A sample of 674 first-year student-athletes at Ball State University were examined for five consecutive years (2004-2008) to determine what combination of demographic, academic, and athletic variables best predicted first-year GPA and retention into the second year of college. The dependent variables of first-year GPA and retention were chosen because they are two primary components used to calculate the Academic Progress Rate, a semester by semester evaluation of team academic performance used by the NCAA (Christianson, 2004).
Results revealed college student-athletes had a higher first-year GPA if they were female (r = .36), Caucasian (r = .36), attended college relatively close to their hometown (r = .09), scored well on standardized tests (r = .49), had a respectable high school GPA (r = .65), were ranked high in their graduating high school class (r = -.58), had a large high school graduating class (r = .15), declared a major upon entering college (r = -.11), were not a member of a revenue sport (r = .37), and earned a considerable amount of playing time (r = .15). Building on the relative strengths of those relationships, first-year
GPA can be predicted by knowing gender (B = .16), race (B = -.26), standardized test scores (B = .03), high school GPA (B = .41), high school rank (B < -.01), and high school size (B < .01).
The retention of student-athletes into their second year of college produced a slightly different set of relationships. Student-athletes were more likely to be retained if they were Caucasian (r = .16), attended college close to their hometown (r = .09), scored well on standardized tests (r = -.11), had a respectable high school GPA (r = -.14), were ranked high in their graduating high school class (r = .12), were not a member of a revenue sport (r = -.09), and earned a considerable amount of playing time (r = -.17). Predicting retention is possible with information about race (B = 1.09), distance from hometown (B = .4), type of sport (B = .82), and amount of playing time (B = -.70). / Department of Educational Leadership
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:123456789/193446 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Johnson, James E. |
| Contributors | Wessel, Roger D. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | ix, 190 p. : digital, PDF file. |
| Source | CardinalScholar 1.0 |
| Coverage | n-us--- |
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