This report is a follow up to the 1993/94 Report on Completion Rates for GC Courses done by Robert DelMas and Cathrine Wambach. This current report considers data on course completion rates from the past four years. It describes any patterns in completion rates over those four years and compares the conclusions about course completion rates from the last report with conclusions drawn from the most current data.

Grades awarded for all GC classes from fall 1994 through fall 1998 comprise this report. Each academic year contains combined information from fall, winter, spring and summer terms. Grades were broken down into two categories; Completed - with grades of A, B, C, D or S; and Non-completed – with grades of F, N, I or W. Students were first broken down into two categories; those registered in General College at the time of the course (GC Student); and those not registered in General College at the time of the course (Non GC Student).. The latter group does not represent a pure population of non-developmental college students, since some of them most likely were registered with GC at some point in time. A sub-category of Non GC Student was created to capture the number of cases in this group. This category, called Transfer Students, contains cases where the student was not registered with GC at the time of the course, but was registered in GC at some other point in time. The transfer group comprised a small percentage of the total cases. For the entire four year period there were 35,781 grade records, 82.7% of which were GC students’, 3.2% of which were transfer students’ and 14.1% of which were non GC students’ (see Table 1). These breakdowns have remained relatively stable throughout each of the four years (see Table 2).

Courses were classified into 11 course area categories; Preparatory mathematics (611,615,616,617,621,623,625,631,643), Mathematical thinking (1454,1456), Computing (1571,1575), Speech (1461,1465,1464), Composition (1421,1422), Reading (1041,1042,1051), Academic acculturation (1076,1086), Science (1111,1112,1131,1132,1137,1160,1161,1162,1166,1171,1172,1173), Social science (1211,1221,1231,1233,1235,1251,1281,1282,1283,1284,1285,1294,1297,1701,1721,1733,1814,1851) Business (1511,1513,1537,1540,1587), and Humanities (1311,1312,1331,1357,1364,1365,1366,1367,1371,1374,1375,1481,1482,1483,1816,1836).

From over the four year period of 1994/95-1997/98 there were 35,781 grade records based on 7923 students; 3865 (49%) of whom were GC students, 511 (6%) transfer students, and 3547 (45%) non GC students. An analysis of student entry characteristics brought forth some expected patterns. The non GC group had the highest college entry statistics (mean High School GPA (HSGPA) = 3.25, mean High School Percentile Rank (HSPR) = 78, and mean ACT composite score (ACTCOMP) = 22.56). The other two groups had lower means, with the transfer group being slightly above the GC group on HSGPA (GC = 2.50; transfer = 2.60) and HSPR (GC = 45; transfer = 48), but not on ACTCOMP (GC = 19.85; transfer = 18.75.

GC students comprised the majority (>50%) of all grade records in all course areas except for computing (see Table 3). Over the four year period, the course areas of composition, reading and academic acculturation contained the most GC students (>90%), followed by speech, science, social science and humanities (>80%). The course areas of mathematical thinking and computing contained the most transfer students, while composition, reading and academic acculturation contained the least (as would be expected since these students would have completed these courses while in GC). The course area of computing serves the most non GC students, followed by the areas of mathematics and business, and then by speech, science, social science and humanities.

The distribution of grade records for course area by student type was further broken down by year to examine any trends in the types of students registering in each area (see table 4). Over the four years the following course areas appear to be attracting more GC students; preparatory mathematics (69% in 1994: 81% in 1997), business (55% in 1009: 84% in 1997) and, to some extent, academic acculturation (88% in 1994: 95% in 1997). The following areas appear to be attracting less GC students; mathematical thinking (69% in 1994: 54% in 1997), computing (31% in 1994: 67% in 1995: 69% in 1996: 21% in 1997) and, to some extent, speech (83% in 1994: 79% in 1997).

It must be taken into account that these trends (and any trends to be discussed in the remainder of this report) could be confounded to some degree by trends in volume of student enrollment for each area, especially when enrollment in a particular area is relatively small to begin with. From 1994/95 to 1997/98, enrollment in the following course areas appears to have increased; academic acculturation (+122%), mathematical thinking (+46%), social science (+40%), composition (+28%), science (+25%), speech (+19%) and humanities (+13%): Enrollment in the following areas appears to have decreased; reading (-26%), business (-19%), preparatory mathematics (-14%) and computing (-8%). The smaller changes could reflect some random fluctuation in registration activity, rather than a true change in enrollment.

Because the transfer students are more akin to the GC students, but farther along on their developmental trajectory, it might be expected that this group would have slightly higher completion rates than GC students. For the most part, this pattern holds (contact ORE for more information).. Because of the relatively small number of grade records for transfer students, subsequent discussion will be based upon grouping transfer students with non GC students (i.e. a group containing all those not registered in GC at the time of the course, regardless of their history)

First consideration will be given to course area completion rates over the four years for all students combined. Then the course area completion rates over the four years will be considered separately for GC and non GC students.

Table 5 contains the overall course completion rates for each area and each of the four years. From 1994/95 to 1997/98, the course completion rates appear to have slightly increased (difference from 94/94 to 97/98 of about 3%-5%) in all areas except for speech, composition, and reading. The only area where course completion seems to have increased markedly is academic acculturation (with a difference from 94/95 to 97/98 of 16%). Again, it must be taken into account that these trends could be confounded to some degree by trends in volume of student enrollment for each area, especially when enrollment in a particular area is relatively small to begin with.

In terms of the most current academic year, course completion rates for all areas are above 90% except for preparatory mathematics (78%), science (88%), and social science (88%). Preparatory mathematics has the lowest course completion rate, at 78%. Computing (97%), and reading (99%) have the highest completion rates, at above 95%.

In general, since this report was last completed for the 1993/94 school year, course completion rates appear to have slightly increased (by 5% on average). Whereas in the last report, completion rates were the highest for speech and reading, they now appear to be highest for computing and reading.

In taking a closer look at completion rates between GC and non GC students, figures for the 1994/95 year were compared to the most recent 1996/97 year. These completion rates are presented in table 6 and do not include the areas of composition, reading and academic acculturation since these contain predominantly GC students’ records (97%, 99%, and 93% respectively).

For preparatory mathematics and business, non GC students completion rates have decreased somewhat (-5% and –2% respectively), whereas those for GC students have increased (+7% and +12% respectively). Completion rates have slightly increased for both groups in the following areas; mathematical thinking (non GC, +3%: GC, +3%), science (non GC, +2%: GC, +4%), social science (non GC, +2%: GC, +4%), and humanities (non GC, +6%: GC, +2%). For computing, completion rates have remained stable for non GC students but have increased for GC students (+9%). For speech, completion rates for the two groups have remained stable. The greatest changes were for GC students course completion in business (+12%), computing (+9%) and preparatory mathematics (+7%). Otherwise the changes were small (+ or - 2% - 4%).

Considering the most current data, GC students have lower course completion rates than non GC students in all areas, except for preparatory mathematics where they have a slightly higher completion rate (by 2%). The most marked differences are in the areas of speech and humanities, with differences of approximately 10 and 9 percentage points respectively. However, courses in these area are very sparsely populated by non GC students Mathematical thinking, science and social science show moderate differences between the two groups, with differences of approximately 6, 6, and 5 percentage points respectively .

In terms of how things have changed since the last report was completed, there are some interesting things to note. When the last report was completed, the greatest differences between the two groups were for the areas of preparatory mathematics, computing and business. These differences have virtually disappeared in the most current data. The differences that do exist for speech and humanities are not tremendously alarming given that both areas have high completion rates for GC students, and that both areas are sparsely populated by non GC students.

At the time of the last course completion report, completion rates were compared between GC and non GC students for courses in which the non GC enrollment was greater than 50. This analysis was repeated with the 1997/98 data, and results can be found in table 7. Course areas not in the table did not contain any courses which met the criterion. The courses embodied by each of the relevant areas are as follows; preparatory mathematics – 625, 631; mathematical thinking – 1454, 1456; science – 1131, 1132, 1137, 1166; social science – 1235, 1281, 1283; humanities – 1371. The computing area is not represented because there was only one computer course offered during the year (which did contain more than 50 non GC students), so results for this area would be the same as previously presented. Results are essentially the same as those presented above, with some minor changes in completion rates between the two groups for preparatory mathematics, social science and humanities.

Course completion rates look better than they did 5 years ago. The average completion rate over all course areas is 91% in the most current data: It was 83% five years ago at the time of the last report. The most notable changes in completion rates have occurred in preparatory mathematics, computing and academic acculturation. At the time of the last report, GC students had much lower completion rates in preparatory mathematics and computing than did non GC students (by 15% in both areas). The most recent data show that GC students have completion rates comparable to non GC students’ in both areas, with actually slightly higher completion rates in preparatory mathematics. It is also noteworthy that preparatory mathematics contain a higher proportion of GC students than in the past. Computing has had an erratic history in terms of the proportion of GC students enrolled, but it does contain a smaller proportion of GC students than it did at the time of the last report. Completion rates in academic acculturation have increased 9 percentage points from the time of the last report, but registration in this area has had a substantial increase as well, by about 64%.

Pinning down these changes in course completion rates to any one cause would not capture the entire picture. Indeed, a variety of changes have occurred at General College and the University over the past four years which could have bearing on our course completion rates. Please feel free to contact me with any input you may have on reasons for the completion rate changes. It would be informative to begin a working dialogue about these topics. Also, feel free to contact me if you would like more detailed information on completion rates (like for a particular course), or if you have any questions and comments about the report in general.

Contact me, Jennifer Hatfield, at;

hatf0016@tc.umn.edu