Using a multi-institutional sample of undergraduate students, this study found that the relationships between engaging in high impact/good practices and liberal arts outcomes differ based on students' precollege and background characteristics. Findings suggest that high impact/good practices are not a panacea and require a greater degree of…

This study analyzed a multi-institutional and longitudinal data set to determine the impact of exposure to effective instruction on first-year persistence--defined as reenrolling for the second year of college at the same institution. Net of important confounding influences, exposure to effective instruction significantly increased the likelihood…

This article reports on a study that explored whether diversity experiences influence students' attitudes toward literary activities during the first year of college. Interactional diversity and attending a diversity workshop had a positive net influence on the outcome measure. Exposure to curricular diversity, however, had only a chance effect on…

Funded by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts (CILA) at Wabash College, the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) is a multi-institution, multi-year, longitudinal study designed to identify the academic and non-academic collegiate experiences that foster liberal learning. This article describes how the study was done and…

This study estimated the effects of teacher organization, clarity, classroom challenge and faculty expectations, support, and prompt feedback on students' inclination to inquire and lifelong learning during the first year of college. Controlling for a battery of potential confounding influences, teacher organization was positively associated with…

Liberal arts colleges have prided themselves on providing students with a quality undergraduate education among a scholarly community who are interested in their holistic development. Past research has found students who attended liberal arts colleges more frequently experienced Chickering and Gamson's (1987, 1991) good practices in undergraduate…

Path analysis was used to provide a comprehensive test of the validity of Tinto's causal model of voluntary withdrawal from a postsecondary institution. This study also tests Tinto's hypothesis of compensatory interactions between social and academic integration and between institutional and goal commitment. (Author/PN)

A causal model based on Tinto's work was employed to explain the long-term persistence/withdrawal of students who began their postsecondary education in two-year institutions. Persistence was defined as completing the bachelor's degree within a 9-year period, or actively working toward the degree as of 1980. The model was estimated on a national…

To test Tinto's theory of college attrition, a longitudinal study involving 766 students enrolled in Syracuse University in September 1975 was conducted to determine whether freshmen persisters and voluntary dropouts differed on certain attitudinal and behavioral measures of academic and social integration once selected background characteristics…