Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a Freshman Orientation Program of varying degrees of intensity had an effect on the persistence rate and cumulative college GPA of Community College Freshman students while controlling for the effects of gender, high school GPA, and reading ability. Methodology. This was a causal-comparative, post hoc study composed of three groups of freshman students. The first group took a course in Personal Growth, the second group took the same course plus an Orientation Seminar and the third took only the Seminar. The independent variable was group membership and the dependent variables were persistence rate and cumulative college GPA. The following three moderator variables were used: gender, high school GPA, and reading ability. Chi-square calculations were performed on the dependent variable persistence rate. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used on the dependent variable, cumulative college GPA. A Bonferroni t-test procedure was used to determine between-group comparisons of the cumulative college GPA. Findings/conclusions. Persistence rate was found to have a significant association with Group membership in the case of female students, students with average and below average high school GPA, and students with low reading ability with freshmen in Groups 1 and 2 outperforming those in Group 3. Even though high school GPA and reading ability were statistically controlled among the groups, a significantly higher difference was found in the cumulative college GPA of Group 2 over Group 3. In relation to reading ability, a significant difference was also found favoring Group 1 over Group 3. Recommendations. The following recommendations were made: (1) Survey students to determine what was learned from taking Orientation Programs; (2) Survey higher education personnel to determine how to improve Orientation Programs; (3) Study the effects of a student's English and math ability, college major, ethnicity, and age on persistence rate and cumulative college GPA; (4) Replicate this study with freshmen from four-year colleges and universities.