GE CoursesFTF and Transfer Students’ Experience of D-F-W Grades

Cheryl Chapman, English, CLAGrace Reynolds, HCA, CHHS

Jalal Torabzadeh, Mechanical Engineering, COE

Overview D-F-W grades and GE courses• Written Communication (A.1) • Oral Communication (A.2) • Critical Thinking (A.3) • Mathematics/Quant. Reasoning (B.2) • Life Sciences (B.1.a) • Life Sciences No Lab (B.1.a.NL) • Physical Sciences (B.1.b) • Physical Sciences No Lab (B.1.b.NL) • The Arts (C.1) • Humanities: Literature (C.2.a) • Humanities: Philosophy (C.2.b) • Humanities: Foreign Lang. (C.2.c) • U.S. History (D.1.a) Const. & American Ideals (D.1.b) • Social Sciences & Citizenship (D.2) • Lifelong Learning & Self-Dev. (E)

• Short-term goal:• Describe the phenomenon of D-F-

W grades in GE courses across colleges for FTF as a measure of student success.

• Long-term goal:• What is the impact of D-F-W

grades during the first semester at CSULB on attrition?

% of ABC versus DFW grades across colleges, GE courses only

91.49 94.69 89.47 94.21 92.97 92.32

8.51 5.31 10.53 5.79 7.03 7.68

0

20

40

60

80

100

CHHS FTF N=9363 CHHS Transfers N=3487 COE FTF N=8627 COE Transfers N=1140 CLA FTF N=7336 CLA Transfers N=8398

Prop

ortio

n

College, Student Type, N

ABC DFW

% D-F-W Grades for CHHS FTF by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

4.02

21.39

10.14

6.1

9.9

18.75

10.512.8

8.1110.71

12.88 12.0710.16

24.26

11.459.52

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

% D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Course with D-F-W Grades

Note: Courses with >10 students w/DFW grades

D-F-W Grades for College of Engineering FTF by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

19.721.6

8.66.2

11.47.8

10.713.4

1.7

13 12.911.2

21.7

27

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

% D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Courses with D-F-W Grade

Note: >10 students with DFW grades

D-F-W Grades for College of Liberal Arts FTF by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

7.3

33.3

11.3

5.4 6.78.5

15

10.67 7.6

10.713.6

34.2

6.7 8

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

% D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Courses with D-F-W Grades

Note: >10 students with DFW grades

% of D-F-W Grades for FTF by GE Category across CHHS, COE, and CLA, 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

9.5

4.6 5

30.8

2.2 2.2 1.7 0.34.3

1.5

8.3

28.9

0.4

7.54.7 4.7

58.9

2.9 1.84.2

1.3

6.5

1.4 0.6 1.63.8

10.4

1.9 0

18.7

5.1 5.3 6.8

0.5

9.76.3 7

27.7

0.50

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

A2 A3 B1B B2 C1 C2A C2B C2C C3 D1A D1B D2 E

% o

f Tot

al D

-F-W

Gra

des

CHHS COEng CLA

Logistic regression predicting DFW grades in GE courses, CHHS

Hispanics have significant and positive odds of D-F-W grades

AI=AsianAA=African AmericanHP=HispanicWH=White

Logistic regression predicting DFW grades in GE courses, COE

Asians are only group with no significant odds of D-F-W grades.

AI=AsianAA=African AmericanHP=HispanicWH=White

Logistic regression predicting DFW grades in GE courses, CLA

Asians and Whites significantly less likely to receive D-F-W grades

AI=AsianAA=African AmericanHP=HispanicWH=White

Observations as of today…• Overall

• FTF more likely to receive D-F-W grades compared to transfer students for GE courses.• The higher the overall HS GPA, the less likely the student is to get D-F-W grades in GE course.

• Differential effects of gender/ethnicity across colleges • Female students less likely to fail GE courses.• Hispanics in CHHS more likely to fail GE courses.• All ethnic groups likely to fail GE courses in COE except Asians.• Whites and Asians significantly less likely to fail GE courses in CLA

• Differential effects of GE categories• B2 courses have high proportions of D-F-W grades across all colleges; more B2 courses required

for COE majors.• CLA and CHHS very similar with respect to proportion of DFW grades in D2 courses.

• Difficult to analyze GE courses because of double counting—GE or major?• Not possible to address class size because enrollment caps for the same GE course vary

across modalities (in person, on-line) and target students (honors, remedial, general).

Future directions…

• Continue to work with data from all colleges (not just CHHS, COE, CLA) to describe patterns of D-F-W grades in GE courses.

• Obtain spring semester data on 3 cohorts to assess attrition from D-F-W grades in all colleges; separate out D-F grades from Ws.

• Conduct further analyses of transfer students and Writing Intensive, Global Issues and Human Diversity courses.

• Reflection: We’ve come a long way as new data fellows and learned a lot!

Supplemental SlidesFor transfer students, GE courses and D-F-W grades

% D-F-W Grades for CHHS Transfers by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

7.55 8.82

17.86

5.05

36.62

19.3

4.4

35.7

4.28

10.26

17.39

23.826.32

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

% D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Courses with D-F-W Grades

% of D-F-W Grades for College of Engineering Transfers by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

13.3

11.7

16.8

18.7

11.4

7.9

4.7

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Comic Spirit Early U.S. History Electricity andMagnetism

Fundamentals ofEconomics

Intro Amer Govt Intro Engineering Prof Trends in ElectricalEngineering

% To

tal D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Courses with D-F-W Grades

D-F-W Grades for College of Liberal Arts Transfers by Course Title across 3 cohorts (FA 13, FA 14, FA 15)

7.75

27.6

118 8.2

14.9

20

7.59.7

17.3

11

16

5

8.5 8.6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

% D

-F-W

Gra

des

Title of GE Course with D-F-W Grades

% of D-F-W Grades for Transfers by GE Category across CHHS, COE, and CLA, across 3 cohorts

0 1.9

9.5

0

5.71 1 0

10.5

63.8

6.73.6

30.3

8.95.3

14.2

1.8 03.5

7.1

17.8

7

0.83.3 4.7

0.5

9.4 7.5

2.2 1.4

6.9

58.3

4.1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

A3 B1B B2 C1 C2a C2b C2c D1a D1b D2 E

% o

f tot

al D

-F-W

Gra

des

CHHS COEng CLA