Direct Effects of High-Impact Practices on the Success of Business Majors in Large, Mostly Nonresidential Public Universities

Publication Date

2-1-2020

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Management Education

Volume

44

Issue

1

DOI

10.1177/1052562919869384

First Page

39

Last Page

65

Abstract

High-impact practices (HIPs) have been shown to be effective in helping first-year students successfully transition into college. However, since most of the research on HIPs has been done in small liberal arts settings, little is known about the efficacy and implementation practices of HIPs in large, public, primarily nonresidential institutions, or business schools within these institutions. This article seeks to address this need. Our study suggests that a comparison among students involved in HIPs versus those who forgo the experiences shows significant differences in impact, particularly on degree completion. However, further analysis shows that the gains were primarily achieved among students who were not members of underrepresented minority (URM) groups. As institutions face pressure from key constituents to improve graduation rates while reducing achievement gaps, it is becoming increasingly important for administrators and faculty to assess which approaches are most likely to achieve both these aims, particularly as scaling HIPs to larger settings is expensive and fraught with difficulties. This study reports on the effectiveness of HIPs for supporting the success of both URM and non-URM students and makes recommendations for building student success programs that ensure the success of all students, especially in large, diverse higher education institutions.

Keywords

achievement gap, graduation rate, high-impact practices, large institutions, student success, underrepresented minority students, URM

Department

Information Systems and Technology; Global Innovation and Leadership

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS