Graduation hazards and surviving college: a descriptive study of the longitudinal nature of low-income, first generation, and minority student enrollment and graduation
Date
2012
Authors
Novak, Heather, author
Most, David, advisor
De Miranda, Michael, committee member
Lacy, Michael, committee member
Thayer, Paul, committee member
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Abstract
There are ambitious institutional and national goals that aspire to improve the six year graduation rate for undergraduate students. An important element of increasing the overall rate lies in decreasing the educational attainment gaps for low-income, first generation, and other historically underserved students. Comprehensive theoretical approaches to student success show that campuses have the opportunity to influence these achievement gaps with intentional and integrated programming and policy; however, the first step of initiating campus changes is to understand how the longitudinal nature of enrollment varies for demographically different students. This study utilizes a competing risk event history analysis on six cohorts of Colorado State University (CSU) fall-start freshmen over eight academic years in order to describe their dropout and graduation trajectories across a variety of demographic and academic preparation variables. Results indicate that all students have the highest hazard of graduation at year five and the greatest dropout hazard at year one; however, the shapes of these hazards are different based on a student's demographic characteristics. Students with high risk characteristics have much lower graduation hazards after year five and much higher dropout hazards after year one when compared to their low risk peers. Thus, findings from this analysis indicate that high risk students at CSU need to be directed on educational paths that keep them on track to graduate in five years and that these students may also need continued retention support during their second and third years.
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Subject
event history analysis
student success