EWU’s Office of Institutional Research – Putting Our Institutional Data “Into Action”

Connecting research and data with the goal of providing all decision makers at EWU with quality, timely, and relevant data supporting informed decision making, in real-time, with the continued goal of improving and enhancing the experience of all our students.

To access research articles, click the tab buttons on the left.

Predicting Stop-Outs Based on High School GPA Deviations and Unmet Financial Need

By: Jake Morrison, Almat Yeraly & Roy Caligan

In this study, we attempt to key in on first time in College (FTIC) student’s perception of self-efficacy and the effects their grades have on their ability to remain in college.

Taking a student’s high school GPA into consideration, we create a measure that takes the difference between final high school GPA and cumulative college GPA at the end of every term.

GPA Deviation at End of Spring Term:

We then use this derivation to determine at what point a student is less likely to return to the University. Along with GPA deviation, we incorporate unmet financial need, number of credits a student brings into the university, an indicator for Running Start participation, an indicator for First Year Experience course taken, and a number of individual level controls such as race/ethnicity and gender.

Enforcement of Pre-University Course Policy on Math Proficiency Completion

By: Jake Morrison, Almat Yeraly & Roy Caligan

Eastern Washington University requires all undergraduate degree seeking students to demonstrate proficiency in mathematics before graduating. Students can satisfy this requirement in a number of ways:

• Complete an EWU course that satisfies the proficiency requirement (per the EWU catalog).
• Transfer an equivalent math course from another institution.
• Provide proof of an Associate’s degree with a Direct Transfer Agreement (DTA).
• Test out of the requirement with sufficiently high ALEKS test score.

Some students, based on their ALEKS math placement or transfer work, are required to take preuniversity math courses before college-level math courses. If a student is deemed not college ready for math it is possible that a student must take, pay for, and pass these pre-university courses before being permitted to enroll in college-level math courses

Late Completion of the Quantitative Literacy Requirement in Non-Technical Fields is a Major Roadblock to Graduating

By: Jake Morrison, Almat Yeraly & Roy Caligan

Completion of a Quantitative Literacy course with a grade of C or above is required to earn an undergraduate degree to demonstrate proficiency in Mathematics at Eastern Washington University. Additionally, most of the non-technical majors offered at EWU require MATH107 as part of the curriculum.

As we are researching the reasons why students do not graduate from EWU, we hypothesized that a late fulfillment of a Quantitative Literacy course is a major roadblock to students graduating in non-technical fields that require MATH107.

>We gathered data consisting of undergraduate students (n = 687) in Cheney and Spokane campuses who started in Fall 2014, 2015, and 2016 without associate degrees in the following populations:

• Freshmen with or without college credits.
• Previous EWU running start students.
• International freshmen.

Examining Effects on Student Success When Course Registration Occurs Prior to Start of Term Date Vs. On or After Start of Term Date

By: Brittany Iverson

In this study, we investigate how the timing of when students register for a course effects student outcomes. These outcomes are retention and course completion. It is found that students who register prior to the start date of a course have a much higher chance of being retained at the university and of earning a C or better than those who register on or after the start date.

Each day that registration is delayed following the start of the course diminishes those chances, with each day doing so more than the last. Registering one day after the start of a course diminishes likelihood of retention and passing by less than 1%, but by the 16th day has accrued to about 16.5% and 18%, respectively.

370,412 instances of undergraduate course registration are observed, spanning from Fall of 2017 through Summer of 2021. In this examination, the specific day of registration will be considered, but also more generally an indication of whether registration occurred prior to the first day of term, or on/after the first day of term.

Data includes the day registration occurred relative to the term start date. The number of days range from -142 to 16, with 0 being the first day. 343,703, or 92.79% occurred before the start of term.

Hispanic Serving Institution Initiative: Forecasted Undergraduate Hispanic Student Proportions

By: Jake Morrison & Ephrem Glushchenko

Becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) is an important strategic goal at EWU. The U.S. Department of Education defines an HSI as having a full-time enrollment of at least 25% Hispanic students”.

To determine the time point at which EWU’s enrollment population will consist of 25% Hispanic or Latino students, we developed two time-series models to forecast enrollment trends.

A seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Holts Winters’ seasonal forecast models were chosen based upon accuracy metrics (which were determined by splitting the data into a “training” data set and a “testing” data set).

The strength of the models chosen is the flexibility to include seasonal projections as the Hispanic/Latino population decrease during summer terms.

Investigating Strength of Relationships Existing Between Students Changing Majors and Graduation

By: Brittany Iverson

In this study, we set out to investigate the relationship, if any, between students changing their majors and graduation. Through both descriptive and inferential statistics, it is found that a relationship does exist. Changing major is predicted to increase the likelihood that a student will graduate by about 15%-20%.

The initial change of a major has a strong, positive effect on graduation. However, each additional change has less of an impact, and becomes negative upon reaching the third major change.

The data used for this study is on all undergraduate students who have had at least one declared major from Fall 2015 through Spring 2021 (N = 19,358), 3,941 of which remain persisting, or still enrolled, at the university. Number of major changes range from zero to four, with 17,814 having no change, 2,317 having one change, 211 having two, 15 having three, and one having four.

Initial review of the data shows that 13.14% of the sample changed their major at least once, and on average student experience 0.14 major changes. Thus, it is most common for a student to not change their major. Of those that do, they do so an average of 1.1 times.

First Year Experience (FYE) Courses and Retention

By: Jake Morrison, Almat Yeraly & Roy Caligan

This study examines the effectiveness of First Year Experience (FYE) courses offered to First Time in College (FTIC) students at EWU. The purpose of this analysis is to determine if FYE courses are fulfilling their purpose in fostering student success and retention at EWU.

We gathered data from five cohorts of FTIC students and compared/analyzed short term outcomes for individuals who took FYE courses against those who did not. Using multiple regression specifications paired with econometric techniques, the model demonstrated a small positive effect on Fall to Winter retention for students who took FYE courses.

In contrast, the model demonstrated a large negative effect on Fall to Winter retention for students who failed their FYE course. While there is a statistically significant effect of FYE courses on students’ ability to persist into winter quarter, the consequence of failing the course is far greater than the effect of taking the course.

Additionally, there is no evidence to suggest that taking an FYE course is associated with higher rates of Fall to Fall retention. Further analysis of First Year Experience courses may be beneficial to the evaluation and future implementation of these courses.

The Retention Effect of Dual Enrollment Students

By: Almat Yeraly

More than half of First Time in College (FTIC) students at EWU enroll with college level credits that are earned through AP or Running Start. In this study, we analyzed how the number of college level credits brought into the university by a student affects Fall-to-Fall retention.

We collected data consisting of three FTIC cohorts from Fall 2018, 2019, and 2020 and hypothesized that:

• Students who bring in credits have higher odds of persisting.
• The pandemic affected FTIC retention rates negatively
• A higher number of credits increases the odds of persisting.
• Previous Running Start (RS) students have higher odds of persisting compared to all other FTIC students.
• Previous EWU RS students have higher odds of persisting than non-EWU RS students.
• Previous On Campus RS students have higher odds of persisting than previous College in the High School (CiHS) students.