What is the Purpose of Academic Probation? Its Substantial Negative Effects on Four-Year Graduation

Nicholas A. Bowman () and Nayoung Jang
Additional contact information
Nicholas A. Bowman: University of Iowa, N491 Lindquist Center
Nayoung Jang: University of Iowa, N491 Lindquist Center

Research in Higher Education, 2022, vol. 63, issue 8, No 1, 1285-1311

Abstract: Abstract Placing students on academic probation is a pervasive practice at colleges and universities, but the lasting impact—and arguably even the purpose—of academic probation is unclear. The present study explored the influence of academic probation on four-year graduation using regression discontinuity analyses with a dataset of 9,777 undergraduates. The results frequently identified large or very large negative effects of probationary placement on four-year graduation, and these were greatest for probationary criteria based on either semester GPA or an overall GPA criterion in which students had accrued fewer than 30 total college credits. The findings were robust across analytic approaches and were observed regardless of students’ race, sex, first-generation status, high school GPA, and standardized test scores; the effects were sometimes larger among students who had higher high school GPAs and female students. Supplemental analyses suggest that the graduation effects based on cutoffs for college semester GPA and early overall GPA were predominantly or entirely driven by attrition that occurred soon after the probationary placement, whereas graduation effects based on the overall GPA cutoff with at least 30 college credits appeared to be driven mostly by delaying time to degree. These findings have critical implications for institutional policy and practice.

Keywords: Academic probation; Graduation; College students; Regression discontinuity; Academic standing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-022-09676-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:reihed:v:63:y:2022:i:8:d:10.1007_s11162-022-09676-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11162

DOI: 10.1007/s11162-022-09676-w

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Higher Education is currently edited by Robert K. Toutkoushian

More articles in Research in Higher Education from Springer, Association for Institutional Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().