Persistence and Graduation of College Students Seeking Disability Support Services

Abstract

Within the United States, an increasing number of students with disabilities attend colleges and universities (Hall , Belch, 2000). While earlier reports suggest that 10% of college students include persons with disabilities (Henderson, 1999), more recent estimates, however, suggest as high as 26% of students with disabilities attend four-year colleges (Newman, Wagner, Cameto, & Knokey, 2009). Despite this increase, the completion rate for students with disabilities is significantly lower in comparison to students without disabilities (deFur, Getzel, & Trossi, 1996; Wessel, Jones, Markle, & Westfall, 2009). For example, while 58% of students without disabilities obtain a four-year college degree (U.S. Department of Education, 2012), other reports have found graduation rates among students with disabilities ranged from 21% (Florida College System, 2009) to 34% (Newman et ah, 2009). In accounting for these differential outcomes between students with and without disabilities, several contributing factors have been cited in the literature including differences in academic, personal and social skills needed to cope with demands of higher education (Hong, Ivy, Humberto, & Ehrensberger, 2007), financial, social, psychological and environmental supports (Seidman, 2005; 2007), self-advocacy skills (Brinkerhoff, McGuire, & Shaw, 2002), academic accommodations (Newman et ah, 2009), insufficient preparation for college (Test et ah, 2009) and lack of fundamental programs and services to support students with disabilities (Tagayuna, Stodden, Chang, Zeleznik, & Whelley, 2005). Although a number of contributing factors have accounted for college and graduation among the general student population, principally among them are those associated with housing and financial aid. For example, there is a belief that on campus provides greater opportunities for increased social support, integration into campus life and more access to available resources (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Shoemaker, 2007). Earlier studies (e.g., Arredondo, 1999; Berger 2001-2002; Rendon, 1994) indicate that students on campus were more likely to be socially integrated, developed more independence, and became more involved in their academic affairs, all of which are attributes of persistence. Further, while several studies report that on-campus housing contributes to student (at least from the first to the second year; e.g., Huhn, 2006; Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & Gonyea, 2008), Turley and Wodtke (2010) found that college residence type (off- v. on-campus) on college was mitigated by race and college-type. For example, Black students who resided on campus at liberal art schools maintained higher grade point averages than those who lived at home. This effect, however, was not observed among White students. Differences were attributed to an increase in family responsibilities, inadequate transportation and fewer financial resources. Although having less financial flexibility has been raised as an important factor that often differentiates those who can afford to live on campus from those who cannot (Turley, 2006), it does not necessarily result in improved college retention (e.g., Dowd & Couray, 2006; Haynes, 2008; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2004). In the only known study that examined the impact of housing as well as other variables in predicting college between the first and second years of college attendance among 1,910 college students with disabilities, Mamiseishvili and Koch (2011) found that living on campus, being enrolled full-time, having higher degree expectations, and having a higher first-year GPA [grade point average] all positively and significantly influenced persistence (p. 100). In particular, students who lived on campus were 2.46 times more likely to persist than students who lived off campus. It was also noted that full-time students were 1. …

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