A Multilevel Approach to Assessing the Interaction Effects on College Student Retention

Abstract

The present study utilizes a multilevel approach to assess the effects of four different types of intervention on college student retention, focusing on the interaction effects between the student characteristics and the types of intervention. The program effects on a 3-year trend are also explored. The findings of the present study reveal that the social integration programs improved the first-year retention rates for female students, the advising programs and the social integration programs worked better in the first year for students from more selective colleges within the university, and the first-year experience programs had a significant lasting effect across the 3 years on retention for elder students and male students. It is also found that the advising programs were significantly more effective on the first-year retention rates than the general orientation programs. This study provides empirical evidence for researchers and administrators in higher education to improve the effectiveness of intervention programs for students with specific characteristics.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Astin

A. W.

(1975). Preventing students from dropping out. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Astin

A. W.

(1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297–308.

Astin

A. W.

(1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Astin

A. W.

(1997). How “good” is your institution's retention rate? Research in Higher Education, 38(6), 647–658.

Bean

J. P.

(1983). The application of a model of turnover in work organizations to the student attrition process. Review of Higher Education, 6, 129–148.

Berger

J. B.

(2000). Organizational behavior at colleges and student outcomes: A new perspective on college impact. Review of Higher Education, 23(2), 177–198.

Berger

J. B.

& Braxton

J. M.

(1998). Revising Tinto's interactionalist theory of student departure through theory elaboration: Examining the role of organizational attributes in the persistence process. Research in Higher Education, 39(2), 103–119.

Bowen

Price

Lloyd

& Thomas

(2005). Improving the quantity and quality of attendance data to enhance student retention. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 29(4), 375–385.

Cabrera

A. F.

Stampen

J. O.

& Hansen

W. L.

(1990). Exploring the effects of ability to pay on persistence in college. Review of Higher Education, 13, 303–336.

10.

Caison

A. L.

(2005). Determination of system retention: Implications for improving retention practice in higher education. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 6(4), 425–441.

11.

Clark

J. M.

& Halern

D. E.

(1993). The million dollar question: Can an intensive learning experience help lower-quartile students succeed in college? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 20(1), 29–39.

12.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

13.

Congos

D. H.

& Schoeps

(1997). A model for evaluating retention programs. Journal of Developmental Education, 21(2), 2–24.

14.

DeBerard

M. S.

Spielmans

G. I.

& Julka

D. L.

(2004). Predictors of academic achievement and retention among college freshmen: A longitudinal study. College Student Journal, 38(1), 66–80.

15.

Drane

Smith

Light

Pinto

& Swarat

(2005). The gateway science workshop program: Enhancing student performance and retention in the sciences through peer-facilitated discussion. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 14(3), 337–352.

16.

Elkins

Braxton

& James

(2000). Tinto's separation stage and its influence on first-semester college student persistence. Research in Higher Education, 41(2), 251–268.

17.

Ethington

C. A.

(1990). A psychological model of student persistence. Research in Higher Education, 31, 279–293.

18.

Fidler

(1991). Relationship of freshman orientation seminars to sophomore return rates. Journal of the Freshman Year Experience, 3(1), 7–38.

19.

Fincher

& Katsinas

S. G.

(2006). Executive team demography and retention: The relationship between the background of decision-makers and success in retaining students. Higher Education Policy, 19(3), 361–376.

20.

Gansemer-Topf

A. M.

& Schuh

J. H.

(2006). Institutional selectivity and institutional expenditures: Examining organizational factors that contribute to retention and graduation. Research in Higher Education, 47(6), 613–642.

21.

Glynn

J. G.

Sauer

P. L.

& Miller

T. E.

(2003). Signaling student retention with prematriculation data. NASPA Journal, 41, 41–67.

22.

Gong

(2005). Retention programs to keep students afloat. Journal of Developmental Education, 28(3), 40–41.

23.

Gravetter

F. J.

& Wallnau

L. B.

(2007). Statistics for the behavioral sciences (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

24.

Hawley

T. H.

& Harris

T. A.

(2005). Student characteristics related to persistence for first-year community college students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 7(1–2), 117–142.

25.

Hendel

D. D.

(2007). Efficacy of participating in a first-year seminar on student satisfaction and retention. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 8(4), 413–424.

26.

Johnson

J. L.

(2000). Learning communities and special efforts in the retention of university students: What works, what doesn't, and is the return worth the investment? Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 2(3), 219–238.

27.

Kalsbeek

(1987) Campus retention: The MBTI in institutional self-studies. In Provost

J. A.

& Anchors

(Eds.), Applications of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in higher education (pp. 31–64). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

28.

Kuh

G. D.

(1999). How are we doing? Tracking the quality of the undergraduate experience, 1960s to the present. The Review of Higher Education, 22, 99–119.

29.

Kuh

G. D.

(2003). What we're learning about student engagement from NSSE. Change, 35, 24–32.

30.

Longden

(2006). An institutional response to changing student expectations and their impact on retention rates. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, 28(2), 173–187.

31.

Maggio

J. C.

White

W. G.

Jr. Molstad

& Kher

(2005). Prefreshman summer programs' impact on student achievement and retention. Journal of Developmental Education, 29(2), 2–33.

32.

Mallinckrodt

& Sedlacek

W. E.

(1987). Student retention and the use of campus facilities by race. NASPA Journal, 24, 28–32.

33.

McDonald

L. R.

& Bean

L. C.

(1992) Thinking of retaining a student? Try one or more of the twenty-five alternatives to retention. Education, 112(4), 567–570.

34.

Moore

& Miller

(1996). How the use of multimedia affects student retention and learning. Journal of College Science Teaching, 25(4), 289–294.

35.

Murtaugh

P. A.

Burns

L. D.

& Schuster

(1999). Predicting the retention of university students. Research in Higher Education, 40, 355–371.

36.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). Student effort and educational progress. Retrieved May 28, 2006, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2004/section3/table.asp?tableID=61.

37.

Nora

(2001). The depiction of significant others in Tinto's “Rites of Passage”: A reconceptualization of the influence of family and community in the persistence process. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 3, 41–40.

38.

Pace

C. R.

(1980). Measuring the quality of student effort. Los Angeles, CA: Laboratory for Research in Higher Education, University of California, Los Angeles.

39.

Parker

J. D. A.

Hogan

M. J.

Eastabrook

J. M.

Oke

& Wood

L. M.

(2006). Emotional intelligence and student retention: Predicting the successful transition from high school to university. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(7), 1329–1336.

40.

Pascarella

(1980). Student-faculty informal contact and college outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 50, 545–595.

41.

Pascarella

& Chapman

(1983). A multi-institutional, path analytic validation of Tinto's model of college withdrawal. American Educational Research Journal, 20, 87–102.

42.

Paulsen

M. B.

& St. John

E. P.

(1997). The financial nexus between college choice and persistence. In Voorhees

R. A.

(Ed.), Researching student aid: Creating an action agenda (New Directions for Institutional Research No. 95, pp. 65–82). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

43.

Paulsen

M. B.

& St. John

E. P.

(2002). Social class and college costs: Examining the financial nexus between college choice and persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 73(2), 189–236.

44.

Porter

O. F.

(1990). Undergraduate completion and persistence at four-year colleges and universities: Detailed findings. Washington, DC: National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities.

45.

Raudenbush

S. W.

& Bryk

A. S.

(2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

46.

Raymondo

J. C.

(2003). The effects of an abbreviated freshman year seminar program on student retention and student academic performance. Research for Educational Reform, 8(2), 46–55.

47.

Seidman

(2005). Where we go from here. In Seidman

(Ed.), College student retention: Formula for student success (pp. 295–316). Westport, CT: Praeger.

48.

Shanley

M. G.

& Witten

C. H.

(1990). University 101 freshman seminar course: A longitudinal study of persistence retention, and graduation rates. NASPA Journal, 27(4), 344–352.

49.

St. John

E. P.

(1990). Price response in persistence decisions: An analysis of the high school and beyond senior cohort. Research in Higher Education 31(4), 387–403.

50.

St. John

E. P.

Paulsen

M. B.

& Starkey

J. B.

(1996). The nexus between college choice and persistence. Research in Higher Education, 37(2), 175–220.

51.

Tinto

(1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45, 89–125.

52.

Tinto

(1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

53.

Tinto

(1988). Stages of student departure: Reflections on the longitudinal character of student leaving. Journal of Higher Education, 59(4), 438–455.

54.

Tinto

(1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

55.

Tinto

(2005). Moving from theory to action. In Seidman

(Ed.), College student retention: Formula for student success (pp. 317–333). Westport, CT: Praeger.

56.

Tinto

(2006a, January). The assessment of student retention programs. Paper presented at the Faculty Convocation 2006, Phoenix, AZ. Retrieved September 14, 2007, from http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/fsd/c2006/docs/assessingretention.pdf.

57.

Tinto

(2006b). Research and practice of student retention: What next? Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 8(1), 1–19.

58.

Tinto

Russo

& Kadel

(1994). Constructing educational communities: Increasing retention in challenging circumstances. Community College Journal, 64, 26–30.

59.

Titus

M. A.

(2004). An examination of the influence of institutional context on student persistence at 4-year colleges and universities: A multilevel approach. Research in Higher Education, 45(7), 673–699.

60.

Tymms

Merrell

& Henderson

(1997). The first year at school: A quantitative investigation of the attainment and progress of pupils. Educational Research and Evaluation, 3, 101–118.

61.

Upcraft

Gardner

& Barefoot

(Eds.). (2005). Challenge and support: Creating climates for first-year student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

62.

Voorhees

R. A.

(1985). Student finances and campus-based financial aid: A structural model analysis of the persistence of high need freshmen. Research in Higher Education, 22(1), 65–92.

63.

Wang

& Grimes

J. W.

(2000). A systematic approach to assessing retention programs: Identifying critical points for meaningful interventions and validating outcomes assessment. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 2(1), 59–68.

64.

Wild

& Ebbers

(2002). Rethinking student retention in community colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 26(6), 503–519.

65.

Wilkie

& Kuckuck

(1989). A longitudinal study of the effects of a freshman seminar. Journal of the Freshman Year Experience, 1(1), 7–16.

66.

Zepke

Leach

& Prebble

(2006). Being learner centered: One way to improve student retention? Studies in Higher Education, 31(5), 587–600.