Factors Affecting Degree Completion of Adult Learners

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Factors Affecting Degree Completion of Adult
Learners
Marianne Guidos Michael J. Dooris Office of
Planning and Institutional Assessment 2008
Hendrick Best Practices for Adult Learners
Conference University Park, PA May 5, 2008
We thank Charlene Harrison, Director of the
Center for Adult Learner Services, for providing
guidance and information for this study, and the
Office of Student Aid for providing income and
financial aid data.
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Institutional Research in Action!
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Outline

• Why Adult Learners?
• 2006 Access Affordability Study for Traditional
  Students
• Previous Research - Adult Learner Completion
• Fall 1999 Cohort Composition
• Use of Financial Aid
• Degree Completion

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Access, Affordability Traditional Students
Our 2006 Study
A THUMB ON THE SCALE? ABILITY, INCOME, AND DEGREE
COMPLETION IN A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY Michael J.
Dooris Marianne Guidos Office of Planning and
Institutional Assessment The Pennsylvania State
University Presented at the North East
Association for Institutional Research Annual
Conference Philadelphia, PA, November
2006 Acknowledgment. This analysis represents an
ongoing collaboration with Anna Griswold, Penn
States Assistant Vice President for
Undergraduate Admissions and Executive Director
for Student Aid, and her staff. Abstract
This paper examines academic ability, ability to
pay, and degree completion for bachelors degree
students at a large, selective public university.
We ask How does the path to a degree compare
for low-income and high-income students of
similar academic ability? Does income act as a
thumb on the scale? The evidence analyzed here
suggests that it does, and that the disadvantage
to lower-income students is more pronounced than
some prominent higher education observers claim.
Affordability, Participation, and Degree
Completion The literature on access and
affordability presents two competing views. Some
say that lower-income students are increasingly
being priced out, especially from top-tier
institutions. Others argue that participation is
largely a success story for higher
education. The View that Lower-Income Students
Are Being Priced Out National data
suggest that participation and persistence have
long been related to income, and that the
situation has become more pronounced since the
late 1970s and early 1980s. For example, overall
participation rates moved from about 70 percent
to about 90 percent for students from the top
income quartile during that period, while
fluctuating at around 50 percent or so for the
bottom income quartile (Fitzgerald Delaney,
2002). Carnevale and Rose (2003) have
provided dramatic evidence on how ability to pay
relates to access, especially in selective
colleges and universities. Consider the numbers
146, 74, and 3. The figure 146 represents the
number of top-tier colleges and universities in
the U.S. this is based on several of the usual
metrics, including entering students high school
grades, SAT scores, and acceptance rates (those
146 institutions include the university, Penn
State that we focus on in this paper).
Seventy-four percent is the proportion of
students at these 146 highly selective
http//www.psu.edu/president/pia
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• 146
• 74
• 3
• (Carnevale Rose, 2003)

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Are students being priced out?

• At every stage along the track to a bachelors
  degree, family income plays a strong, positive
  role.
• Postsecondary Ed OPPORTUNITY (T.
  Mortensen)

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Or is access largely a success story?
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Access Affordability for TraditionalStudents
2006 Study

• How does the path to a degree compare for low-
  income and high income baccalaureate students of
  similar academic ability?

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2006 Study on Traditional Students Research
Design

• 11,930 full-time baccalaureate freshmen
• Fall 1999 Summer 2005
• Internal databases (transcript, financial aid...)
• Ability to pay family income from FAFSA
• Academic ability first-fall semester gpa

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2006 Study on Traditional Students Ability to
Pay, Academic Ability, and Six-Year Graduation
Rates
High
Academic Ability
Low
High
Ability to Pay
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2006 Study on Traditional Students Ability to
Pay, Academic Ability, and Six-Year Graduation
Rates
High ability Low Income
High ability High income
High
Academic Ability
Low
High
Ability to Pay
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2006 Study on Traditional Students Ability to
Pay, Academic Ability, and Six-Year Graduation
Rates
High
Academic Ability
Low
High
Ability to Pay
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Data overload.?
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Logistic Regression Degree Completion
(traditional students)

• Variable Odds Ratio
• Age in Fall 1999 (14-45) 0.942
• Gender (female 0) 0.894
• Minority (minority 0) 0.960
• First generation (no 0) 0.899
• Residency (PA 0) 0.783
• First-fall semester gpa (0.00-4.00 full-point
  increments) 3.156
• HS class rank in percentiles (2-99)
  1.009
• SAT score (50-point increments) 0.989
• Total financial aid (in 1,000s) 0.994
• Family income (in 10,000s) 1.048
• On- or off-campus (off-campus 0) 2.295
• Campus (non-University Park 0) 1.849
• Model ? 2 1622.7212
  plt.05
• Nagelkerke R2 0.3573 plt.01
• Concordant (predicted to observed) 80.6
  plt.001
• d.f. 12

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Logistic Regression Degree Completion
(traditional students)

• Variable Odds
  Ratio
• Age in Fall 1999 (14-45) 0.942
• Gender (female 0) 0.894
• Minority (minority 0) 0.960
• First generation (no 0) 0.899
• Residency (PA 0) 0.783
• First-fall semester gpa (0.00-4.00 full-point
  increments) 3.156
• HS class rank in percentiles (2-99)
  1.009
• SAT score (50-point increments) 0.989
• Total financial aid (in 1,000s) 0.994
• Family income (in 10,000s) 1.048
• On- or off-campus (off-campus 0)
  2.295
• Campus (non-University Park 0) 1.849
• Model ? 2 1622.7212
  plt.05
• Nagelkerke R2 0.3573 plt.01
• Concordant (predicted to observed) 80.6
  plt.001
• d.f. 12

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TMI?
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2006 Study on Traditional Students

• When other factors are taken into account,
  differences in ability to pay relate
  substantively and significantly to the likelihood
  that students will graduate in six years.
• Dooris Guidos 2006

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2006 Study on Traditional Students
When other factors are taken into account,
differences in ability to pay relate
substantively and significantly to the likelihood
that students will graduate in six
years. Dooris Guidos 2006
I would like to have information that could
both prompt Development folks into action and
help them articulate the need. --
Director of Adult Learner Center
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WHY ADULT LEARNERS?

• Recent Focus on Adult Learners
• Center for Adult Learner Services
• Commission for Adult Learners
• Committee to Attract/Retain Adults

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WHY ADULT LEARNERS?

• Strategies
• Enhance and extend the impact of the Center for
  Adult Learner Services to address the unique
  needs of nontraditional students at all campuses.
• Recruit prospective students aggressively from
  traditional and adult student populations and
  improve student retention at all campuses.
• Tailor additional programs, schedules, and
  services to the needs of nontraditional students.

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WHY ADULT LEARNERS?
Penn State - Market Share of Adults Low
PA Department of Education
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Penn State Not Alone
Does your institution articulate, in its mission
statement or strategic plan, a commitment to
serving adult students?
Yes Public 4-year 47 Private
not-for-profit 67 Public 2-year
61 Private for-profit 49
American Council on Education, May 2005
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Adult Learner Retention

• Little previous research on undergraduate adult
  learners
• Correlates found were
• Work conflicts/home/family responsibilities
• Financial difficulties
• Social integration, academic performance, gender,
  transfer credits

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Penn State Adult Learner Cohort

• 1,269 students
• 24 years or older or a veteran
• First-time degree-seeking (assoc, bacc)
• Fall 1999 Summer 2005

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Penn State Adult Learner Cohort

• Adult learners are a diverse population
• 62 full-time
• 41 under age 30, 28 in 30s, 14 in 40s
• 29 veterans
• 35 associate degree-seeking
• 45 with advanced standing

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Penn State Adult Learner Cohort
Even more diversity between FT/PT
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Adult Learners

• Study Focus
• Use of Financial Aid
• Federal, State, Institutional, Private
• Loans, Grants
• Degree Completion

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Use of Financial Aid

• Adult Learners
• Apply for admission later
• Dont always meet financial aid deadlines

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Use of Financial Aid
Applied for Admission Before May 1
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Financial Aid Applications
Financial Aid Submission by February 15
Financial Aid Submission by May 1
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1999-00 Financial Aid Usage
February 15 Deadline

• Full-time adult learners
• 2,155 vs. 1,701 state grant
• Used 400 less in loans

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1999-00 Financial Aid Usage
May 1 Deadline

• State Grants
• Full-time 2,086 vs 998
• Part-time 818 vs 335

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Meeting Deadlines
State Grant Amounts - May 1 Deadline
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Six-Year Use of Financial Aid

• Gift Aid
• 79 of full-time
• 52 of part-time
• Loans
• 70 of full-time
• 42 of part-time

• Gift or Loans
• 82 of full-time
• 59 of part-time

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Six-Year Use of Financial Aid

• Full-time students received double the amount of
  grant aid as part-time students
• FT students and PT students had similar levels of
  loan debt

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Six-Year Degree Completion

• 54 of FT adult learners
• 51 of PT adult learners
• 66 of traditional students

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Identifying Correlates of Completion for Adult
Learners

• Least likely to graduate
• Provisional students
• Veterans
• No transfer credits

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Identifying Correlates of Completion for Adult
Learners
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Correlates of Completion for Adult Learners
What did we look at?
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Correlates of Completion for Adult Learners
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Correlates of Completion for Adult Learners
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Debt Loads
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Six-Year Degree Completion

• Outcomes shared with
• Center for Adult Learner services
• Commission for Adult Learners
• Adult enrollment coordinators at all 19 campuses
• Veterans advocates
• Office of Student Aid

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How can we use this information?