Volume 12 Number 3
May 1973

Walter Patton and Everett D. Edington

A MAJOR DIFFICULTY with native American students in higher education has been their lack of ability to stay in school and complete their college programs. One purpose of this study was to identify those factors which were related to persistence in higher education. In the study, which covered the period beginning with the fall semester 1967 and ending with the spring semester 1971, a total of 449 Indian students at the University of New Mexico and 227 Indian students at New Mexico State University were identified. A random sampling of 30% of those students identified at each institution were selected for the study. Thus, 135 University of New Mexico and 68 at New Mexico State University were used.

Statistical tests were performed by means of a step-wise discriminant (classification) analysis technique. In the classification analysis procedure, the program converts these measures to F values and selects the most significant for inclusion. At each step, F values are computed for each factor included, as well as for those factors not yet included. Each included factor is checked to see if it maintains importance as a classifier. In conjunction with this, new F values are computed for each factor which has not yet entered to measure its importance relative to the set of entered factors. Finally, with reference to the entered factors at each step, group equality is tested. The above operations are repeated until all variables have been entered. After all factors have been entered by the discriminant analysis procedure, group equality is tested for significance at the .05 level by means of the F distribution.

Table I reports of those items for those students at New Mexico State University, it can be noted that 62% of the persisters were members of the campus Indian club, while only approximately 44% of the non-persisters were members. Also, among the persisters, 41% were female, but only 23.5% of the non-persisters were female.

Table I shows the lack of significance of these factors for classifying persisting and non-persisting Indian students at New Mexico State University.

Technology as a field of study was not chosen by any of the Indian students in the study population at New Mexico State University. For this reason it was omitted as a classifier in this instance. The remaining 17 factors entered the classification process and produced an F value of 4.71, which was significant at the .05 level.

The three most important factors for classifying persisting and non-persisting Indian students at New Mexico State University were: college grade point average, sex, and rank in high school, in that order (Table II). The college GPA for persisting Indian students was 2.39, compared with a college grade point average of 1.21 for the nonpersisters. Although the mean age of the persisters was less than the non-persisters, it was the second most important classifier, when combined with the GPA. It entered the classification process in step two with an F value of 2.78. Combined with the GPA and age, high school rank became the next most important classifier to enter the process.

In this test, 14 of the factors were of little importance for classifying the two groups. These factors consisted of all areas of the ACT scores, major fields of study, tribal affiliation, high school size and distance which the student travels from home to the campus.

An analysis was made to determine the relationship of the items of the students of New Mexico towards persistence. The most important difference between the two groups was the type of high school attended (Table III). Thirty-three percent of the non-persisters attended non-public high schools, whereas, only 16.6% of the persisters had graduated from a non-public high school.

One other factor of note, although slight, was having an Indian or non-Indian roommate. Among the persisters almost 37% had an Indian roommate, but less than 22% of the non-persisters lived with another Indian while attending the University of New Mexico.

The five remaining factors were entered with an F value less than 2.00; therefore, are of very little importance for classification purposes. These factors were: sex, marital status, place of residence, Indian club membership, and financial aid received.

College grade point average was the most important for classifying these two groups (Table IV). Persisters had a mean college GPA of 2.39, while the non-persisters maintained a mean of only 1.33. The ACT social science score followed GPA in importance as a classifier of the groups. The persisters averaged almost 2 points above the nonpersisters with 18.83 and 16.85 respectively. Scores on the math section of the ACT was the third best classifier, where the persisters had a mean score of 3.31 higher than that of the non-persisters.

Technology, as a field of study, assumed the fourth most important position for classifying the Indian students at the University of New Mexico into groups of persisters and non-persisters. Almost three times as many of the non-persisters chose technology for their major field of preparation as did their peers who persisted.

The fifth and final factor to enter the classification process, with a 2.00 or greater F value, was high school size. The mean size of the graduating class of the non-persisting Indian students at the University of New Mexico was 229, while the persisters graduated with a class whose mean size was 300.

These five factors have the greatest power for classifying the American-Indian students at the University of New Mexico as to persisters and non-persisters.

Table I

Comparison of Indian Persisters and Non-Persisters

at New Mexico State University

*

* The dotted line separates the important classifiers from the unimportant classifiers.

** Not significant at .05 level.

Comparison of Indian Persisters and Non-Persisters

at New Mexico State University

*

** Significant at .05 level.

Table III

Comparison of Indian Persisters and Non-Persisters

at the University of New Mexico

*

** Significant at .05 level.

Table IV

Comparison of Indian Persisters and Non-Persisters

at the University of New Mexico

*

* The dotted line separates the important classifiers from the unimportant classifiers.

** Not significant at .05 level.

It is interesting to note that the same factors generally did not show up at both of the Universities. The only one which already had the very highest value was that of college GPA. This is quite logical, as those students who do well are the ones that stay. Those factors which showed significantly at New Mexico State University and not at the University of New Mexico were sex, Indian club membership, age, and high school. While those that were significant at the University of New Mexico and not New Mexico State were type of high school, roommate (Indian or non-Indian), ACT score in social science, ACT score in math, major of technology and high school size.