Effect of Study Skills Program Participation on Undergraduate Student Academic Performance

Abstract

Using archived data spanning from 2004 to 2010 from a large, public, Texas university’s formal study skills program, the relationships between program participation and grade point averages (GPAs), 1-year retention rates, and graduation rates (i.e., they did or did not graduate) were analyzed. Employing a proportionate stratified random sampling scheme within a causal-comparative research design, the authors conducted an independent samples t test and chi-square tests—after applying the Bonferroni adjustment to control for inflations of Type I error—to investigate the differences between the experimental group ( n = 2,074) and control group ( n = 2,074) with respect to these three outcome measures (i.e., GPAs, 1-year retention rates, and graduation rates). Findings indicated a small but statistically significant difference in GPA between students in the experimental group and the control group. However, no statistically significant difference in retention rates emerged between students in these two groups. Finally, although a statistically significant difference emerged in graduation rates between students in these two groups, the effect size was negligible. As such, further research is suggested.