Theses and Dissertations

James Gray

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Coats, Linda T.

Committee Member

Johnson, Susan, M.

Committee Member

King, Stephanie, B.

Committee Member

Armstrong, Christopher Clayton

Date of Degree

12-13-2019

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 2 Years

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Community College Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Leadership and Foundations

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effectiveness of a freshman orientation program on second-semester retention, second-year retention, and cumulative GPA for students enrolled in a community college in the Deep South. The problem addressed in this study is a lack of sufficient academic and social support for college students, limiting their ability to remain in school and with high levels of academic performance (Nora & Crisp, 2007). For this study, the following research questions were analyzed: (1) Are there differences in 1st to 2nd semester retention for program completers with a 17-18 ACT as compared to non-program completers with a 19-20 ACT? (2) Are there differences in 1st to 2nd year retention for program completers with a 17-18 ACT as compared to non-program completers with a 19-20 ACT? (3) Are there differences in cumulative GPA for program completers with a 17-18 ACT as compared to non-program completers with a 19-20 ACT? Data for these research questions were collected from the school’s director of data management and imported into SPSS software for analysis. The findings of this study indicated students who completed the program, despite having lower composite ACT scores compared to program non-completers, were 15.8 times more likely to enroll in the next semester and 2.42 times more likely to enroll in the 2nd year compared to those who did not complete the program but had higher composite ACT scores. Additionally, program completers had significantly higher cumulative GPAs than did program non-completers. Based on the findings, this study should target other moderating factors that might contribute to student retention.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/16427

Comments

academic achievement||freshman orientation

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