first year programs

This study employed propensity score matching and regression analysis to determine whether or not a retention scholarship pilot program at a mid-size public research university was effective at increasing first year retention.

Scholarships as a Retention Tool

This study employed propensity score matching and regression analysis to determine whether or not a retention scholarship pilot …

Access to College Excellence (ACE) at UHM provides a series of first year programs that serve approximately 25% of incoming freshmen a year. A major ACE program is Learning Communities, in which ACE staff helps students to register a collection of courses in a cluster (e.g., general education, pre-business) and an Access to College Community freshman seminar course: CAS 110. All the students who registered for the courses in one cluster form a cohort—a learning community. CAS 110 enhances the community by helping students reaching the following learning outcomes: (1) building effective study and time management skills; (2) setting goals for success; (3) learning about the academic resources available; (4) learning core and major graduation requirements at UHM. This poster introduces the ACE learning communities and how it assesses the outcomes by using a pre- and post-survey method. The poster will present quantitative results from the closed-ended questions and qualitative results from the open-ended questions. The presenter will also present the impact of ACE Learning Communities by comparing the retention rates between the participants and non-participants, and between the less-engaged and more-engaged participants.

Learning Through Community: Best Practices and Assessment

Access to College Excellence (ACE) at UHM provides a series of first year programs that serve approximately 25% …

Access to College Excellence (ACE) at UHM provides a series of first year programs that serve approximately 25% of incoming freshmen a year. A major ACE program is Learning Communities, in which ACE staff helps students to register a collection of courses in a cluster (e.g., general education, pre-business) and an Access to College Community freshman seminar course: CAS 110. All the students who registered for the courses in one cluster form a cohort—a learning community. CAS 110 enhances the community by helping students reaching the following learning outcomes: (1) building effective study and time management skills; (2) setting goals for success; (3) learning about the academic resources available; (4) learning core and major graduation requirements at UHM. This poster introduces the ACE learning communities and how it assesses the outcomes by using a pre- and post-survey method. The poster will present quantitative results from the closed-ended questions and qualitative results from the open-ended questions. The presenter will also present the impact of ACE Learning Communities by comparing the retention rates between the participants and non-participants, and between the less-engaged and more-engaged participants.

Assessment of ACE Learning Communities 2013

Access to College Excellence (ACE) at UHM provides a series of first year programs that serve approximately 25% …

From fall 2007 to spring 2009, the UH Writing Mentors Program has reached approximately 1,300 students across 70 sections of English 100. Writing Mentors, who are graduate students in English, attend class and hold individual writing conferences with all students outside of class. For many first-year students, these mentors are the only university representative who learns their name, background, interests, academic goals, challenges in transitioning to college, and strengths and weaknesses as a writer. The initiative has received rankings of “satisfied” or “very satisfied” from 89% of students, 94% of mentors, and 98% of instructors; furthermore 85% of first-year students surveyed claimed that their mentor helped them in their transition to college. Program administrators have engaged in multiple forms of assessment including the following: a large-scale scoring of first-year student writing that demonstrated mentored students out-performing their non-mentored counterparts in statistically significantly ways in the categories of content, organization, language & style, and meta-cognition/ reflective ability; standardized logs tracking every mentor-student conference; analysis of longitudinal data on how mentored versus non-mentored students perform as writers and students post-English 100; interviews with focus groups of mentors, students, and instructors; and written end-of-semester evaluations from all participants. Our poster will summarize key results of these assessment activities and highlight the ways in which they have led to a) programmatic improvements each semester; b) peer-reviewed publications in the fields of Composition Studies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), each of which underscore the role of mentoring in student retention; c) arguments for continued funding.

Increasing First-Year Students’ (Writing) Success: An Assessment of the UH Writing Mentors Program

From fall 2007 to spring 2009, the UH Writing Mentors Program has reached approximately 1,300 students across 70 …

First-Year Programs (FYP) utilizes multiple approaches to assess student learning outcomes and program success. Institutional data are used to measure retention rates for students participating in Access to College Excellence Learning Communities (ACE); National Student Clearing House (NSCH) data are gathered to measure student transfer rates. Qualitative data and feedback is collected through focus groups and surveys. In addition, ACE students complete two surveys measuring student expectations, engagement, and institutional commitment. Fall 2007 student engagement survey results indicate ACE students felt significantly more informed about core graduation requirements, major requirements, and registration procedures. Students also felt significantly more connected to the university community. NSCH data indicates that a large proportion of ACE students that did not continue at UHM transferred to other institutions after their first year. FYP will expand its evaluation by collecting Drop-Failure-Withdraw (DFW) rates for classes offered as part of an ACE learning community.

First-Year Success: Evaluating a Peer-Led Learning Community Program

First-Year Programs (FYP) utilizes multiple approaches to assess student learning outcomes and program success. Institutional data are used …