University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The college dropout: The relative contribution of individual, structural, and institutional factors to the withdrawal of male and female, black and white students from 4-year colleges

Kim, Jae-Woong

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/20732

Description

Title
The college dropout: The relative contribution of individual, structural, and institutional factors to the withdrawal of male and female, black and white students from 4-year colleges
Author(s)
Kim, Jae-Woong
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Trent, William T.
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Education, Sociology of
  • Education, Administration
  • Education, Higher
Language
eng
Abstract
  • This study sought to test the synthesis model of dropout which combines three approaches--the individual-oriented approach, the structure-oriented approach, and Tinto's interaction approach. Research questions were addressed as follows: (a) how well does the synthesis model fit the data in terms of a chi-square value with degrees of freedom (df), the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), and the root mean-square residual (RMSR)? (b) how do the variables representing the structure-oriented approach, the individual-oriented approach, and Tinto's interaction approach uniquely explain the withdrawal from college? (c) which one is relatively more important between the academic integration and the social integration in the model? and (d) can it be assumed that the forms of structural equations of persistence be invariant over groups by sex and by race?
  • The data for this study came mainly from the High School and Beyond (HSB) survey of seniors in 1980, and partly from the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) and Barron's Profile of American Colleges (1980). The maximum likelihood (ML) method of LISREL was used with mixed matrices of polychoric, polyserial, and Pearson correlations.
  • The findings of the study suggest that (a) the synthesis model was very useful for understanding college departure with 26.6% of explained variance; (b) the effects of the structure-related variables (i.e., sex, race, SES) were persisting, while the collegiate experiences and integration argued by Tinto were relatively weak in influencing persistence or dropping out; (c) with regard to the total effect, the effect of high school GPA on persistence was the strongest among pre-entry variables; (d) generally, academic integration was more important than social integration in determining persistence; and (e) the same patterns of structural equations of persistence could be assumed over males and females, but not assumed for blacks and whites.
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/20732
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1991 Kim, Jae-Woong

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