Inside Iowa State
November 17, 2000
Learning community students stay in school
by Anne Krapfl
Iowa State students who belong to
learning communities stay in school at a higher rate than
their peers who don't, according to a study released this
fall by a faculty assessment team. The study includes full-
time freshmen who first enrolled at Iowa State fall semester
1998 and 1999.
Among the fall 1998 class, those who belong to a learning community were retained at a rate of 91 percent after one year and 86 percent after two years. Their classmates who were not in learning communities returned to Iowa State at the rate of 82 percent after one year and 73 percent after two years.
Among the fall 1999 class, the one-year retention rate was 90 percent for learning community students and 82 percent for non-learning community students.
While Iowa State faculty have sponsored learning communities since fall 1995, former university president Martin Jischke announced in the fall of 1998 a three-year, $1.5 million allocation to strengthen learning communities. 2000-01 is the final year of that funding commitment. The retention study begins when the funding began.
Doug Epperson, psychology, co-chairs a committee assessing Iowa State's learning communities and wrote the retention report. Epperson said critics might argue that brighter, more motivated students are drawn to learning communities, which accounts for the higher retention levels. And in fact, participation in a learning community is voluntary.
So Epperson built in statistical controls to counter the self-selection theory. Even with controls added for ACT composite scores and high school class rank (the first is considered a measurement of ability; the second of ability and motivation), the higher retention rates for learning community students remained statistically significant. The adjusted one-year retention rate for learning community students was 88 percent, compared to 83 percent for students not in a learning team. The adjusted two-year retention levels for the fall 1998 class were 83 percent for learning community students and 74 percent for non-learning community students.
Corly Brooke, human development and family studies and a co- chair of the learning communities steering committee, said committee members aren't sure yet why learning community students stay in school at higher rates.
"We're not sure there's going to be a silver bullet here because we don't have a template for learning communities at Iowa State. They've all grown up from faculty and staff interests, and they're all structured differently," she said. "But the students definitely are feeling connected."
Brooke said finding out why is the next part of the assessment. That step is under way and will include focus groups with students. She said all of Iowa State's teams have a strong curricular base to them -- something learning teams at other schools don't necessarily have -- so she believes students' connection to them is more than socially motivated.
Epperson also noted in the report that Iowa State offers different types of learning communities: residential, course- linked and, in some cases, both. "All three types of learning communities were associated with equally high retention rates," he said.
Freshman retention levels
|
|
Fall ’98 |
Fall ’99 |
|
One-year retention |
|
|
|
LC |
91% |
90% |
|
Non LC |
82% |
82% |
|
Adjusted* LC |
89% |
88% |
|
Adjusted* Non LC |
83% |
83% |
|
|
|
|
|
Two-year retention |
|
|
|
LC |
86% |
— |
|
Non LC |
73% |
— |
|
Adjusted* LC |
83% |
— |
|
Adjusted* Non LC |
74% |
— |
|
*statistical controls added for |
||
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