Bridge of Promise: Comparing the Academic Outcomes of Kalamazoo Promise to Public School Students in a 4-Year Institution

This study compares Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) students to non-Promise, public high school graduating students at a 4-year institution. The final sample for this study was N=9,969; n = 310 (3%) were KPromise students. Descriptive analysis suggests that KPromise students were racially more diverse and less affluent than non-Promise students. Unweighted regressions show that being a KPromise student was correlated with lower college GPA, increased chance of Academic Dismissal, and lowered likelihood of Degree Attainment. Weighting the sample using Inverse Probability Weighing with Regression Adjustment (IPWRA), being a KPromise student was not correlated to any examined outcomes. However, we were unable to generate a suitably similar comparison sample with the variables we could access. Overall, the Kalamazoo Promise allows students to access the university who are so different from the comparison population that it interferes with standard approaches to assessing outcomes. Discussion centers on descriptive differences and highlights the need for better student-level data.

Model-based academic dismissal policies; a case-study from the Netherlands

Many higher education institutions use a policy for academic dismissal. In the Netherlands, the academic dismissal policy is such that students with fewer credits than a certain threshold after their first year, are expelled. This article employs the beta-binomial model to assess whether this method succeeds in filtering those who have potential from those who do not and what the optimal level of the threshold is. The model considers 13,234 students in three consecutive cohorts from around fifty different bachelor's degree programmes at the University of Groningen. We found that demanding 45 out of 60 credits constitutes a fair threshold for this institution. Although a strict dismissal policy has only a minor effect on cohorts, it can have a major effect on specific groups of students. The software employed here is made available.

The Effect of a Stricter Academic Dismissal Policy on Course Selection, Student Effort, and Grading Leniency

This paper uses data from a four-year college in Taiwan to examine the effect of adopting a stricter dismissal policy on course selection, student effort, and grading practices. Under the new rule, students are dismissed if they fail 50 percent or more credits in any two semesters as opposed to two consecutive semesters. The results show students who had failed 50 percent or more credit hours in a semester are more likely to strategically enroll in leniently graded courses after the policy change, especially in classes with a low failure rate. Study time and class attendance increase significantly after the policy change, suggesting the policy has achieved its goal of encouraging student effort. Instructors are found to grade more leniently after the policy change and the effect remains strong after student effort is controlled for. More importantly, instructors lower grading standards mainly through failing fewer students, as opposed to giving higher grades.