A Retrospective-Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship between Apportionment of Seat Time in Community-College Algebra Courses and Student Academic Performance

Abstract

This ex post facto study explored whether seat time in a postsecondary developmental-level algebra course is significantly related to: course success; courseenrollment persistence; and, longitudinally, the time to successfully complete a generaleducation-level mathematics course. Hierarchical logistic regression and discrete-time survival analysis were used to perform a multi-level, multivariable analysis of a student cohort (N = 3,284) enrolled at a large, multi-campus, urban community college. The subjects were retrospectively tracked over a 2-year longitudinal period. The study found that students in long seat-time classes tended to withdraw earlier and more often than did their peers in short seat-time classes (p < .05). Additionally, a model comprised of nine statistically significant covariates (all with p-values less than .01) was constructed.However, no longitudinal seat-time group differences were detected nor was there sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that seat time was predictive of developmentallevel course success.A principal aim of this study was to demonstrate-to educational leaders, researchers, and institutional-research/business-intelligence professionals-the advantages and computational practicability of survival analysis, an underused but more powerful way to investigate changes in students over time.