Making the grade: A study of academic success

Abstract

Freshmen account for more than fifty percent of students who drop out before completing their degree, which means that increasing the success rates for freshmen is a critical challenge for many colleges and universities. In order for these academic institutions to increase student retention, programs or policies, geared towards identifying and assisting at-risk students must be successfully developed and implemented. One such study was the Comprehensive Student Success Program, which was implemented and developed for high failure and withdrawal rate mathematics courses to provide additional support such as supplemental lessons, tutoring, and peer mentoring administered by course assistants outside of the classroom at Texas Woman's University.

The results of the study showed no significance in success rates among courses that provided the additional assistance when compared to traditionally taught courses. However, students who completed the additional supplemental lessons and tutoring requirements had a significant increase in success rates over students who only attended tutoring or weren't required to attend supplemental lessons or tutoring. In addition, students with additional support showed increases in academic skills such as time management, use of study aids, and most notably motivation.Master