A critical step in achieving these goals is to increase the retention rate of first-time students. First-generation students are also more likely to drop out of college in their first year than their counterparts (Ishitani. This study contributes to the literature on first-year student retention and persistence in several important ways.
The target population to which the findings of the quantitative analysis are applicable are all first-year students at CSUEB. Specifically, we conducted t-tests to examine differences between students who dropped out of Year 1 and those who continued to Year 2. This relationship between college grade point average and total units gained strength from the fall quarter to at the end of the first year.
Also, SAT scores are correlated with units earned, although the strength of this correlation decreases from fall quarter through the end of freshman year. The mean differences between these groups remain fairly constant from fall quarter GPA to cumulative GPA at the end of freshman year. The difference between these groups increases between the fall quarter and the total number of units earned during the first year.
To further explore this question, an additional model (Model 3 in Table 9 ) was run with first-year cumulative academic performance. Factors predicting first-year student dropout were identified, and ten students who had these risk characteristics were surveyed. These factors give students more confidence, which leads to persistence in their first year of college.
Students at CSUEB who persist through the second year earn more courses and achieve higher GPAs each quarter than students who drop out at the end of the first year. Despite its limitations, this study contributes to the literature on college freshman retention and persistence in several important ways. The findings demonstrate the importance of support mechanisms – both academic and social – in supporting integration into university, validating students' experiences and promoting persistence in the first year.
Expand Academic Advising Services
Based on the findings of this study, we offer the following recommendations to CSUEB for improving the retention rate of first-time, first-year students. These recommendations answer the third and final research question of our study: What interventions does the literature suggest that California State University, East Bay can implement to increase first-year student retention rates. In Tinto's (1993) interactive theory of student retention, academic advising is considered a key tool for fostering academic and social integration in an institution, thereby positively influencing students.
Academic advising is “a way to connect students to campus and help them feel that someone is looking out for them” (Kuh et al., 2005, p. 214). Additionally, Bean and Eaton (2002) argue in their psychological theory of student retention that academic advising is essential to student success because good academic advising "links a student's academic abilities to his or her choice of courses and majors, access to learning resources, and the belief that the academic path a student is traveling will lead to employment after college. Academic advising has also been found to have a positive impact on student retention in college (Crockett, 1985; Habley, 1981 ; Habley & McClanahan, 2004; Swecker, Fifolt, & Searby, 2013).
Additionally, a study of first-time full-time news students at a large urban public research university found that students who used academic advising had higher first- and second-semester grade point averages and first-year cumulative grades compared to those who did not. GPAs (Kot, 2014). However, other studies found no effect of academic advising on persistence, although these studies suffered from small sample sizes and lack of student participation in advising. The student services literature supports the conclusion that the most effective interventions are those that “combine multiple support services or other components,” such as a first-year seminar plus peer counseling, tutoring, and shared residences (Mayhew et al., 2016). , page 389; Noble, Flynn, Lee, & Hilton, 2007).
Since CSUEB already utilizes a number of support services for students, including peer advising, residence halls, and a cohort-based, longitudinal freshman curriculum, academic advising is an important addition. Advisors are teachers and advising is an important place for students to learn about CSUEB, themselves, and their personal, academic, and career goals.
Expand Family Engagement
In addition to improving the information available on the web, the first-year orientation program should be reviewed and revised to include workshops specifically for first-generation and. Research has found that family and parent orientations serve as excellent opportunities to involve families in their students' educational process and to establish relationships between campus staff and families (Ward-Roof, Heaton, & Coburn, 2008). Furthermore, for commuter campuses, such as CSUEB, it is especially important that students' families feel welcome by the institution to augment students'.
CSUEB currently offers a one-day orientation for parents that incorporates many of the best practices suggested in the literature, including opportunities for families to take campus tours, meet professional staff, attend resource fairs, and attend workshops on FERPA, health and safety, financial assistance and how to support students in the transition to college (Kiyama et al., 2015). We recommend building on this experience by including first-generation low-income and diverse families in identifying additional areas of need for orientation programming (Wartman & Savage, 2008), as well as reviewing and improving curriculum for families with limited college attendance. experience. Research has shown that language barriers can create feelings of isolation among parents and families in higher education settings (Fann et al., 2009; Price, 2008).
Providing orientation sessions and materials in the families' dominant language can increase the sense of belonging and facilitate the development of trust between parents and institutions (Price, 2008). Finally, CSUEB should strengthen partnerships between the Office of Parent and Family Programs and other campus offices with strong connections to low-income and diverse student communities. Price (2008) notes that parenting and family program staff must educate themselves about the cultural values of the families they serve in order to establish bonds of trust.
In particular, collaborations between academic affairs, student affairs, and parent and family resource offices in creating cultural competency training for faculty and staff are supported. Further, CSUEB should use their faculty in developing and providing programming for students and their families as another opportunity to strengthen the academic and social integration of students.
Expand Tutoring Services & Supplemental Instruction
Peer mentoring promotes student engagement on campus and builds a sense of community among all students (Engle et al., 2008). However, peer tutoring is most effective when peer tutors are well trained to support students' social integration (Boylan et al., 1997). In supporting academic content in the first year, CSUEB must consider the use.
SI is an "academic support program that provides regularly scheduled, out-of-class, peer-directed sessions that are open to all students in the course" (Hurley, Jacobs, & Gilbert, 2006, p. Student Participation in SI sessions are optional and the sessions are facilitated by students who have previously been successful in the course and who complete a training session on how to lead an SI course (Hurley et al., 2006). SI facilitators are crucial in guiding students in "learning appropriate study strategies, such as note-taking, graphic organization, questioning techniques, vocabulary acquisition, and test preparation, while also reviewing content material" (Hurley et al., 2006, p. 11) .
It also provides students with a peer learning experience that is collaborative and promotes integration into the institution's academic culture (Hurley et al., 2006). In a study of SI and developmental education student performance in an introductory biology course, researchers found that students who participated in SI earned fewer D's and F's, submitted more extra-credit work, attended more classes, participated in more help sessions and utilized more office hours than students not involved in SI (Moore & . LeDee, 2006). Another study found that SI students had significantly higher final course grades than non-SI students in a science course (Congos & Schoeps, 1998).
These findings support the conclusion that SI can even help first-time students with low academic ability perform at a higher level in the first year of college (Ryan & Glenn. Also, students who participate in tutoring and/or SI). and retention consequently means that the institution retains tuition revenue that would otherwise have been lost when students dropped out (Congos & Schoeps, 1998).
Offer Emergency Aid to Students
However, the preponderance of such research focuses on a deficit-based perspective as opposed to identifying key factors that lead to at-risk students' persistence and success (Stephens, Hamedani, & Destin, 2014). This study built on previous research focusing on why at-risk students persist beyond their first year at California State University East Bay. University students' perceptions of prejudice and discrimination and their feelings of alienation: A construct validation approach.
A quasi-experimental study of how the Gates Millennium Scholars Program relates to college students' time use and activities. The validity of the SAT in predicting first-year college grade point average (College Board Research Report 2008-5). The impact of centralized advising on first-year academic performance and second-year enrollment behavior.
What did we learn from the first year of the national study of student learning. Transforming the First Year of College for Students of Color: The First-Year Experience Monograph Series No. Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina.
Closing the Social Class Achievement Gap: A Disparities Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students' Academic Achievement and All Students' Transition to College.
