Abstracts Category : Other

Dual enrollment and its impact on college freshman persistence| A modification of Tinto's model of student departure

by Douglas L Simon

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which dual enrollment programs directly or indirectly influenced persistence behavior at a small, public liberal arts university in the Midwest. Dual enrollment in this study broadly refers to high school students who take college courses for college credit. The second purpose was to explore the underlying processes whereby dual enrollment programs serve as a transition bridge for matriculating students. This study employed a longitudinal case study using two survey questionnaires, four focus groups, and institutional data collected by the college. The subjects that participated in the study were first-year freshman. The survey questionnaires were administered to 172 students (37% of the total freshman class). Five indices were created: dual enrollment, degree aspiration, institutional commitment, social integration, and academic integration. The results of this study add to the emerging literature on dual enrollment programs and how they influence persistence behavior. In the study, there was a weak yet positive association between mothers and fathers education and social integration. The study also found a weak yet positive association between the degree of dual enrollment experiences and academic integration. With social integration as a predictor variable, there was a modest contribution to the dependent variable of persistence. Finally, the study found that academic integration provided a weak contribution to the likelihood that a student would persist.