The Effect of Tutoring on Student Success

Abstract

This research examined the effect of tutoring on student success at an open enrollment community college, controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, highest level of education, and reading, writing and mathematics competency. Student success was defined three ways: term grade point average (GPA), success in courses, and persistence from the fall to spring semesters. Using analysis of variance and logistic regression, researchers found that tutoring was associated with student success, controlling for the other variables. Results provide empirical support for the hypothesized importance of tutoring in colleges' arsenals of student support services. Introduction and Purpose During the past 10 years, there has been increased national attention directed to student success in higher education. Emanating from a variety of sources, including calls for accountability, revised accreditation criteria that place greater emphasis on student outcomes, and greater emphasis on teaching and learning, colleges are expected to do a more substantial job of measuring students' learning and using assessment results for improvement. The recent report of the Spellings Commission and spring 2007 Department of Education negotiated regulations discussions regarding the possible role of accrediting agencies in guaranteeing institutional performance further underscore the expectation that colleges will need to be able to document student success. How colleges can affect and improve learning and student success continues to be an unanswered question, although a variety of relatively new instruments and initiatives are aimed at this goal. For example, the Foundations of Excellence® Project, sponsored by the Policy Center on the First Year of College, posits nine foundational dimensions of excellence, aspirational dimensions that characterize excellent college principles and programs for first-year and new college students. Two versions of the dimensions exist, one for four-year and the other for two-year colleges (Foundations of Excellence®, 2005) . The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) are both designed to obtain self-reported measures of student engagement; i.e., students respond to questions that assess institutional and student behaviors that research has shown to be correlated highly with student learning and student retention. National results provide an interesting picture of how students spend their time, particularly in activities identified as good practices in undergraduate education (CCSSE, 2007). Achieving the Dream is another broad student success initiative. Now in its fourth year, the project involves more than 80 colleges in 15 states in multi-year efforts to improve student achievement, especially for low-income and minority students. Nearly all Achieving the Dream institutions are community colleges. Participating institutions are required to compile and analyze data on student performance to aid in developing intervention strategies that address what each institution identifies as critical barriers to success for its students. The colleges are expected to measure the impact of their strategies by compiling and analyzing data to determine whether students are, indeed, achieving at higher levels than had been the case before the new strategies were implemented (Achieving the Dream, 2006). What these and other efforts share is a number of assumptions about the institutional policies and programs that foster student success. These policies and programs include placement in appropriate level mathematics and composition courses, required advising, orientation programs, provision of support services such as tutoring and mentoring, and both in-class and out-of-class activities that engage students rather than permitting them to be passive learners. What is relatively new, however, is research that tests the efficacy of these strategies. …