An Examination of the 2009 UW-Parkside Student Cohort Helen Rosenberg University of Wisconsin-Parkside Presented to the WiCC Network Gathering-Northwest Waukesha County Technical College September 23, 2013

1. Promoting Student Success with
Community-based Service-learning:
An Examination of the 2009 UW-Parkside Student Cohort

2. Research
 Working with faculty across three universities to follow cohort of
freshmen enrolled in fall, 2009
 All three universities have strong commitment to civic
engagement and service learning
 Followed this cohort of students over time, from fall 2009
enrollment to fall, 2012
 Who has re-enrolled and graduated (success)
 Today I’ll be presenting on outcomes for UW-Parkside
 Data obtained from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE)
 The dependent measure is persistence over time
 Persistence refers to long-term outcomes, while retention is most
often used to talk about re-enrollment from freshman to
sophomore year
 Original focus was on non-traditional students

3. Identifying Non-traditional Students
24+ or 25 + years old
Employed Full-time
Married/Caregiving
Part time enrollment
First Generation
Students of Color (sometimes
referred to as “under represented
students”)
The term
"nontraditional
student" is not a
precise one (NCES, 2002)

4. Rosenberg, Reed, Statham and Rosing (2011)
compared students’ perceptions of their
CBSL experiences at three universities
and found…
…adult and working students less likely to
strongly agree that service learning enhanced
classroom experience or skills
…those with fewer previous opportunities to
develop skills through work experiences
appreciated CBSL
…significant differences between our
universities…public/private, more
urban/less urban
Service-learning with non-traditional students

5. Independent Variables
Measures of Non-traditionality
Age (24+)
Enrolled Part Time
First Generation College Student
Race (students of color)
Service Learning
Took service learning class or not
Demographics
Gender
Freshman/Transfer Students
GPA
Interaction terms

6. Distribution of Students entering UW-
Parkside, Fall 2009
N=1155
Measures of Non-traditionality
Age (24+)
Enrolled Part Time
First Generation College Student
Race (students of color)
Service Learning
Took service learning class or not
Demographics
Gender
Freshman/Transfer Students
GPA
Interaction terms
Measure Fall, 201
0
Fall, 20
11
Fall,
2012
24+ 11.7% 12.0% 11.6%
Part-time 40.3% 56.9% 65.7%
First Gen 60.1% 60.4% 60.5%
Students
of Color
29.4% 27.4% 29.4%
Took SL 13.3% 24.2% 34.0%
Female 56.8% 56.5% 60.1%
Freshmen 28.3% 30.5% 31.9%
GPA 2.59 2.73 2.85
Re-
Enrolled/
Graduated
65% 51% 41%

7. Correlations Among Independent Measures
Table 2
Correlation Matrix for Predictor Variables for Cohort of Students, Fall, 2009
University of Wisconsin-Parkside Students
Male White 1st Gen Freshma
n
Entry
24+ CBL
09-10
CBL
2 yrs
CBL
3 yrs
FT Y1 FT Y2 FT Y3 GPA
09-10
GPA
10-11
GPA
11-12
Male .03 -.06 .02 -.03 -.01 -.00 .02 -.03 -.05 -.02 -.09* -.14* -.18*
White -.11* -.03 -.03 -.07 -.03 .01 .16* .06 .02 .09* .15* .15*
1st
Genera
tion
.03 .08* .02 .03 .03 -.02 -.04 -.02 -.07 -.06 -.05
Freshm
an
Entry
-.40* .00 -.05 .01 .11* .00 .11* -.14* -.15* -.06
24 + -.02 -.01 -.06 -.21* -.08* -.10* -.10* -.10* -.10*
CBL
09-10
.69* .55* .08* .11* .02 .06 .02 -.02
CBL 2
yrs
.79* .15* .26* .14* .16* .11* .04
CBL 3
yrs
.21* .38* .37* .23* .19* .09
FT
Studen
ts 09-10
.31* .20* .23* .30* .31*
FT
Studen
ts 10-11
.52* .43* .44* .35*
FT
Studen
ts 11-12
.34* .39* .37*
GPA
09-10
.87* .76*
GPA
10-11
.95*
GPA

8. Significance of Service-Learning
Students who take service-learning courses are more
likely to persist.
 Service Learning has a consistently strong impact on reenrollment
and graduation
 When full-time enrollment and GPA are added into the model, the
effects of service learning decline because of its strong relationship
to these variables
 Overall, students who take service learning classes are twice as
likely to re-enroll and graduate as those who do not

9. Race
Race is an inconsistent predictor of persistence with
white students more likely to reenroll.
 Students of color are about 75% as likely to re-enroll and
graduate as are white students
 Race seems to make the most difference the first year of
school, but then its effects on persistence decline

10. Age
The effect of age is slight and insignificant over time

11. First Generation Status
The effect of being a first generation college student is slight
and becomes insignificant over time
 Whatever effects first generation status have at entry become
insignificant over time
Possible explanations:
Other variables of non-traditionality are more
important in predicting persistence
Focus on supporting these students is succeeding

12. Transfer Students
Entry status is an inconsistent predictor of re-enrollment with
transfer students more likely to persist.
 This effect is significant only in 2012 with transfer students
more likely to persist
 It becomes statistically insignificant when full time status
and GPA are entered in the analysis

13. Part-time students
Student enrollment is a powerful predictor of persistence; full
time students more likely to reenroll.
 The effects of full-time enrollment are very strong, but
decline when GPA is added to the model
 GPA and full-time enrollment are strongly correlated
 Full-time enrollment is important throughout all the years of
the analysis

14. Variance Explained
The total amount of variance explained by this model over
time is 37%. This means that other variables account for 63% of
variance explained.
 The amount of variance explained by variables reflecting
non-traditionality and demographics is relatively small.
 Variance explained increases markedly when full-time
status is entered. However, because of its high correlation
with GPA, the same would likely result if GPA were entered
first.

15. Service-Learning has a positive effect on all
students (traditional and non-traditional)
Part-time enrollment seems to pose the
greatest challenges for non-traditional
students in relation to re-enrollment
Service learning was significant for
freshmen and juniors, but not for second
year
Implications for UW-Parkside

16. How do we compare?
We are most like the University of Southern Indiana
 Service learning has a strong impact on persistence
 While race isn’t important to predicting persistence at UW-
Parkside, it is at USI and DePaul, with whites most likely to persist
 Age varies across all the universities, but younger students are
more likely to persist than older students at USI and
DePaul, while it has no impact at UW-Parkside
 First generation status is NOT a significant predictor of persistence
at USI and UW-Parkside. DePaul had no data.
 Transfer students are more likely to persist than incoming
freshmen at DePaul and UW-Parkside
 Full time status is important to predicting persistence at all
Universities.