Digest No. 05 – October 2018 – CIC Digest of Recent Research

Digest No. 05 - October 2018

Do High-Impact Practices Increase Graduation Rates?

This study explored the association between ten high-impact practices and graduation rates among students at four-year public colleges. Specifically, the authors examined the effect of the following “high-impact” practices on graduation rates: first-year seminars, core curricula, learning communities, writing courses, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research, study abroad, service learning, internships, and senior capstone projects. These practices, often considered critical for student success, have rarely—if ever—been empirically studied using rigorous research designs that enable educators to make substantive claims about their effectiveness.

Admissions Office Diversity and Equitable Admissions Decisions

The purpose of this study was to explore equitable decision making by admissions officers who work at selective institutions. The authors approached the topic from a series of perspectives ranging from conversations about institutional prestige to understanding admissions as a holistic process, defined as “evaluating prospective students in the context of the educational, personal, and financial conditions experienced by the applicant” (p. 431). Their discussion of prestige was offered as a rationale for the study’s importance, as the admissions officers recruited for this study were employed at selective colleges. The authors determined whether these officers followed a holistic admissions process by using a rigorous method that involved a survey collection and an in-person data collection effort.

Importance of Reporting Instructions for Sexual Assault

As this study’s author indicates by citing statistics from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s 2015 report, more than 90 percent of all sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the crime. Given these statistics and the national outcry concerning the #MeToo movement, this author takes a novel approach in researching why sexual assault remains critically underreported on college campuses. He uses readability measurements to examine whether college students actually understand the often complicated reporting instructions provided by institutions to help students report crimes related to sexual assault.

Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom Instruction in Mathematics for Liberal Arts Students

This study evaluated the efficacy of a flipped classroom on the final exam scores of 632 students enrolled in different sections of a terminal general education college mathematics course. The authors adopted a quasi-experimental design, comparing the final exam scores in traditional versus flipped sections of the same math course. In addition to examining these differences in scores, the authors were able to test whether these pedagogical approaches had a different impact on students based on race.

Exploring Food and Housing Insecurity among Undergraduates

As college costs rise and the wealth of many American families remains stagnant, the hidden burdens of being a college student increase. For many students, these involve food and housing insecurities. The authors analyze data on this topic from four surveys, administered to more than 30,000 two- and four-year college students, in a time frame spanning 2016–2018. Although most students in the sample attended community colleges, the sample includes four-year college students from low- and moderate-income families in Wisconsin and undergraduates from all of Wisconsin’s 42 public two- and four-year institutions. Food and housing insecurities were assessed through responses to empirically validated surveys and a series of interviews. Respondents were asked questions such as whether they had gone a whole day without eating due to lack of money or whether they were homeless, including those in both sheltered (for example, living temporarily with friends or family) and unsheltered (living in cars or abandoned buildings) situations. The authors performed mostly descriptive analyses on the data to describe the prevalence of college food and housing insecurity and information on how students cope with these challenges.

Implications of Identity-Based Fundraising

As financial issues challenge college and university leadership, research on advancement and fundraising is becoming increasingly important. This study explores the relationship between fundraising and the social identity of the fundraiser. With data derived from the National Alumni Giving Experiment (NAGE), the author establishes correlations between the act of fundraising, the social identity of the fundraiser, the social identity of the students profiled in fundraising solicitations, and the amount of money donors give to the institution.

The Influence of Debt Letters on Student Borrowing Choices

As the public outcry concerning college affordability increases, institutions are expanding their efforts to provide students with necessary information to make more informed college choices. One popular effort involves sending students a debt letter that articulates financial information in accessible ways. This study evaluated the influence of debt letters on students’ borrowing choices.

Measuring Students’ Capacities for Innovation

Innovation has become a buzzword in higher education, so much so that millions of dollars and resources have been allocated toward centers for innovation, minors in innovation, and innovation alliances. Private colleges and universities have joined the chorus, with innovation often driving strategic planning conversations, pedagogical reconsiderations, and even student learning outcomes. Despite all of the attention innovation is receiving, it remains an ill-defined concept and as a result widely misunderstood. Millions of dollars have been donated for innovations, but very few institutions have adopted a rigorous approach to their assessment. The purpose of this study was to provide institutions with a theoretically grounded and empirically validated measure of one aspect of innovation, students’ innovation capacities, defined by the authors as a set of attributes students can develop to better engage in all aspects of innovation.