Differences in 1-Year Persistence Rates by the Institutional Status of Black and Hispanic Students at Texas 4-Year Universities: A Multiyear, Statewide Investigation

Purpose The purposes of this journal-ready dissertation were threefold. The first purpose was to determine the degree to which 1-year persistence rates differed as a function of the institutional status (i.e., stayed or transferred) of students enrolled at Texas 4-year public universities in the 1999-2000 through the 2013-2014 academic years. The second purpose was to analyze the degree to which differences existed in the 1-year persistence rates by the institutional status (i.e., stayed at the same Texas 4-year public university or transferred to a different Texas 4-year public university) of Black students enrolled in the 1999-2000 through the 2013-2014 academic years. The third purpose was to examine 1-year persistence rates by the institutional status of Hispanic students enrolled in Texas 4-year public universities in the 1999-2000 through the 2013-2014 academic years. Through analyzing multiple years of data for each of the thirty-eight Texas 4-year public universities, any trends that were present in the 1-year persistence rates by student institutional status at Texas 4-year public universities were determined.

Method In this multiyear, statewide investigation, 15 years of archival data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Interactive Accountability System were downloaded and analyzed for each of the three studies in this journal ready dissertation. Specifically, archival data were obtained for the 1-year persistence rates of students enrolled in one of the 38, 4-year Texas public universities in the 1999-2000 through the 2013-2014 academic years.

Findings Inferential statistical analyses revealed the presence of statistically significant differences, with large effect sizes, for 100% of the analyses. All Texas undergraduate students, Black students, and Hispanic students who stayed at the same Texas 4-year public university were 42% to 51%, 35% to 49%, and 40% to 50% more likely to persist, respectively, than their peers who transferred to a different Texas 4-year public university in the 1999-2000 through the 2013-2014 academic years. Additionally, the 1-year persistence rates of these students at Texas 4-year public universities did not change at a statistically significant level over the 15 years of analyzed data. Implications for policy and for practice, as well as recommendations for future research, were discussed.