parsimonious logistic regression model revealed that institutional database variables out-perform the institutional integration survey scales developed by Pascarella and Terenzini Pascarella, E. T., and Terenzini, P. T. (1980). Journal of Higher Education 51(1): 60–75.] in predicting 1-year retention. This empirical support for the use of institutional database variables is valuable in conducting institution-specific retention research under constrained resources.