Time Well Spent! How Summer Enrollment Increases Student Persistence at a Private, Two-Year Technical College

• In Event: 46.035 - Persistence, Debt, and Degrees: Barriers and Supports to Degree Attainment

Abstract

This study examines the effect of an incentivized summer enrollment program on student persistence (reenrollment in the fall of the following year) at a 2-year, private, technical college in Boston. For this, we build on the recent framework of academic momentum and draw from the literature on student persistence/retention. We find that, for the two cohorts examined, taking summer classes significantly increases students’ chances to persist. Students enrolling in the summer have 12 times higher odds of returning in the fall (odds ratio [OR]=12.153, p<.000). This finding is confirmed using multiple propensity score matching algorithms to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT).

Author

• Ray Franke, University of Massachusetts - Boston