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The study was a large-scale randomized analysis of the impact of a commercial service that provides individualized coaching to students on time management, academic goals and other subjects. The coaches call regularly and try in particular to link students’ life goals with their academic goals -- and to use the former to motivate progress on the latter.
The study -- by Eric P. Bettinger, an associate professor of education, and Rachel Baker, a doctoral student, both of Stanford University -- found that the services had a statistically significant impact on student persistence. The impact was greater for men than for women -- a potentially important finding, given the lower enrollment and graduation rates of men at many institutions.
The results:
• After six months, coached students were 5.2 percentage points more likely to be enrolled than were other students (63.2 percent vs. 58.0 percent) -- a 9 percent gain in retention.
• The impact was evident as well after a full year, with 48.8 percent of coached students and 43.5 percent of other students still enrolled.
• The impact shrinks slightly but holds 18 months and 24 months after the start of coaching, which lasts only a year. That result is significant because some other intervention strategies to encourage student retention effective while in place lose their impact after the intervention stops.
• The impact also holds for completion rates (with completion varying by institution, and including certificate programs and associate and bachelor’s degrees). Those in the control group completed at a rate of 31 percent, compared to 35 percent of those who received coaching finished.
• Across the various measures, the impact was greater on male students than on female students. After six months of coaching, for example, the impact of coaching added 2.5 percentage points to female students' retention rates, and 6.1 percentage points to the rates for men.
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Source: Daily News Update
