Encouraging High-Risk Student Participation in Tutoring and Supplemental Instruction.

Abstract

Since the beginning of American higher education with the opening of Harvard in 1636, postsecondary education has changed from serving an elitist homogeneous population of students to serving a more heterogeneous population with tremendous differences in academic skills. To meet the needs of high-risk students, postsecondary institutions have implemented developmental education courses and programs such as tutoring and Supplemental Instruction (SI); however, high-risk students may not accurately perceive their own need for academic assistance. The rationale for this study was to determine if more proactive interventions would facilitate high-risk students' use of academic support programs. Two of the more common forms of academic assistance available to students are tutoring and SI. Tutoring is a primary component of most developmental education programs (Roueche & Snow, 1977) and contributes to retention of developmental students (Boylan, Bonham, Claxton, & Bliss, 1992). Studies by the National Center for Developmental Education have found that tutoring had a positive impact on persistence and graduation, final course grades, course completion rates, and student attitudes toward instruction. In total, 73% of postsecondary institutions offer tutoring programs: 71% of 2-year institutions and 75% of 4-year institutions. Tutoring is provided primarily by part-- time tutors (88%), particularly at 4-year institutions where only 8% of them are full time (Boylan, Bonham, Bliss, & Saxon, 1995). Tutoring programs featuring a tutor training component make a more significant contribution to students' success than programs that do not provide tutor training (Boylan et al., 1992). Seventy percent of developmental programs provide tutor training; programs at 4-year institutions are substantially more likely to do so than those at 2-year institutions (Boylan et al., 1995). In addition, regularly evaluated tutoring programs are more successful in meeting students' needs (Boylan, Bonham, & Bliss, 1994). Students in such programs have higher persistence rates and higher GPAs than students in programs with no evaluation component. However, only 48% of 4-year and 25% of 2-year institutions regularly evaluate their tutorial programs (Boylan, 1992). Developed in 1973 by researchers at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in response to high attrition rates among entering students, SI is a postsecondary academic assistance program that increases students' academic performance and retention using collaborative learning strategies. SI programs target high-risk courses-those having 30% or higher rates of Ds, Fs, and Ws (withdrawals)and provide regularly-scheduled, out-of-class, peer-facilitated study sessions that offer students an opportunity to discuss and process course information (Martin, Lorton, Blanc, & Evans, 1977). According to one report, the goals of SI are to improve students' grades in targeted courses, reduce attrition rates within those courses, and increase student graduation rates (Center for Academic Development, 1992). SI avoids the remedial stigma often attached to academic assistance programs because it identifies high-risk courses rather than students (Arendale, 1994). Student attendance is voluntary and open to everyone in the targeted course, making prescreening of students unnecessary. SI provides assistance before problems occur because the program begins during the first week of classes with sessions meeting several times each week throughout the term. In addition, SI enables students to master course content while they develop and integrate effective learning and study strategies. It promotes a high degree of student interaction and mutual support through peer teaching and group study. Finally, SI provides an opportunity for the course instructor to receive useful feedback from the SI leader. Numerous studies have reported positive relationships between students' participation in SI programs and their academic achievement or retention (University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1999). …