The CONSORTIUM for STUDENT RETENTION DATA EXCHANGE
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The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA

An Easy, Cost-Effective Way To Remain Current With Student Success


Twelve presentations are selected from the top rated sessions at our National Symposium on Student Retention each year for live presentation as webinars.

All webinars take place from 1:00 – 2:00 pm Central Time on the designated date, during which time participants may ask questions and provide feedback. An unlimited number of colleagues from the registrant’s institution may attend. CSRDE members and non-members are invited to participate. Each registration includes 5 weeks of access to the recorded podcast.

"We have found the CSRDE webinars to be an essential value-added component of our membership. The menu of award-winning presentations by colleagues who have “walked the walk” makes this option a convenient, efficient, and economical way to maintain both currency and contacts in our field. This webinar platform provides easy scheduling along with - yet another featured bonus! - options to share within our organizations. The level of coordination and support of these programs from the CSRDE staff/team is always amazing, always professional."
John Rollins, Director, Academic Performance Studies
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Webinar Cost
  • CSRDE members:
    One to six webinars are included with membership, depending on level
  • Add'l webinars for members:
    $129 each
    $79 each for blocks of 3 or more
  • Non-CSRDE members:
    $229 each

2008 - 2009 Webinar Series

Emily Shaw, The College Board

Krista Mattern, The College Board

This presentation will discuss two recent studies related to the validity of the SAT for predicting FYGPA as well as differential validity and prediction of the SAT by gender, race/ethnicity, and best language subgroups. The results showed that the changes made to the SAT did not substantially change how well the revised test predicts first-year college performance. Across all institutions, the recently added Writing section was the most highly predictive of the three individual SAT sections. As expected, the best combination of predictors of FYGPA was high school grade point average and SAT scores. There were similar patterns of differential validity and prediction by gender, race/ethnicity, and best language subgroups on the revised SAT as compared with previous research on older versions of the test. The correlations between SAT scores and FYGPA were smaller for African American and Hispanic students as compared to white students and slightly higher for females than for males. As for differential prediction, FYGPA was over-predicted for minority students but under-predicted for female students.

Jaclyn Cameron, DePaul University

Obtaining an affordable education is challenging for students because of increasing tuition and cost of living. Recently, the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (2006) estimated that up to 2.4 million low-to middle-income students would not obtain degrees due to financial barriers. The aim of the current project was to provide support for possible discussions about interventions, techniques, and programs to reduce instances of student drop-out due to financial burdens. The investigation started with students who had received a financial block from the university. Comparative analyses show large differences between financially blocked and non-blocked student demographics and retention. Blocked students in both samples tended to be urban, minority, part-time, and/or transfer students and had a lower rate of retention. The analysis then looked at seniors and focused on those in good academic standing who had failed to re-enroll after receiving a financial block from the university. A sub-sample of the senior students also was further investigated to discover if students were exhausting their financial aid limits. The discussion focuses on potential effects of financial aid on persistence and degree completion.

Angela Byars-Winston, University of Wisconsin

This Webinar will present data from Year 1 of a theoretically-driven longitudinal study of African American, Latino/a, and underrepresented Asian American (e.g., southeast Asian) undergraduate STEM (i.e., engineering and biological/life science) students at a major research university. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; 2000), this research, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, examined the academic and career development experiences of targeted minority STEM students along with the influence of ethnic identity factors and perceptions of campus climate on their academic persistence. Unique findings emerged from the survey data regarding predictors of STEM interest formation and intentions to remain in STEM majors. Theoretical implications for understanding STEM retention, particularly for targeted students, and practical implications for interventions at multiple institutional levels will be considered.

Charles Harrington, University of North Carolina-Pembroke

Billie Hunt, University of North Carolina-Pembroke

One important factor gaining attention in the retention literature involves consideration of the impact of increased utilization of part-time faculty and the degree to which this utilization impacts student retention. Are part-time faculty having an adverse impact on student retention, namely during the first year? Are colleges and universities recognizing and studying potential issues that may arise when incoming freshmen students are exposed to part-time instruction? This webinar will examine the results of current literature on the topic and provides suggestions on how institutions should approach this pervasive issue.

Julie Noble, ACT, Inc.

Justine Radunzel, ACT, Inc.

The National Governor’s Association and the Commission on the Future of Higher Education advocate increased curricular alignment between postsecondary institutions and secondary schools to increase student readiness for college-level work. With increased alignment, students are more likely to be ready for college. If students are ready for college, dropout rates and the costs of remediation are reduced and more students persist and graduate from college. Using data for 200,000 students from over 100 institutions (including over 30 CSRDE institutions) we examine four longitudinal college outcomes: annual retention, annual cumulative GPA, progress to degree (earned credit hours), and degree completion. Five sets of college readiness indicators are used as predictors, alone and in combination: high school mathematics and science coursework taken, high school GPA, taking/not taking the ACT-recommended core curriculum (four years of English and three years each of math, social studies, and science), and meeting the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks. College outcomes are also examined by race/ethnicity, gender, and family income. Multiple statistical methods are used, including hierarchical modeling, discrete-time survival analysis, and descriptive analyses. Results are disaggregated for two-year and four-year institutions; separate aggregate results based on data from CSRDE participants are also presented. This presentation concludes with a discussion of the importance of college readiness, its implications for college success, and the use of readiness indicators and alternative statistical methods to identify students at risk for dropping out.

David Rehm, Mount St. Mary''s University

Mount St. Mary’s University (Emmitsburg, Maryland) has developed a comprehensive approach to address issues of student persistence. A significant part of this approach involves an “at-risk” group which meets regularly and tracks student performance within and across semesters. This group provides a number of levels of intervention available to every student and depends significantly on the strength of our Freshman Seminar program and our Learning Services Office. Our approach to retention is ‘catholic’ because it involves every area of the community and it demonstrates concern for every aspect of our students. In short, this support is ‘catholic’ because it demonstrates awareness of and concern for the whole person in the context of community.

Ronald Huesman, University of Minnesota

Tony Brown, University of Minnesota

Giljae Lee, University of Minnesota

John Kellogg, University of Minnesota

Peter Radcliffe, University of Minnesota

This presentation will focus on the main goal of our study which was to examine the relationship of student use of campus recreation facilities (CRF), persistence, and graduation rates at a large, public, Midwestern Carnegie Doctoral-extensive university. Tinto’s theory of student departure provides the conceptual framework and an extensive review of the literature on the relationship between academic performance and recreation facility use identified a set of critical explanatory variables. Although anecdotal evidence and studies of student perceptions support the contention that use of recreation facilities promotes social integration, thereby increasing the likelihood of persistence, few studies have employed actual CRF visit counts to quantify use. Since fall 2001, visit count data have been systematically collected each time a student visited a CRF. The linking of visitation data tied to unit record level student data is a unique component of this study. Maximum likelihood estimated models were used to identify which factors were related to persistence, and graduation for fall 2001 entering freshmen.

Sharon Aiken-Wisniewski, University of Utah

The University of Utah is a large, urban research extensive university with a headcount enrollment of over 28,000 students, with almost 23,000 undergraduates. However, the majority of enrolled undergraduates enter the university as transfer students, and the number is growing. In 2002-2003 the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs organized the first-ever Undergraduate Transfer Student Task Force and charged it with examining “issues relating to transfer student success, and to advise the Senior Vice President on ‘best practice’ pertaining [specifically] to the retention of new undergraduate transfer students.” This presentation will detail the establishment and activities of the University of Utah Transfer Center and the subsequent increases in new undergraduate transfer student retention that have taken place since the Center’s inception.

Elizabeth Herr, Noel-Levitz

Tim Culver, Noel-Levitz

In 2006 over 97,000 students responded to the College Student Inventory.TM This report reveals the attitudes and motivations of first-year students nationally at the beginning of their undergraduate experience. Over 95 percent of first-year students bring with them a strong desire to complete their education when they first arrive at college, yet only half of them are likely to accomplish their goal. Additionally, students differ strongly in their attitudes and motivations by age, race, and gender. This paper will focus on the general results revealed in the survey and highlight differences between men and women, different ethnic groups, and non-traditional students.

Patti Beck, Dakota State University

Keith Bundy, Dakota State University

Isn’t the time to intervene with struggling students at a point before it’s too late for them to save the class? Getting these students “on our radar screen” early, and providing them with information and encouragement at the time the problems occur can make the difference! This session will describe a web-based student referral system developed at Dakota State University, and used by our instructors, academic advisors, and staff to identify students encountering barriers to their academic success. The capabilities of the on-line system for instructors, academic advisors, and program administrators will be demonstrated, along with a description of our process, including information regarding interventions attempted, academic tools provided to students, and outcomes we’ve observed.

Michael Cogan, University of St. Thomas

This study explored the outcome of academically dismissed students reinstated the semester following academic dismissal at a medium-size Midwestern University. Logistic regression was utilized to identify predictors that may be utilized to assist academic administrators in making decisions regarding future reinstatement activities. The overall model correctly classified 73.7 percent of the subjects in the sample. In addition, a combination of six factors accounted for 32.5 percent of the total variance in academic status; however, 19.2 percent of the variance was accounted for by a single factor (term of dismissal quality point status). These results indicate the need for careful consideration regarding this little known measure available to higher education academic administrators. This model should be considered for replication by institutions to identify factors affecting student success.

Vivia Fowler, Wesleyan College

Christy Henry, Wesleyan College

Melanie Doherty, Wesleyan College

Peer tutoring and mentoring are effective—and cost-effective—means of providing academic instruction and intervention for students who need motivation and assistance with study skills, writing, and individual coursework. But how can we select and train the best students for these important roles? And how can we keep up with their schedules and appointments for the purpose of organization, efficiency and assessment? What are the most successful means of convincing students that their services are helpful? And how can we compensate and appreciate the work they do? This session will begin with a presentation by the Director of the Academic Center and the Dean of Wesleyan College, describing peer tutoring and mentoring initiatives at a small, liberal arts women’s college.

Register

CSRDE institutional members sign up for webinars using their membership registration forms. The number of webinars depends on the level of membership. If your institution is a CSRDE member and you would like to participate in a webinar, email csrde@ou.edu and we will put you in contact with the CSRDE representative on your campus. If you are an individual member, your membership includes one webinar. If neither you nor your institution are CSRDE members, you may use this form to register for a webinar.

If you are interested in purchasing podcasts from previous years’ presentations, please review the information using the dropdown box above for each year.

Accessing the Webinar

For each webinar, CSRDE will send the following emails:

  1. One to two weeks before webinar – Confirmation of your registration plus instructions to test your computer for compatibility. You may test your system now.
  2. One day before webinar – Login information and instructions for accessing the webinar
  3. Registrants will have five weeks in which to access and review the podcast and share the link with other colleagues at your institution.
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The Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange at the University of Oklahoma is a consortium of two-year and four-year institutions dedicated to achieving the highest levels of student success through collaboratively sharing data, knowledge, and innovation.