MORE GUIDANCE, BETTER RESULTS?

Students who get no advising, or inadequate advising, may be more likely to drop out ofschool. A 1989 study found that first-year students who felt that they had received good-qualityadvising withdrew from public four-year institutions at a rate that was 25 percent lower thanstudents who believed their advising to be of poor quality, and 40 percent lower than studentswho reported that they had received no advising. 28A more recent study (published in 2008) of the effectiveness of enhanced student serviceswas conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University. This study found that the moretimes students met with academic advisers, the more satisfied they were with the services theyreceived. In addition, students who met with their advisers at least twice per semester weremore likely to be in good academic standing at the end of their first year and were more likely topersist in school, compared with students who met with their advisers fewer times. 29Such past research provides evidence of a correlation between student services and studentsuccess. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether this relationship is causal because,even after accounting for observable student background characteristics (such as gender) andobservable contextual factors (such as institutional size), the relationship may be confounded bythe influence of unobserved or difficult-to-quantify student characteristics (such as motivation)and unobserved or difficult-to-quantify contextual factors (such as teacher effectiveness). Whilepast research has found promising results, few studies have employed rigorous research designs,and none of the large-scale studies has used a random assignment research design. As such, theOpening Doors random assignment evaluation at the colleges in Ohio provides an importantcontribution to the growing body of research on the effectiveness of enhanced student services.Enhancing Student ServicesThe research presented in this report is from a random assignment evaluation of oneprogram of enhanced student services. Researchers and practitioners have a variety of ideasabout what an optimal student services package might look like. For example, many claim that,at a minimum, sufficient staffing is necessary in order to enable more frequent interactionsbetween students and support services. 30 Similarly, it has been suggested that strategies need tobe developed to ensure that students use support services (such as making them mandatory orintegrating them into the regular classroom experience). 31 Still others have discussed theoptimal organization of the delivery of student services, suggesting that all services need to behoused in the same location, for a one-stop student services center. 32 In addition, whole bodies28 Cuseo (2003), as cited in Purnell and Blank (2004), 11.29 Steingass and Sykes (2008).30 Grubb (2001); Gordon, Habley, and Associates (2000), as cited in Scrivener and Pih (2007).31 CCSSE (2008).32 Purnell and Blank (2004).10