Why do students drop out of college before graduating?
Originally published July 22, 2007 in The (Monroe, La.) News-Star
One of the goals of the University of Louisiana System, under the leadership of Sally Clausen, is to raise the graduation rate in ULS schools to the national average by 2012.
I know that 2012 seems like a long way off but, based on time-to-degree statistics, the majority of the graduating class of 2012 started attending a college or university last fall. Two questions immediately come to mind. The first is why do students not graduate and the second is what are you doing about it at ULM?
The progression of a student from the freshman year to the sophomore year and on to graduation is called "retention" or "persistence." The literature about student retention is rich and varied. The early research, mostly conducted in the 1920s, focused on the relationship between intelligence and persistence. While that research tended to focus more on what happened and not why it happened, most studies found that the primary reason for leaving school was financial. A classic 1927 study found that just as many students with high intelligence dropped out for financial reasons as those with low intelligence.
As the model for higher education changed from educating the elite to educating the masses, especially after the introduction of the GI Bill, retention and attrition — the loss of a student from year to year — became significant issues. Starting in the 1970s, researchers began to explore sociological factors to explain the dropout and retention behavior of students.
Two landmark studies stand out during this era. Vincent Tinto of Syracuse University observed that persistence is a function of an individual's integration into the academic and social systems of the college. Simply stated, students who join social organizations, live on campus, get involved in student life, belong to academic clubs, engage in research in their major and are committed to the particular college they are attending have a better chance of graduating than those students who do not.
The second landmark finding is the 1979 study by Pascarella and Terenzini that concluded that those students persisting had more positive perceptions of their academic and non-academic lives than those students withdrawing. Persisters reported having significantly more contact with faculty members than those leaving college. The frequency and quality of student and faculty interaction inside and outside the classroom had a significant impact on the graduation rate of college students.
The next wave of studies beginning around 1980 dealt with the impact of finances on student persistence. The majority of the studies through the mid-1990s concluded that higher tuition had a slightly negative influence on persistence and the receipt of financial aid had a positive influence on persistence.
A 1992 study indicated that receiving financial aid facilitates students' interaction with other students because they do not need to secure employment. The availability of financial aid gives students more time to become integrated into the social and academic fabric of the university, which, according to Tinto, enhances student persistence and graduation. Accordingly, students who worked full time were more likely to drop out or "stop out" than those who did not work full time.
There are also a number of studies that address the retention of first-generation college students, students whose parents or siblings did not attend college. Generally, these students exhibited low coping skills. Because of the lack of familial experiences with college, small problems to second- and third-generation college students become major obstacles to retention for first-generation students.
A recent study by ACT further developed a concept called institutional commitment. Researchers note students who have a high level of confidence in and satisfaction with their institutional choice tend to have better grades. The study also confirms longer-standing theories that students who are committed to a degree upon matriculation have a higher probability of graduating than those who are not committed to a degree.
The reasons students leave college are complex and ever changing, and involve financial, sociological, psychological and background factors. Many times the reason for leaving college involves an interaction of all of these factors, and they vary based on individual student characteristics.
Some reasons for leaving college are outside the control of the institutions where students attend: a child is born, a serious illness develops, a spouse moves, or another similar situation occurs. However, an understanding of dropout and persistence behavior can and does make a difference for many students.
What institutions can do to help students graduate and what we are doing at ULM is the subject of the next column.