Content area
Abstract
Past research in the area of college retention shows that social and academic integration are important elements in ensuring high retention rates. Many past studies show that learning communities are beneficial in helping raise retention rates as learning communities effectively increase the rates of social and academic integration. The purpose of this study was to determine whether underprepared students in learning community courses reported higher levels of achievement, persistence, and social and academic integration than underprepared non-learning community students when controlling for gender, age, ethnicity, student status, hours worked per week off campus, and time of registration. The focus of the study was on underprepared students enrolled at three two-year colleges in Arkansas. Results revealed that learning community students demonstrated a slightly higher intention to persist, significantly higher achievement rates, and significantly higher levels of social and academic integration in several areas of the Institutional Integration Scale than underprepared non-learning community students. Learning communities were found to be especially beneficial to underprepared females, freshmen, and underprepared traditional students.
