Emerging Research and Practices on First-Year Students. New Directions for Institutional Research, Number 160

What factors contribute to students’ lasting success? Much research has explored the impact of the first year of college on student retention and success. With the new performance-based funding initiatives, institutional administrators are taking a laser-focused approach to aligning retention and success strategies to first-year student transition points. This volume enlightens the discussion and highlights new directions for assessment and research practices within the scope of the first year experience. Administrators, faculty, and data scientists provide a conceptual and analytical approach to investigating the first-year experience for entry-level and seasoned practitioners alike. The emerging research throughout this volume suggests that while many first-year programs and services have significant benefits across a number of success outcomes, these benefits may not be universal for all students. This volume: Examines sophisticated empirical models Provides critical assessment practices and implications. Examines the four-year college and the two-year institution, which is just as critical. This is the 161st volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.