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ERIC Number: EJ1092947
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Mar
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1784
EISSN: N/A
Research Says/The X Factor in College Success
Goodwin, Bryan; Hein, Heather
Educational Leadership, v73 n6 p77-78 Mar 2016
U.S. high school graduation rates have risen steadily for the past decade, hitting an all-time high of 82 percent in 2013-14 (Rich, 2015). Yet there's a dark cloud behind this silver lining. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education (2015), only 59 percent of students who enter four-year colleges complete their degrees within five years. College admissions offices have long been aware of a certain "X factor" when it comes to predicting whether a student will succeed in college. This factor is something not reflected in high school grade point averages or college entrance exam scores--which together predict only 20 to 25 percent of a student's college achievement (Ackerman, Kanfer & Beier, 2013; Zahner, Ramsaran, & Steedle, 2014), with the bulk of that variance predicted by high school grades, not test scores (Hiss & Franks, 2014). Most of a student's success in college (and life, for that matter) seems to lie outside the tidy box of grades and test scores. Recent efforts to survey students about these "softer" skills--and determine which skills add predictive power to the standard measures--are yielding clues. Some promising predictors have emerged. Research has shown the following non-cognitive factors proved to be the most important in predicting student success: (1) Can-do attitude; (2) Self-discipline and study habits; and (3) Active learning.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A