Abstract
A common finding in the literature is that institutional structures have little to no impact on student engagement and development. I argue that theory suggests peer ability (as measured by selectivity), institutional density, the differentiation of the curriculum, and the research orientation of the institution should all affect student engagement. Using the nationally representative Beginning Post-secondary Student survey, a non-linear selection on observables correction for selection bias, and a multilevel modeling approach, I find that institutional structures do affect student engagement in predictable and substantively significant ways.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison P. D. (2002). Missing Data. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA
Antonio A. L. (2001). Diversity and the influence of friendship groups in college. Review of Higher Education 25(1): 63–89
Antonio A. L. (2004). The influence of friendship groups on intellectual self-confidence and educational aspirations in college. Journal of Higher Education 75(4): 446–471
Astin A. W. (1993). What Matters in College? Four Critical Years Revisited. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA
Astin A. W., Lee J. J. (2003). How risky are one-shot cross-sectional assessments of undergraduate students?. Research in Higher Education 44(6): 657–672
Barron’s. (1997). Barron’s Profiles of American colleges (21st ed.). Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, Hauppauge, NY
Belsley D. (1991). Conditioning Diagnostics: Collinearity and Weak Data in Regression. John Wiley and Sons, New York
Black D. A., Smith J. A. (2003). How robust is the evidence on the effects of college quality?. Evidence from matching. Journal of Econometrics 121, 99–124
Breland, H., Maxey, J., Gernand, R., Cumming, T., and Trapani, C. (2002). Trends in College Admission 2000: A Report of a National Survey of Undergraduate Admission Policies, Practices, and Procedures: ACT, Inc., Association for Institutional Research, the College Board, Educational Testing Service, and the National Association for College Admission Counseling
Brewer D. J., Eide E., Ehrenberg R. G. (1999). Does it pay to attend an elite private college? Cross-cohort evidence on the effects of college type on earnings. Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 104–123
Brooks H. (1994). Current criticisms of research universities. In: Cole J. R., Barber E. G., Graubard S. R. (ed). The Research University in a Time of Discontent. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (1994). A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Princeton, NJ
Cech T. R. (1999). Science at liberal arts colleges: A better education? Daedelus 128(1): 195–216
Chickering A. W., Reisser L. (1993). Education and Identity (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Dale S. B., Krueger A. B. (2002). Estimating the payoff to attending a more selective college: An application of selection on observables and unobservables. Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4): 1491–1527
Delucchi M. (1997). “Liberal arts” colleges and the myth of uniqueness. Journal of Higher Education 68(4): 414–426
Dey E. L., Milem J. F., Berger J. B. (1997). Changing patterns of publication productivity: Accumulative advantage or institutional isomorphism? Sociology of Education 70(4): 308–323
Dills, A. K. (2004). Does cream-skimming curdle the milk? A study of peer effects. Economics of Education Review 24(1): 19–28
Ehrenberg R. G. (2004). Econometric studies of higher education. Journal of Econometrics 121, 19–37
Eide E. R., Brewer D. J., Ehrenberg R. G. (1998). Does it pay to attend an elite private college? Evidence on the effects of undergraduate college quality on graduate school attendance. Economics of Education Review 17(4): 371–376
Fairweather J. S. (1996). Faculty Work and Public Trust: Restoring the Value of Teaching and Public Service in American Academic Life. Allyn and Bacon, Boston
Fairweather J. S. (2002). The mythologies of faculty productivity: Implications for institutional policy and decison making. Journal of Higher Education 73(1): 26–48
Fox M.F. (1992). Research, teaching and publication productivity: Mutuality versus competition in academia. Sociology of Education 65(4): 293–305
Fuller W. C., Manski C. F., Wise D. A. (1982). New evidence on the economic determinants of postsecondary schooling choices. Journal of Human Resources 17(4): 477–498
Gibson N. M., Olejnik S. (2003). Treatment of missing data at the second level of hierarchical linear models. Educational and Psychological Measurement 63(2): 204–238
Graham H. D., Diamond N. (1997). The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
Groves R. M., Fowler F. J., Couper M. P., Lepkowski J. M., Singer E., Tourangeau R. (2004). Survey Methodology. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Heck R. H., Thomas S. L. (2000). An Introduction to Multilevel Modeling Techniques. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ
Hoxby, C. M. (2001). Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation. National Bureau of Economic Research
Hu S., Kuh G. D. (2002). Being (dis)engaged in educationally purposeful activities: The influences of student and institutional characteristics. Research in Higher Education 43(5): 555–574
Hu S., Kuh G. D. (2003a). Diversity experiences and college student learning and personal development. Journal of College Student Development 44(3): 320–334
Hu S., Kuh G. D. (2003b). Maximizing what students get out of college: Testing a learning productivity model. Journal of College Student Development 44(2): 185–203
James E., Alsalam N., Conaty J. C., To D.-L. (1989). College quality and future earnings: Where should you send your child to college?. American Economic Review. 79(2): 247–252
Johnson M. K., Crosnoe R., Elder G. H. (2001). Students’ attachment and academic engagement: The role of race and ethnicity. Sociology of Education 74, 318–340
Kennedy P. (2003). A Guide to Econometrics. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Kim M. M. (2002a). Cultivating intellectual development: Comparing women-only colleges and coeducational colleges for educational effectiveness. Research in Higher Education 43(4): 447–481
Kim M. M. (2002b). Historically Black vs. White institutions: Academic development among Black students. Review of Higher Education 25(4): 385–407
King G. (1986). How not to lie with statistics: Avoiding common mistakes in quantitative political science. American Journal of Political Science 30(3): 666–687
Kuh G. D. (2003). The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual framework and overview of psychometric properties. Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, Bloomington, IN
Kuh G. D., Hu S. (2001). The effects of student–faculty interaction in the 1990s. Review of Higher Education 24(3): 309–332
Lee V. E., Smith J. B. (1997). High school size: Which works best and for whom? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 19(3): 205–227
Lee V. E., Smith J. B., Croninger R. G. (1997). How high school organization influences the equitable distribution of learning in mathematics and science. Sociology of Education 70(2): 128–150
Lewis-Beck M. S., Skalaban A. (1990). The R-squared: Some straight talk. Political Analysis: 2, 153–170
Loury L. D., Garman D. (1995). College selectivity and earnings. Journal of Labor Economics. 13(2): 289–308
Lundberg C. A. (2003). The influence of time-limitations, faculty, and peer relationships on adult student learning: a causal model. Journal of Higher Education 74(6): 665–688
Lundberg C. A., Schreiner L. A. (2004). Quality and frequency of faculty-student interaction as predictors of learning: An analysis by student race/ethnicity. Journal of College Student Development. 45(5): 549–565
Manski C. F. (1993). Identification of endogenous social effects: The reflection problem. Review of Economic Studies. 60, 531–542
Marco G. L., Abdel-fattah A. A., Baron P. A. (1992). Methods Used to Establish Score Comparability on the Enhanced ACT Assessment and the SAT. College Board, New York, NY
McCartney K., Rosenthal R. (2000). Effect size, practical importance, and social policy for children. Child Development 71(1): 173–180
McCormick A. C. (2000). What’s ahead for the Carnegie classifications? AAHE Bulletin
McCormick A. C. (2004). The 2005 revision of the Carnegie classification system. Paper presented at the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, Washington, DC
Milem J. F., Berger J. B., Dey E. L. (2000). Faculty time allocation: A study of change over twenty years. Journal of Higher Education 71(4): 454–475
Milem J. F., Umbach P. D., Liang C. T. H. (2004). Exploring the perpetuation hypothesis: The role of colleges and universities in desegregating society. Journal of College Student Development 45(6): 688–700
Monks J. (2000). The returns to individual and college characteristics: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Economics of Education Review 19, 279–289
National Center for Education Statistics. (1990). Classification of Instructional Programs, Washington, DC
National Center for Education Statistics. (1997). National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, 1995–96 (NPSAS:96) Methodology Report (No. 98-073), Washington, DC
National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). Digest of Education Statistics 2003 (No. 2005-025). Washington, DC
National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, Washington, DC
National Survey of Student Engagement. (2003). 2003 Overview. Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, Bloomington, IN
Pascarella E. T. (1985). College environmental influences on learning and cognitive development: A critical review and synthesis. In: Smart J. (ed). Higher Education Handbook of Theory and Research (Vol. 1). Agathon, Edison, NJ
Pascarella, E. T., Cruce, T. M., Umbach, P. D., Wolniak, G. C., Kuh, G. D., Carini, R. M., et al. (in press). Institutional selectivity and good practices in undergraduate education: How strong is the link? Journal of Higher Education
Pascarella E. T., Terenzini P. T. (1991). How College Affects Students: Findings and Insights from Twenty Years of Research. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Pascarella E. T., Terenzini P. T. (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research (Vol. 2). Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Pascarella E. T., Wolniak G. C., Cruce T. M., Blaich C. F. (2004). Do liberal arts colleges really foster good practices in undergraduate education? Journal of College Student Development. 45(1): 57–74
Perna L. W. (2004). Understanding the decision to enroll in graduate school: Sex and racial/ethnic group differences. Journal of Higher Education 75(5): 487–527
Peterson’s. (1996). Peterson’s Undergraduate Database. The Thomson Corporation, Lawrenceville, NJ
Porter S. R. (2005). What can multilevel models add to institutional research? In: Coughlin M. A. (ed). Applications of Advanced Statistics in Institutional Research. Association of Institutional Research, Tallahassee, FL
Porter, S. R. and Toutkoushian, R. K. (in press). Institutional research productivity and the connection to average student quality and overall reputation. Economics of Education Review
Raudenbush S. W., Bryk A. S. (2002). Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (2nd ed.). Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA
Renn K. A., Arnold K. D. (2003). Reconceptualizing research on college student peer culture. Journal of Higher Education 74(3): 261–291
Robinson W. S. (1950). Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. Sociological Review 15, 351–357
Rumberger R. W., Thomas S. L. (1993). The economic returns to college major, quality and performance: A multilevel analysis of recent graduates. Economics of Education Review 12(1): 1–19
Sacerdote B. (2001). Peer effects with random assignment: Results for Dartmouth roommates. Quarterly Journal of Economics 116(2): 681–704
Shieh Y.-Y., Fouladi R. T. (2003). The effect of multicollinearity on multilevel modeling parameter estimates and standard errors. Educational and Psychological Measurement 63(6): 951–985
Shulman J. L., Bowen W. G. (2001). The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Siegfried, J. J., Getz, M. (2003). Where Do the Children of Professors Attend College?, Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University
Smart J. C., Ethington C. A., Riggs R. O., Thompson M. D. (2002). Influences of institutional expenditure patterns on the development of students’ leadership competencies. Research in Higher Education 43(1): 115–132
Strauss L. C., Volkwein J. F. (2002). Comparing student performance and growth in 2- and 4-year institutions. Research in Higher Education 43(2): 133–161
Thomas S. L. (2000). Deferred costs and economic returns to college major, quality, and performance. Research in Higher Education 41(3): 281–313
Thomas S. L. (2003). Longer-term economic effects of college selectivity and control. Research in Higher Education 44(3): 263–299
Thomas S. L., Heck R. H. (2001). Analysis of large-scale secondary data in higher education research: Potential perils associated with complex sampling designs. Research in Higher Education 42(5): 517–540
Titus M. (2004). An examination of the influence of institutional context on student persistence at 4-year colleges and universities: A multilevel approach. Research in Higher Education 45(7): 673–699
Toutkoushian R. K. (2001). Do parental income and educational attainment affect the initial choices of New Hampshire’s college-bound students. Economics of Education Review 20. 245–262
Toutkoushian R. K., Smart J.C. (2001). Do institutional characteristics affect student gains from college?. Review of Higher Education. 25(1): 39–61
Walpole M. (2003). Socioeconomic status and college: How SES affects college experiences and outcomes. Review of Higher Education 27(1): 45–73
Whitt E. J., Pascarella E. T., Nesheim B. S. E., Marth B. P., Pierson C. T. (2003). Differences between wome and men in objectively measured outcomes, and the factors that influence those outcomes, in the first three years of college. Journal of College Student Development 44(5): 587–610
Winston G. C. (1999). Subsidies, hierarchy and peers: The awkward economics of higher education. Journal of Economic Perspectives 13(1): 13–36
Winston G. C., Zimmerman D. J. (2004). Peer effects in higher education. In: Hoxby C. M. (ed). College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay for It. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Zhao C.-M., Kuh G. D. (2004). Adding value: Learning communities and student engagement. Research in Higher Education. 45(2): 115–138
Zhao C.-M., Kuh G. D., Carini R. M. (2005). A comparison of international student and American student engagement in effective educational practices. Journal of Higher Education 76(2): 209–231
Zimmerman D. J. (2003). Peer effects in academic outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment. Review of Economics and Statistics 85(1): 9–23
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Porter, S.R. INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT. Res High Educ 47, 521–558 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-005-9006-z
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-005-9006-z