Parsing the First Year of College

 

Supported by a generous grant from the Spencer Foundation, the Parsing the First Year of College project maps the comprehensive influences affecting student learning and persistence during the first year among new students entering 34 institutions nationwide. Perhaps the most comprehensive, longitudinal analysis of its kind, the study examines first-year student success as it is shaped by students’ experiences, the peer environment, faculty members’ values and activities, and internal institutional structures, practices, and policies.

The Parsing project was led by Dr. Patrick T. Terenzini and Dr. Robert D. Reason, with assistance from (among many others) Dr. Bradley E. Cox, Dr. Brenda Lutovsky Quaye, Dr. Amber D. Lambert, and Kadian L. McIntosh - all of whom were, at the time, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the Pennsylvania State University. See http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/parsing-project for more details.

Findings from the Parsing project facilitated the development of a subsequent project called Linking Institutional Policy to Student Success (LIPSS).