Social Demographic Predictors of Graduation Rate Completers Prof. Irmannette Torres-Lugo Assistant Researcher Office of Institutional Research & Planning - UPRM

Purpose Describe the UPRM first-time degree-seeking students in terms of:  Program options for admission to UPRM  College of Admission  Academic history  Family income  Parental Education Determine if there are differences amongst these variables in terms of being a completer within 150% normal time to degree Identify potential areas of intervention

UPRM Description Undergraduate Profile (Carnegie 2005):  Full-time four year institution with long programs (i.e., 5 years)  More selective  Low transfer-in Admissions are done at the systemic level and are based on a General Admission Index which is a composite of the students’ High School GPA and the Verbal and Mathematical Aptitude scores of the CEEB

Present Study Uses data from the UPR Central Administration data supplied on the admission applications Is merged with the data bases of academic achievement that have been established by the UPRM OIRP. Is a work in progress in model seeking to identify areas of intervention and information to be gathered in order to improve student graduation rates.

Who are the UPRM first-time degree- seeking students?

What is the UPRM Graduation Rate?

Are there differences between completers and non-completers?

VariableCompleters vs. Non-completers NMean Std. Deviation High School GPA Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, CEEB Verbal Apt. Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, CEEB Math Apt. Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, CEEB English Achievement Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, CEEB Math Achievement Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, CEEB Spanish Achievement Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, General Admission Index Completed in 150% Normal Time to Completion5, Did Not Obtain Degree4, High School Academic History

Conclusion and Future Possibilities…

Significant differences warrant further exploration  Data validation is required  Stratified statistical analysis have to be performed to pinpoint the degree of association amongst variables and what variables are mostly associated  New methods must be established to gather more insight: NSSE results Freshmen Surveys Student Profile

All variables explored revealed significant differences except for parental education:  Data for 1995 must be validated since it does not follow the trend for the responses offered in the other years Data revealing differences amongst demographic variables of completers and non-completers offers insight to areas for early intervention:  This would require early knowledge of who these students are  Initiatives implemented must be non- discriminatory

Final Reflections Despite finding significant differences, the greatest variance explained for any of the variables fluctuated between 15% - 17%  Further quantitative variables must be analyzed  Other variables are serving as confounding variables  The challenge is to design systems and mechanisms for identifying these variables.

Questions & Suggestions

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