An Examination of the 2009 UW-Parkside Student Cohort
Helen Rosenberg
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Presented to the WiCC Network Gathering-Northwest
Waukesha County Technical College
September 23, 2013
Promoting Student Success with Community-based Service-learning
1. Promoting Student Success with
Community-based Service-learning:
An Examination of the 2009 UW-Parkside Student Cohort
2. Research
Working with faculty across three universities to follow cohort of
freshmen enrolled in fall, 2009
All three universities have strong commitment to civic
engagement and service learning
Followed this cohort of students over time, from fall 2009
enrollment to fall, 2012
Who has re-enrolled and graduated (success)
Today I’ll be presenting on outcomes for UW-Parkside
Data obtained from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE)
The dependent measure is persistence over time
Persistence refers to long-term outcomes, while retention is most
often used to talk about re-enrollment from freshman to
sophomore year
Original focus was on non-traditional students
3. Identifying Non-traditional Students
24+ or 25 + years old
Employed Full-time
Married/Caregiving
Part time enrollment
First Generation
Students of Color (sometimes
referred to as “under represented
students”)
The term
"nontraditional
student" is not a
precise one (NCES, 2002)
4. Rosenberg, Reed, Statham and Rosing (2011)
compared students’ perceptions of their
CBSL experiences at three universities
and found…
…adult and working students less likely to
strongly agree that service learning enhanced
classroom experience or skills
…those with fewer previous opportunities to
develop skills through work experiences
appreciated CBSL
…significant differences between our
universities…public/private, more
urban/less urban
Service-learning with non-traditional students
5. Independent Variables
Measures of Non-traditionality
Age (24+)
Enrolled Part Time
First Generation College Student
Race (students of color)
Service Learning
Took service learning class or not
Demographics
Gender
Freshman/Transfer Students
GPA
Interaction terms
6. Distribution of Students entering UW-
Parkside, Fall 2009
N=1155
Measures of Non-traditionality
Age (24+)
Enrolled Part Time
First Generation College Student
Race (students of color)
Service Learning
Took service learning class or not
Demographics
Gender
Freshman/Transfer Students
GPA
Interaction terms
Measure Fall, 201
0
Fall, 20
11
Fall,
2012
24+ 11.7% 12.0% 11.6%
Part-time 40.3% 56.9% 65.7%
First Gen 60.1% 60.4% 60.5%
Students
of Color
29.4% 27.4% 29.4%
Took SL 13.3% 24.2% 34.0%
Female 56.8% 56.5% 60.1%
Freshmen 28.3% 30.5% 31.9%
GPA 2.59 2.73 2.85
Re-
Enrolled/
Graduated
65% 51% 41%
7. Correlations Among Independent Measures
Table 2
Correlation Matrix for Predictor Variables for Cohort of Students, Fall, 2009
University of Wisconsin-Parkside Students
Male White 1st Gen Freshma
n
Entry
24+ CBL
09-10
CBL
2 yrs
CBL
3 yrs
FT Y1 FT Y2 FT Y3 GPA
09-10
GPA
10-11
GPA
11-12
Male .03 -.06 .02 -.03 -.01 -.00 .02 -.03 -.05 -.02 -.09* -.14* -.18*
White -.11* -.03 -.03 -.07 -.03 .01 .16* .06 .02 .09* .15* .15*
1st
Genera
tion
.03 .08* .02 .03 .03 -.02 -.04 -.02 -.07 -.06 -.05
Freshm
an
Entry
-.40* .00 -.05 .01 .11* .00 .11* -.14* -.15* -.06
24 + -.02 -.01 -.06 -.21* -.08* -.10* -.10* -.10* -.10*
CBL
09-10
.69* .55* .08* .11* .02 .06 .02 -.02
CBL 2
yrs
.79* .15* .26* .14* .16* .11* .04
CBL 3
yrs
.21* .38* .37* .23* .19* .09
FT
Studen
ts 09-10
.31* .20* .23* .30* .31*
FT
Studen
ts 10-11
.52* .43* .44* .35*
FT
Studen
ts 11-12
.34* .39* .37*
GPA
09-10
.87* .76*
GPA
10-11
.95*
GPA
8. Significance of Service-Learning
Students who take service-learning courses are more
likely to persist.
Service Learning has a consistently strong impact on reenrollment
and graduation
When full-time enrollment and GPA are added into the model, the
effects of service learning decline because of its strong relationship
to these variables
Overall, students who take service learning classes are twice as
likely to re-enroll and graduate as those who do not
9. Race
Race is an inconsistent predictor of persistence with
white students more likely to reenroll.
Students of color are about 75% as likely to re-enroll and
graduate as are white students
Race seems to make the most difference the first year of
school, but then its effects on persistence decline
11. First Generation Status
The effect of being a first generation college student is slight
and becomes insignificant over time
Whatever effects first generation status have at entry become
insignificant over time
Possible explanations:
Other variables of non-traditionality are more
important in predicting persistence
Focus on supporting these students is succeeding
12. Transfer Students
Entry status is an inconsistent predictor of re-enrollment with
transfer students more likely to persist.
This effect is significant only in 2012 with transfer students
more likely to persist
It becomes statistically insignificant when full time status
and GPA are entered in the analysis
13. Part-time students
Student enrollment is a powerful predictor of persistence; full
time students more likely to reenroll.
The effects of full-time enrollment are very strong, but
decline when GPA is added to the model
GPA and full-time enrollment are strongly correlated
Full-time enrollment is important throughout all the years of
the analysis
14. Variance Explained
The total amount of variance explained by this model over
time is 37%. This means that other variables account for 63% of
variance explained.
The amount of variance explained by variables reflecting
non-traditionality and demographics is relatively small.
Variance explained increases markedly when full-time
status is entered. However, because of its high correlation
with GPA, the same would likely result if GPA were entered
first.
15. Service-Learning has a positive effect on all
students (traditional and non-traditional)
Part-time enrollment seems to pose the
greatest challenges for non-traditional
students in relation to re-enrollment
Service learning was significant for
freshmen and juniors, but not for second
year
Implications for UW-Parkside
16. How do we compare?
We are most like the University of Southern Indiana
Service learning has a strong impact on persistence
While race isn’t important to predicting persistence at UW-
Parkside, it is at USI and DePaul, with whites most likely to persist
Age varies across all the universities, but younger students are
more likely to persist than older students at USI and
DePaul, while it has no impact at UW-Parkside
First generation status is NOT a significant predictor of persistence
at USI and UW-Parkside. DePaul had no data.
Transfer students are more likely to persist than incoming
freshmen at DePaul and UW-Parkside
Full time status is important to predicting persistence at all
Universities.
Editor's Notes
Three universities: USI: DePaul: UW-Parkside
What remains stable over time: age, first generation status, raceSlight increases in gender and freshman status because proportions are different as people graduateIncreases in part-time status – full time students tend to graduate earlier so greater percentages of part time students are leftGPA increases over time.Enrollment: 65% of freshmen enrolled in 2009 are enrolled in 2010 51% are enrolled in 2011 and 41% are enrolled in 2012 Our statistics show that after six years, only about 37% of our entering students have graduated.
There is a positive relationship between students enrolled in CBL courses and full-time enrollment. For students taking two or more CBL courses, there is a positive relationship to GPA for the first two years of the study. Women, whites and transfer students tend to have higher GPAs. Older students are more likely to be transfer students, enrolled part-time and have lower GPAs than younger students. The strongest positive relationship is between full time enrollment and GPA.
