Looking at the Past, Shaping the Future: Getting to Know Our Students for the Past 40 Years

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Looking at the Past, Shaping the Future Getting
to Know Our Students for the Past 40 Years

• NASPA/ACPA 2007 Conference
• Orlando, FL ? April 2, 2007
• Sylvia Hurtado John H. Pryor
• Director Director
• Higher Education Research Institute
  Cooperative Institutional Research Program
• Higher Education Research Institute
• University of California at Los Angeles

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Introduction

• Unprecedented increase in enrollment
• Baccalaureate degree as a minimum and essential
  credential for many employers
• Enrollment predicted to increase through 2015
• Womens movement and civil rights movement sought
  to decrease inequities and enhance diversity

Source National Center for Education Statistics
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Introduction

• Are our institutions
• Achieving educational equity?
• Meeting students needs and aspirations?
• Developing the values, skills, and knowledge for
  an increasingly complex and global society?

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Cooperative Institutional Research Program

• Longitudinal Research Program Launched in 1966
• Hundreds of articles in professional journals
  and books written using CIRP data
• Astins Theory of Involvement

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Higher Education Research Institute
CIRP Cooperative Institutional Research Program
Funded Research
Freshman Survey
YFCY
CSS

• Atlantic Philanthropies
• Templeton Foundation
• National Institutes
• of Health

Faculty Survey
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Forty Years of Trend Data
1966
2006
206,865 respondents 251 Colleges and
Universities
271,441 respondents 393
Colleges and Universities
Total over 40 years 8,319,318 students 1,201
colleges and universities
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CIRP Freshman Survey Trends

• Major Findings in the Report
• Demographics and Implications for a Diverse
  Society
• Access and Affordability
• Preparation for College
• Technology
• Politics and Discourse
• Values
• Conclusion and Implications

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Demographic Changes
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Demographic Changes

• Increased racial ethnic diversity
• Women have become a stable majority
• Older students
• More students reporting learning disabilities
• Parents more affluent
• Parents less likely to live together

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Preparation for a Diverse Society
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CIRP Research Reports

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College Choice
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College Choice Applications Increase

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CIRP Freshman Survey Trends

• 2006 67.3 attending first choice
• 1976 (77.3)
• 1986 (70.7)
• 1996 (71.5)

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Affordability
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Affordability

• Parental Income
• Rising faster in the group of parents of college
  students than the national average
• In 1975, parental income of students was 46
  above national
• In 2005, parental income of students was 60
  above national
• Rising faster for parents of students in public
  universities
• Family income of students at privates rose 15.7
• Family income of students at publics rose 17.1
• Fewer students have major concerns about
  financing their education (11.6, down from 19.1
  in 1995)

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Preparation for College
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Preparation for College

• Since 1982, completion of recommended levels
  increased (National Commission on Excellence)
• Most increases in meeting recommended levels of
  course work were in the first decade
• Still improvement needed in
• Biology (46.8)
• Physical Science (59.9)
• Computer Science (61.6)

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Preparation for College

• Academic Preparation
• Student Perception of Necessary Remedial Work in
  College Dropped from 1971 to 1979, but remains
  fairly stable since then
• Will need remedial work in College?
• 24.1 Math
• 10.9 Science
• 9.4 English
• Gaps by Racial/Ethnic Group have closed but
  remain

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Preparation for College

• Academic Habits and Experiences
• More were late to class in High School
• 48.2 in 1966
• 65.1 in 2001
• 60.6 in 2006

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Fewer Students Studying 6 Hours a Week as High
School Seniors
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Preparation for College

• Academic Habits and Experiences
• Declining interaction with High-School Teachers

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Technology
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Technology

• Use a personal computer
• 23.5 in 1985
• 85.8 in 2005
• Used Internet for homework

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TechnologyFrequent Use of the Internet for
Homework as High-School Senior
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Social and Political Views
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Political Ideology
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Political Views

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Political Views

• Shifting views on abortion, gay rights,
  legalization of marijuana, and using affirmative
  action in college admissions
• Driving this change has been differential changes
  among conservatives and liberals

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Political Views

• Politics
• Greater differences between students
• Also disagree if Colleges have the right to ban
  extreme speakers
• Overall agreement has increased
• 24.1 agree in 1986 to 40.5 in 2006
• Conservatives 55.1 agree
• Liberals 28.5 agree

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Values
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Values

• Why Go To College
• Greatest Changes
• To make more money
• 49.9 in 1976
• 64.9 in 1985
• 69.0 in 2006
• To prepare for graduate/professional school
• 34.9 in 1971
• 57.7 in 2006

• Are students more
• apathetic?
• materialistic?

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Values

• Student Interest in Quality of Life issues
• Upward social mobility lessened
• Culture emphasizes quick paths to wealth
• High corporate salaries
• Dot.com
• State lotteries
• Financial considerations such as College
• Altruism in helping others

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CIRP Freshman Survey Trends

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Implications for Student Affairsand College
Educators

• Educating students about diversity, promoting
  civil discourse, and skills for handling conflict
  are more important today
• Co-curricular programming examples
• Staff training

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Implications for Student Affairsand College
Educators

• Reports for special tutoring or remediation have
  not declined among entering freshmen. How will we
  meet their needs?
• Placement tests, advising, early warning systems,
  more advising
• Supplemental education in living learning
  programs
• High school and college partnerships examples

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Implications for Student Affairsand College
Educators

• Technology progress means keeping up with modes
  of communication and student learning
  (e.g.evaluating sources of information).

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Implications for Student Affairsand College
Educators

• Students want a better quality of life and are
  altruistic
• Millennial generation has received much criticism
  but many of the trends preceded them, starting in
  the 1980s.
• Service opportunities with time for students to
  reflect on values
• Encourage the development of responsible
  citizenship

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Implications for Student Affairsand College
Educators

• Access and Affordability Balancing the market
  perspective with broader goals of higher
  education
• Enable more low and middle income students to
  make good choices
• Work collaboratively with colleges that have
  capacity, joint agreements
• Using broad definition of talent and multiple
  ways of assessing it in admissions

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For More Information

To order The American Freshman Forty Year
Trends, or for more information Go to the HERI
booth or use our website

• 40 year trends institutional report for each
  school that has participated in the 2006 data
  collection and has at least 5 years of data

• http//www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri