Persistence toward bachelor degree completion of students in Family and Consumer Sciences

College Student Journal, Sept, 2006 by Lee Blecher

Transfer Status. Approximately 15-20% of all students attending four-year institutions have transferred at least once during their first two years, yet the persistence of these transfer students has not been extensively studied (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Tinto, 1993). Even though the students at four-year institutions who transfer are presumably seeking an institution which will better meet their needs, most of the literature points to the fact that transferring has a negative impact on persistence (Astin, 1975; Blecher et al., 2002; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Carroll (1989), however, found that when horizontal transfers (i.e., 4-year to 4-year) did not break enrollment continuity, their chances of leaving the persistence path within six years decreased. In addition, Adelman (1999) reported that the bachelor degree completion rates of students over an eleven year period were not affected by the number of institutions attended. His study, however, included both students who began their postsecondary education at two-year and four-year institutions.

Research Design and Methodology

This study utilized the Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) longitudinal data set (1996/2001) from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), which followed for six academic years a nationally representative sample of students who began their postsecondary education during the 1995-96 academic year. The overall design of the BPS study involved a two-stage probability sampling of students taken from both 2-year and 4-year institutions from nine geographical areas across the United States (Wine, et al., 2002). Students were included in the cohort if they were first time postsecondary students regardless of when they completed high school. The initial base-year data was collected during the 1995-96 academic year. The first and second follow-up interviews were conducted in 1998 and 2001, respectively.

The procedures and survey instruments utilized in this study were developed and field-tested for reliability and validity by the National Center for Educational Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Education. Participation in the study was strictly voluntary, and a national level Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects approved the protocol (Wine et al., 2002).

Research Sample

For the purposes of this study, the research sample was delimited to include only those students who began at 4-year institutions, had as an initial goal to complete at least a bachelor's degree, and had indicated that they were majoring (final major) in one of the sub-specializations of FCS. Please note that although I utilize the terminology "Family and Consumer Sciences" (or FCS) for the discipline, the data base actually defined the major as "Home Economics". The longitudinal weighting variable provided in the data set by NCES was utilized in order to more appropriately reflect the population of students the sample was intended to represent (Wine et al., 2002). This yielded a sample of 9,939 bachelor-seeking FCS students all of whom were beginning their postsecondary education for the first time regardless of when they had completed high school.