Postsecondary Retention And Persistence: An Inquiry Into Tinto’s Conditions For Success

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Nathan Andrew Weigl (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Advisor
Audrey Dentith

Abstract: This study evaluated the impact of the Go. Persist. Succeed. 4 Success intervention at a rural community college in western North Carolina. The intervention was designed to provide services under the four conditions suggested by Tinto to promote student persistence in higher education: expectations; support; assessment and feedback; and involvement. Services were provided to a group of 2016 high school graduates from a single district who, historically, have neither enrolled nor persisted in college at the same rates as their peers. The analyses utilized a two-part methodology. The first evaluated whether services provided, in addition to many secondary variables, were significant predictors of persistence. The second employed exploratory text analytics. When comparing intervention to control group students, intervention services were not found to be significant predictors of persistence. Two secondary variables, however, were significant among intervention students. The second part of the evaluation, a set of exploratory analyses of text responses to prompts based on Tinto’s framework, yielded statistically significant differences in the thinking styles of intervention students who returned, as compared to those who did not in two LIWC categories. Results of a SAS text miner exploration also found differences in the ways students wrote about challenges/support and involvement.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Weigle, N. (2018). "Postsecondary Retention And Persistence: An Inquiry Into Tinto’s Conditions For Success." Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
Language: English
Date: 2018
Keywords
higher education, persistence, retention, Tinto, community college

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