ERIC Number: ED311350
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1989
Pages: 11
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Use of a Diagnostic and Prescriptive Interview in the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Science: A Collaborative Study. Research Report #12-89.
Boyd, Vivian; And Others
Black college students (N=55) enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (AGLS) at the University of Maryland in the spring semester of 1987 participated in individual interviews with their college's advisors. The interviews were diagnostic and prescriptive in nature, designed to help students identify problems getting in the way of their college experience and locate campus resources to help students further their academic development. The interviews also involved a discussion of the "noncognitive variables" articulated by Tracey and Sedlacek (1984) as factors influencing black student retention in higher education. Students who participated in the interview did not differ significantly from those who no-showed for their interview or from a non-treatment comparison group drawn from black AGLS majors in 1985, on their rates either of academic retention or of academic retention in good standing. Indeed, the comparison group had slightly lower academic persistence rates and slightly higher rates of persistence in good standing than the treatment group, which suggests that while the attention devoted to students in the present study may have increased the sample's likelihood of persistence, efforts aimed at increasing academic competence may well be in order. (Author)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Maryland Univ., College Park. Counseling Center.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Prepared by the Counseling Center Retention Study Group.