Student Engagement, Retention, and Motivation: Assessing Academic Success in Today’s College Students

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 17 - 30, 01.06.2018

Gail D. Caruth

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.18.4.5.1

Cited By: 32

Abstract

Despite
the attention given to student retention for nearly half a century, college
graduation and persistence rates have not improved in over two decades.
Furthermore, time to degree rates suggest that it is taking more time to earn
degrees. Consequently, there is a significant amount of individual and
financial expense required to earn a college degree. Higher education has the responsibility
to the society it serves to make postsecondary education a successful
experience for students. Is higher education measuring up to meet the learning
needs of society? The purpose of this paper was to examine academic success of
today’s college students. It is important to know if students are graduating
from college. Determining whether or not colleges and universities are meeting
the learning needs is critical for higher education. This research study was an
archival quantitative, data mining study using data from the Integrated
Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) of the National Center for Education Statistics. This study identified
the graduation numbers during the years 2009 to 2014 according to available
data at public, private, and for-profit 2-year and 4-year universities in the
United States.  Findings revealed that
for-profit 2-year and 4-years institutions saw the greatest increase in
institutions and students graduating from 2009 until 2014.

Keywords

Assessments, student assessments, college assessments, student success, student engagement, student motivation

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