A Curricular Intervention for Teaching and Learning: Measurement of Gains of First-Year College Student Learning

There is continued debate about the changing and varied nature of first year college courses in American higher education institutions; therefore, additional research is needed to inform faculty and administration of the specific areas on which to focus for teaching and learning in these courses. This study is one possible approach to easily determine student "gains" as measured by the College Success Factors Index, or CSFI. This index consists of ten college student success factors that indicate student achievement. The purpose of this research was to examine the CSFI pretest and post-test data for possible student gains. These self-evaluations were administered in both the summer 2013 and summer 2014 semester courses. The CSFI pre- and post-test scores comparing each summer were analyzed and the overall gains were observed. The summer 2013 courses were taught without a focus on the targeted success factors. A curricular intervention was then introduced in the summer 2014 courses that integrated the ten success indices into the lessons, activities, and assignments. The overall differences or "gains" in student learning are described, along with implications for first year teaching and program design in colleges and universities.