The Relationship Between Institutional Expenditures and Degree Attainment at Four Year Colleges

1. The Relationship Between Institutional Expenditures and Degree Attainment at Four Year Colleges John Ryan Assessment Officer Franciscan University of Steubenville

2. Budget Exercise • Imagine you are in charge of the budget process (or think of your own institution’s process) • Look under your chair… • Some of you have new dollars, some of you do not • Imagine this is your resource situation for the coming fiscal year • Get into small groups and discuss then list answers to the following question…

3. What will determine how/where the money is used?

4. Answers

5. Pertinent Quotes It´s in the way that you use it, It comes and it goes. It´s in the way that you use it, Boy don´t you know.  Excerpt from “It’s In The Way That You Use It”   by Eric Clapton

6. Pertinent Quotes Inspector Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Inspector Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: "That was the curious incident.” Excerpt from "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

7. Introduction and Purpose • Finances and student persistence are central concerns for higher education researchers and practitioners: • Budget challenges • About half of students do not graduate • Surprisingly, relatively little attention to how expenditures might influence persistence • Dominant models (Tinto, Bean and subsequent revisions) do not consider expenditures as an element that shapes institutional environment, academic/social systems and experiences

9. Figure 1: Conceptual Framework Institutional Priorities, Purposes, History, Culture and Budget Constraints  Expenditure Levels and Patterns (by functional area, program, service)  Staffing, Expertise, Programming, Services, Support and Innovation  Institutional Environment  Frequency and Quality of Interactions/Involvement/Experiences/Engagement  Persistence/Degree Attainment Figure 1. Conceptual framework for expenditure component in persistence models

10. Data and Methodology • Non-experimental, applied research design • Sample of 363 Carnegie Bachelor’s I and II colleges • IPEDS and College Handbook • OLS with variable transformations, role of economic theory • Reviewed scatterplots and diagnostics for collinearity, heteroskedasticity, outliers • Controlled for important variables identified in the literature • Cost and aid considered • Review of outliers identified important missing variable: HBCU • 1995 Cohort-level data and institutional expenditures (FY 95-96) per FTE student [(# Full-time) + 1/3(# part-time)] • Limits confounding effects of large grad programs

11. Model Summary and ANOVA

12. Regression Results

13. Review of Key Findings • After academic preparation (SAT), instructional expenditures had the largest impact on graduation rate • Academic support was also positive and significant • Student services and administration were negative and insignificant • Other variables: age, ethnicity, institutional size, private, percent on campus, HBCU (all positive and significant)

14. Limitations • Sampling/missing data (non-random, however over 58 percent of Bachelor’s I and II population) • Match between College Handbook “freshman class” and IPEDS “cohort” • Survey reporting error • Investigation of outliers

15. Implications • Expenditures seem to have a role in affecting student persistence and degree attainment • Instruction and academic support expenditures seem most critical to supporting degree completion • Future research might consider integrating expenditure levels and patterns into persistence frameworks and models • Institutions and funding sources might consider ways to enhance support for these areas and limit costs in areas that do not seem to affect degree attainment • More study is needed to explore complex linkages and role • Other samples and methods should be used to replicate and explore complex relationships and interactions

16. Implications for YOUR Institution • Let’s think back to the small group activity… • How might you be able to apply this kind of analysis at your institution? • What challenges would you face? • How could this approach be linked to other initiatives? • What are the potential implications for what is currently taking place?

17. Questions and Discussion • Contact information: John Ryan Franciscan University 104A Egan Hall 1235 University Blvd. Steubenville, OH 43952 E-mail: jryan@franciscan.edu THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING AND HAVE A GREAT CONFERENCE!