Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study examined non-native English-speaking (NNES) students on selected college experiences and outcomes. The results suggested that NNES students were less likely to have close relationships with faculty and satisfying relationships with peers. They also experienced greater…

While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

Since 1990, Indiana's 21st Century Scholars program has been leading the way as a model for early college promise programs across the country. It is Indiana's promise to students that no matter life's circumstances or obstacles, college is an option for them. In this report, students are broken out into three groups by income level: scholars,…

Colleges and universities employ conditional admission policies to identify students with subpar academic qualifications, who may need additional support to succeed. Using institutional data of more than 2,000 students, the study applies labeling theory to a quasi-experimental design (difference-in-differences testing), measuring the effects of a…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

Using data from economics and history courses taught across multiple semesters, the authors show that a triweekly meeting frequency improves student performance relative to a biweekly meeting frequency. There is evidence that this effect operates through two channels. First, there is an indirect effect that operates through attendance. While…

In the past eleven years we have developed several papers for ASCUE about hybrid classes. The initial paper we shared our experience developing a hybrid course and followed with comparisons of student opinions about face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes and finally a paper reviewing components that we were using in hybrid and online classes. It…

Exacerbated by the pandemic, the decline in Indiana's college-going rate for recent high school graduates has accelerated. This presents stark challenges which must be addressed with urgency and thoughtfulness. Fewer Hoosiers are pursuing education or training after high school. The state's college-going rate fell from 59 percent for the high…

Problem: Higher education serves many stakeholders including students, parents, faculty, staff, university administrators, and other contributors. Those stakeholders are all linked with one purpose: the success of the student. That success or failure is most commonly measured by achievement through grade point average (GPA). The academic demands…

Identifying at-risk students at an early stage is a challenging task for colleges and universities. In this paper, we use students' oncampus network traffic volume to construct several useful features in predicting their first semester GPA. In particular, we build proxies for their attendance, class engagement, and out-of-class study hours based…

The pandemic exacerbated many of the challenges facing higher education in Indiana--declining college-going rates, widening equity gaps, the persistent questioning of the value of higher education--all now compounded by issues of learning loss and economic upheaval. This report provides a pre-pandemic baseline for consideration, as education…

In Indiana, about 25 percent of students who enter college for the first time at an Indiana public institution transfer to a different campus or institution at least once within six years--a mobility pattern that underscores the complexity of postsecondary pathways and the importance of better understanding the role transfer plays in helping…

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the power of connecting Children's Savings Account (CSAs) to college access-success programs and show that, when done together, they produce greater outcomes. First, we briefly describe these closely related fields and explain the merit of partnerships between CSA initiatives and college access and…

Institutional withdrawal policies allow students with academic and personal difficulties to avert or minimize damage to the GPA by dropping a course in which they may risk a grade of "D" or "F," or to reduce credit hours to better manage those that remain. Offsetting costs involve lost tuition, delay of progress, and perhaps…

This study examines the predictive validity of the TOEFL iBT with respect to academic achievement as measured by the first-year grade point average (GPA) of Chinese students at Purdue University, a large, public, Research I institution in Indiana, USA. Correlations between GPA, TOEFL iBT total and subsection scores were examined on 1990 mainland…