The Effects of Institutional Practices on Postsecondary Trajectories—Matriculation, Persistence, and Time-to-Degree

Purpose: In this project, researchers examine the effects of three institutional practices on college persistence and completion.

For the first project, the research team will employ an interrupted time-series design, using outcomes that have been adjusted for differences in student and school characteristics, to evaluate the effects of providing 11th-graders with course-taking advice on their subsequent postsecondary performance, including English and math placement test results (if taken), remedial course-taking, college GPA by semester, and persistence (either full- and part-time) in subsequent semesters. The control group consists of high school juniors that attended California State University feeder high schools in 2002 and 2003, the years prior to the implementation of the early feedback treatment. The treatment group consists of high school juniors who attended the same set of California State University feeder high schools in 2004, 2005, and 2006, the years following the implementation of the early feedback policy.

For the second project, the research team will use a regression discontinuity design to compare students who are very close to, but on opposite sides of the pass/fail threshold of the remediation placement test. Any differences in the academic outcomes between students who received remediation (the treatment group) and students who did not (the control group) can be attributed to the effect of receiving remediation. For both remedial and nonremedial students, the researchers will observe their enrollment patterns in subsequent semesters, their course-taking patterns, and additional academic outcomes including college GPA by semester, choice of major, and time to degree completion.

For the third project, the research team will use an experimental design to evaluate the unique effect of registration constraints on student outcomes by exploiting the process that leads to registration opportunities during each term, mainly students' random draws (within class standing) for time slots in the registration process. The researchers will investigate this research question in three steps: first, by establishing whether randomized registration appointments lead students to get shut out of desired courses; second, by testing whether credit accumulation is more irregular because of course shut-outs; and third, by investigating whether this results in lower completion rates and longer times to degree. The researchers will use this data to track four cohorts of students (by class standing) each term for two years in order to evaluate both short-term (credit accumulation) and long-term (completion and time to degree) outcomes. Tracking cohorts that vary in their cumulative credits at baseline will allow the researchers to investigate the various mechanisms by which scheduling constraints could exert an effect on academic outcomes.