Program Justification

The following references and excerpts are only a beginning in documenting the value of learning support center programs and services and may be useful in addressing these administrative and faculty concerns. Although most of them are early studies, they can serve as models of studies to be attempted by learning support personnel.
A major bibliography of more than 650 articles compiled by Collegeways, a web site developed by Dr. Alan Seidman, is accessible at http://www.cscsr.org/

As you find more recent publications, email the citations to flchris@cox.net for inclusion in this list.

Academic Preparation for College" What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do.(1983). New York: The College Board.

Beal, P. E. and Noel, L. (1980). What Works in Student Retention. Iowa City: The American Testing Program.

Bender, D.S. (2001, Spring). Effects of study skills programs on theacademic behaviors of college students. Journal of College Reading andLearning 31(2): 209-216.

Bettinger, E. P. and Long, B. T. (2005). Addressing the Needs of Under-prepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work?  (Abstract Only)

"National Profile" (1987). CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, THE (January 14, 1987), 39.
In a national profile of 204,000 students entering college in fall 1986, 40.3% noted as a very important reason in deciding to go to college that they wanted to improve their reading and study skills.

Devlin, M. (1996) Why the provision of 1-1 language and learning support is cost-effective for universities. In K. Chanook, V. Burley and S. Davies (Eds), Proceedings of the Conference held at La Trobe University November 18-19, 1996, pp 82-90.

Entwistle, G. and D. Entwistle. (1960). Study Skills Courses in Medical Schools. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL EDUCATION, (September) 847.
"Evaluation of college study-skill courses indicate that improvement in overall grade averages following the courses is of the order of half-letter grade, and these improvements are usually maintained on follow-up."

Epstein, J. (2007). Teaching Success. Inside Higher Ed    http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/18/success

ERIC (Educational Research Information Clearinghouse). A list of 99 abstracts relevant to study skills and college of a total of 1705 abstrracts in the database.  This list is part of the UIC ERIC collection.

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Hart, D. and M. J. Keller, (1980). Self-reported reasons for poor academic performance of first-term freshmen. JOURNAL OF COLLEGE STUDENT PERSONNEL, (21: 6), 529-534.
The freshmen (301 students) in this study placed the greatest responsibility for their low grades on their own lack of motivation, improper study habits, and inattention to school work. A majority indicated that their failure to schedule time easily, to develop adequate study habits, to keep up with course work, and to learn how to study well were major or moderate reasons for their lack of academic accomplishments.

Hodges, R.B., Sellers, D.E., & Dochen, C.W.  (2001). Implementing a learning framework course. In J. L. Higbee & P. L. Dwinell (Eds.) NADE Monograph: 2001 A Developmental Odyssey, (pp 3-13).  Warrensburg, MO: National Association for Developmental Education.

Hodgkinson, H.L. (1985). ALL ONE SYSTEM. Washington, D.C.: Institute For Educational Leadership, 17.
"Many drop-outs and flunk-outs are bright enough to do good college work, but have never learned how to study effectively, nor how to take tests and do good written work."

Hodgkinson, H. 2000. All One System: A Second Look. Institute for Educational Leadership, Washington, D.C. http://ielorg.fatcow.com/pubs.html
Linkages between K-12 education and higher education are stronger than ever ... but not close enough to overcome critical gaps in student achievement, according to a new report, All One System: A Second Look, by Harold L. Hodgkinson, director of IEL's Center for Demographic Policy. Hodgkinson published a landmark report in 1985, All One System, which presented the argument that the nation's graduate schools were dependent in part on the quality of its kindergartens and that there was a single system of education underlying all educational segments from kindergarten through college. 1999. $15.

Institute for Higher Education Policy at http://www.e-guana.net/organizations.php3?action=printContentItem&orgid=104&typeID=906&itemID=9266
A December, 1998 report "College Remediation: What It Is, What It Costs, What’s at Stake" published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy justifies the need for remediation in higher education. It can provide useful information for discussions with administrators when questions arise about justifying program existence.

Johnson, D. E. (1989). Learning skills instruction improves student retention and academic performance. Journal of Reading (December, 1989, 226-227.
"Clearly, student retention is related to academic success. If learning skills programs [such as described in this article] ... ... could be implemented more widely, there would be a significant reduction of attrition rates."

Kulik, C.C., J. A. Kulik, and B. J. Schwalb, (1983). College programs for high-risk and Disadvantaged students: A meta-analysis of findings. REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, (53:3), 397-414.
Sixty evaluation studies were analyzed and showed that special college programs for high-risk students have had positive effects on students. High-risk students in these programs stayed in college longer than control students and received better grades in regular college work.

Leight, M. Converge (December 2000, 3(12) 11.
"Preparing students today for tomorrow's workforce has a lot to do with teaching about how to use and evaluate knowledge. The Internet is rapidly becoming the biggest repository of information we have ever known. The key will be in our ability to find, evaluate and use the information it provides. We need to teach analytical and organizational skills. Students must know how tom evaluate data. Gone are then days when students spent their time memorizing facts that were readily available at their fingertips. Students need to learn communication and study skills. We must give them the type of tools that prepare them for lifelong learning, so they know how to study and how to evaluate the importance of what they learn."

Levitz, Noel. Retention Awards to Institutions. The Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards program was established in 1989 to honor the retention achievements of postsecondary institutions throughout the United States and Canada.

Mallett, S. D., Kirschenbaum, D. S., and Humphrey, L.L. (1983). Description and subjective evaluation of an objectively successful improvement program. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 61, 341-345.

Moltz, D. (2008). Helping Community College Students Beat the Odds. Inside Higher Education, October 8, 2008..

Petrie, T. A. and C. Buntrock. (1996). A longitudinal investigation of a semester-long study skills course. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.
681 academically "at risk" students who took a semester-long study skills course earned higher first and second semester GPA's and first, second, and third semester cumulative GPA's than comparable probationary students who had not taken the course. In addition, students who passed the course, remained in school at a higher rate than those who did not take the course.

Petrie, T. A. and A. Helmcamp. (1998). Evaluation of an academic skills course. Journal of College Student development, 39: 112-116.

Pitcher, R. W. and Blaushild, B. (1970). Why college students fail. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

Purdie, N. and Hattie, J. (1995). The realtionship between study skills and learning outcomes: a meta analysis. . Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Hobart, November 1995 http://www.aare.edu.au/95pap/hattj95279.txt

Sanders, V. (1980). College reading studies: Do they make a difference? In In G. Enright (Ed.) PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF WESTERN COLLEGE READING ASSOCIATION,
24-29.
"Statistically significant composite gains in reading rate, in comprehension and Grade Point Averages were found for the 6,140 students who had participated in college reading-study programs or served as controls. The 'average student' who took part in a college reading program was found to be 'better off' than 83% of non-participating students. Unexpected but significant benefits in Grade Point Average (G.P.A.) gains were found, with participating students achieving a .37 G.P.A. advantage over non-participants at the end of instruction. Subsequent long-term G.P.A. advantage, while an interesting aspect, was not examined by this study. Thus college reading-study instruction did make a difference in student's reading rate, comprehension, G.P.A., and in other cumulative benefits."

Smallwood, K.B. (1980). What do adult women college students really need? JOURNAL OF COLLEGE STUDENT PERSONNEL, ( 21:1) 65-73.
In this study of 392 adult women students, time management and efficient studying were rated #1 and #3 of seventeen concerns to which they responded on a questionnaire

Tuckman (2003).The Effect of Learning and Motivation Strategies Training on College Students' Achievement. Journal of College Student Development, 4, 430-437.

Wark, D.(1975). Raising student outcomes by means of learning skills, In Dwight Allen and others (eds), REFORM, RENEWAL, REWARD, Proceedings of International Conference on Improving University Teaching. Amherst, 139.
"Buried in the corpus of educational literature one will find evidence that on the average, at least half a letter grade's worth of improvement in content learning follows from instruction in study skills."

Weeks, A.A. (1987). CSS one-hour content-correlated courses. Poughkeepsie, NY: Duchess Community College. 35 pp. ED 268 944.
Students who took the one hour non-credit study skills course received significantly better grades than students who were recommended for but did not take the course. A follow-up study indicated that these students stayed in college longer.

Weinstein, C. E. , Dierking, D., Husman, J., Roska, L., & Powdrell, L.  (1998). The impact of a course in strategic learning on the long-term retention of college students.  In J. L. Higbee & P.L. Dwinnel (Eds.), Developmental education: Preparing successful college students (pp. 85-96). Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Student in Transition.

Zeidenberg, M., Jenkins, D., & Carlos Calcagno, J. (2007). Do Student Success Courses Actually Help Community College Students Succeed? (CCRC Brief No. 36). http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=531