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Abstract: Using Tinto's (1993) longitudinal model of institutional departure, this study examined demographic variables, family characteristics, precollege and college academic performance factors, and extent to which mandatory placement in remedial courses predict persistence at a public research institution. This study also examined the relationship between ACT composite scores, high school GPA, first-semester college grade point averages, and persistence. Longitudinal data with 3,213 students were analyzed using factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's product-moment correlations, and multiple regression analysis. Results showed significant mean differences for ethnicity, financial aid, and remedial status on persistence. High school GPA and first-semester college GPA were found to be significant predictors of persistence. Findings indicated that traditional college students who were academically prepared to take college-level coursework were more likely to persist than students placed in mandatory remedial coursework. Implications from this study suggest that support services such as tutoring, mentoring, counseling services, early intervention systems, and financial aid assistance will improve study participants' academic deficiencies and increase persistence beyond the first year.
Since the early nineteenth century, American colleges and universities addressed deficiencies in students' reading, writing, and mathematics skills. A chronology of developmental education delineates a long history of academic assistance in American colleges and universities (Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2013). Opponents of remedial education have argued that the widespread need for remedial education at colleges and universities has ultimately increased costs to the students and taxpayers for education that should have been mastered in high school (Hoyt & Sorenson, 2001; Terry, 2007). In this study, remedial education is defined as coursework that compensates for a lack of basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills necessary to succeed in a college-level course. Student persistence is a major concern for most universities. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2011), 23% of full-time students who entered a four-year institution for the first time in 2008 did not remain at their college in the subsequent fall.
A major issue facing higher education institutions serving underprepared and underrepresented populations is addressing transition issues for traditional aged college students during the first year (Raab & Adam, 2005). Researchers have become increasingly aware of the social and economic factors that contribute to how well students transition from secondary to postsecondary institutions. If students...