Abstract

Many colleges and universities seek to promote student success through targeted strategies for individuals or groups of students who are believed to have a higher risk of attrition. Taking a different focused approach, Supplemental Instruction (SI) provides voluntary collaborative learning sessions that are generally linked to specific undergraduate courses with a high percentage of students who either receive low grades or do not complete the course. Although a substantial body of literature has examined the outcomes associated with SI, many of these studies have notable methodological limitations, which include problems with student self-selection into SI participation. The present study examined the effects of SI using doubly robust propensity score analyses with a total of 12,641 observations from 21 different courses across 2 semesters. In both semester samples, SI participation led to higher course grades and retention. The strongest relationships were often observed for underrepresented racial minority students and for students who attended at least five SI sessions. The results did not differ systematically by students’ sex, first-generation status, high school grades, and precollege standardized test scores. The findings have important implications for the use of SI to help students overcome challenges within early college coursework.

摘要

许多学院和大学寻求通过针对被认为具有较高退学风险的学生个人或群体的针对性策略来促进学生的成功。采用不同的重点方法，补充教学 (SI) 提供自愿的协作学习课程，这些课程通常与特定的本科课程相关联，其中很大一部分学生要么成绩不佳，要么没有完成课程。尽管大量文献研究了与 SI 相关的结果，但其中许多研究在方法论上存在明显的局限性，其中包括学生自行选择参与 SI 的问题。本研究使用双重稳健的倾向得分分析检查了 SI 的影响，共对 2 个学期的 21 门不同课程进行了 12,641 次观察。在两个学期样本中，SI 参与导致了更高的课程成绩和保留率。对于代表性不足的少数族裔学生和至少参加过五次 SI 课程的学生，经常观察到最强的关系。结果在学生性别、第一代身份、高中成绩和大学预科标准化考试成绩方面没有系统差异。这些发现对于使用 SI 帮助学生克服早期大学课程中的挑战具有重要意义。和大学预科标准化考试成绩。这些发现对于使用 SI 帮助学生克服早期大学课程中的挑战具有重要意义。和大学预科标准化考试成绩。这些发现对于使用 SI 帮助学生克服早期大学课程中的挑战具有重要意义。