Diversity Scorecard Project
Section III. Retention
As noted above, a major goal for CSUDH’s Diversity Scorecard is to increase the graduation rates for first time freshman. The specific objectives are detailed below:
- Improve the one-year continuation rate of first-time freshmen to match CSU first-time freshmen system-wide rate of 76 percent.
- Improve the six-year tracking rate of first-time freshmen cohorts to match CSU system-wide rate of 50 percent.
Continuation Rate:
The graph below illustrates the one-year continuation rate for first time freshmen (FTF) disaggregated by ethnicity. As this graph indicates, there has been an overall one-year return rate of 70.8 percent for FTF over the ten-year period from 1990-2000, but there is significant variation in that rate for different ethnic groups. Asian American students display the highest return rate with 78.2 percent; by contrast African American, Latino, and Filipino/Pacific Islanders students have lower return rates (64.7%, 76.7%, and 71.5% respectively). (Note: See Appendix for year-by-year return rates by ethnicity.)
Further research would be helpful in understanding the discrepancies in the one-year continuation rates and would enable the University to pinpoint ways to match the system-wide rate of 76 percent for all students.
Retention rate:
In measuring the retention rate, our data consists of tracking rates, i.e., those students currently enrolled or already graduated. As in the case of continuation rates, we see similar discrepancies in the tracking rates for different ethnic groups among the student population. As a preliminary point we note that as our student population consists of larger numbers of older, working adults, many of our students take longer than four years to accomplish their educational objectives. Accordingly, our data shows tracking rates for one, four, six, and eight years.
A total of 40.0 percent of our students were either continuing towards the degree or had already graduated after six years. For African-American students, the six-year tracking rate was 31.3 percent; Asian-American students posted a tracking rate of 36.4 percent, and 39.2 percent of the white non-Latino students had either graduated or were still enrolled in pursuit of their degree. Latino students had a tracking rate of 43.1 percent, the highest of any ethnic group on campus. In spite of these variations, however, all groups fall short of the system-wide tracking rate of 50 percent.
At this chart indicates, there is relatively little difference between the continuation rates through the first three years. By the fourth year however, gaps emerge as the continuation rate for Latino students in the 1993 cohort improves in comparison to those of whites, Asian/Pacific Rim and African Americans. By the eighth year, Latinos continue to show stronger continuation rates compared to the other groups. White students show continuation rates that are higher than those of Asian/Pacific Rim and African American students although lower than those of Latino students. Asian/Pacific Rim and African American students appear to be the two groups most at risk.
Under-preparedness, Remediation and Gatekeeper Courses:
Pursuing the FTF data more closely, the CSUDH Diversity Scorecard team decided to focus on key courses that serve as gatekeepers to graduation for FTF. In particular, we focused on the issue of remediation and its relationship to retention. At present, 78 percent of our FTF require remediation in English, while 82 percent need math remediation. Slightly over 90 percent of our entering freshmen require remediation of some sort whether it be in English, math, or both subjects. Since 1998, CSU system directives (especially Executive Order 665) have required that students complete all remedial coursework within one year or face disenrollment from the University. Because of this potential threat to the success of the first-time student population at CSU, success in remedial Math and English courses is critical to the continuation rate for FTF. These courses include English 088, English 099, Math 003, and Math 009.
The CSUDH team, in an effort to better understand the dynamics driving successful completion of the preparation course pattern, examined the pass rates (CR or “Credit”) for the courses described above. Additionally, the team investigated grade distributions for English 350, an upper-division writing course often taken by students either as a major requirement (Liberal Studies) or as an aid in passing the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR). We also examined grade distributions for SBS 318, a required upper-division General Education course. As a result of our analysis of these data, however, it seemed clear that passing the remedial coursework was a more critical barrier to success than passing either of the two upper-division courses.
Placement in the remedial classes is based on CSU system-wide tests, the English Placement Test (EPT) and Elementary Level Math Test (ELM). English 088 (Developmental Reading) and English 099 (Developmental Writing) need not be taken in sequence but must be taken at CSU Dominguez Hills if they are to be accepted as prerequisites for the freshman English composition courses, English 110 and English 111. Math, on the other hand, must be taken sequentially; however, community college remedial courses are accepted as prerequisites for Math 105, which is the lowest-level Math course required to satisfy the General Education Math requirement at CSUDH.
Remedial English Classes:
Pass rates for English 088 for fall 1999, 2000, and 2001 averaged 86.1 percent over the three year period. Latino students had the highest pass rate (90.8%), Asian/Pacific Rim next highest at 85.4 percent, and African American students third at 81.5 percent. White students had the lowest pass rate of 74.4 percent.
English 099 pass rates averaged 78.9 percent, with some variation among ethnic groups. Asian/Pacific Rim students had the highest pass rate (86.8%), Latinos at 80.3 percent, and with African Americans and white students trailing at 74.9 percent and 74.2 percent, respectively.
For reasons that are not clear at this time, we note that the numbers of students enrolling in English 099 dropped by nearly 44 percent between fall 2000 and fall 2001, from 308 to 174 students. This pattern is repeated in the data on Math remediation below. The cause of this substantial decline warrants further investigation.
Remedial Math Classes:
Upon further analysis, the team decided to focus on remedial math (MAT 003 and MAT 009), where the pass rates are significantly lower than those in the English remedial courses. As the chart below illustrates, pass rates dropped from 69.8 percent in fall 1999 to 48 percent the next year, and even further to 33.6 percent in fall 2001. According to Math Department faculty, the drop can be attributed to the impact of a new policy initiated in fall 2000, when common textbooks and common tests were introduced in all sections of these courses by the Mathematics Department. Clearly, the precipitous drop in passing rates for MAT 003 brought the issue of continuation rates and their impact on retention into even sharper focus than was previously the case.
As the table below indicates, 33.6 percent of the students enrolled in MAT 003 in fall 2001 were able to pass. In this case, the most successful ethnic group was Latino students, with a pass rate of 44.9 percent. The pass rate for white students was 33.3 percent, for Asian/Pacific Island students 30.8 percent, and for African-American students, 26.8 percent.
Again, as in the case of English 099, we see a decline in the number of students enrolled in MAT 003 from fall 2000 to fall 2001, from 460 to 204, a drop of 66 percent. The cause for this decline is not clear at this time and warrants further investigation.
Although the numbers of students enrolled in MAT 009 are smaller--98 students--compared to 304 for MAT 003, the pass rates are higher. However, the data continue to show discrepancies among different ethnic groups, from African-American students (N=46) with a pass rate of 40.9 percent, white students (N=7) with 57.1 percent, Latino students (N=30) with 65.5 percent, and Asian/Pacific Islanders (N=5) with a 100 percent pass rate.
As in the cases of English 099 and MAT 003, we are puzzled by the drop in numbers of students enrolled in MAT 009 between fall 2000 (195) and fall 2001 (98), a 50 percent decline.
Remedial Math and One Year Return Rates:
In an effort to estimate the impact of the student’s performance in the remedial math sequence with their ability to continue as CSUDH students, we examined data exploring the relationship between them. The following tables show the return rates for students by performance in remedial math classes from 1999-2001 and demonstrate that passing of the lowest level remedial math class, MAT 003, is critical to the return rates of CSUDH freshmen students. Sixty-two percent of those who passed MAT 003 in fall 1999 were still enrolled in fall 2001, but only 30.8 percent of those who did not pass were still in school at CSUDH. Students who pass MAT 003 have two times the chance of returning for their second year than those who do not.
