The influence of participating in a mandatory mixed-format student success seminar on persistence in an urban community college

Graduation date: 2015Over the past twenty years, the national three-year graduation rate for community college students has ranged from 44% to roughly 31% in 2013 (NCES, 2013). As a way to address such low graduation rates, colleges have implemented a myriad of services and programs (i.e., tutoring, mentoring, etc.). Another intervention is the student success seminar. Student success seminars are courses that teach basic college success skills, transitioning to college, and campus resources.\ud The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of participating in a student success seminar on academic performance, persistence, and graduation rates in a community college. Factors considered in this research include: (a) age, (b) gender, (c) ethnicity, (d) enrollment status, (e) degree intent, (f) high school performance, (g) grade point average, (h) credit hour completions, (i) persistence, and (j) graduation rates.\ud The population of students used for this research was all first-time in college students who were assessed into developmental English. The students were divided into two groups\ud based on participating in student success seminar or non-participation in the seminar during their first term of college. Both unpaired t-test and chi-square analyses were used to evaluate the existence and strength of the relationships between each of the independent variables and the dependent variables.\ud Findings from this study indicate that participating in student success seminar had a statistically significant positive relationship to persistence to the third year of college. Additionally, findings reveal a statistically significant positive relationship for participants graduating in two years. The study examined the differential impact of student success seminar participation for subgroups of students. Some differences were revealed; however, results were inconsistent across terms of the study