Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence

A college degree has replaced the high school diploma as a mainstay for economic self-sufficiency and responsible cit izenship. In addition, earning a bachelor's degree is linked to long-term cognitive, social, and economic benefits to individuals?benefits that are passed onto future generations, enhancing the quality of life of the families of college-educated persons, the communities in which they live, and the larger society. Unfortunately, too many students who begin college leave before completing degrees. Only half (51%) of students who enrolled at four year institutions in 1995-96 completed bachelor's degrees within six years at the institutions at which they started. Another 7% obtained bac calaureate…