Running Head: Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of Summer Bridge
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Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of Summer Bridge Program
on African-American Student-Athletes’ Academic Success
Jeffrey S. Guin
University of Illinois
Author Note
Jeffrey S. Guin, Department of Educational Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeffrey S. Guin, 402 East Armory,
Champaign, IL 61820.
Email: guin@illinois.edu
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Introduction
Retention programs have long been a focus for institutions in higher education.
Graduation rates are a very popular statistic for society. College administrators and educators
also though look very closely at student attrition and the factors that influence it. Student
support services and programs that focus on retention identify incoming students who they
consider at-risk so they can make attempts to intervene early in the student’s academic career
and experience.
Research that explores the theories on why a student drops out usually focus on a
individual’s characteristics and background prior to arriving and how that relates to the academic
and social experience they have once on campus. Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson (2009) use
data from a national cohort to display that more than a third of all dropouts occur within the first
year after matriculation at a four year university. They suggest that perhaps first year grades and
graduation rates are influenced the most by support services provided and studying more. It
stands to reason that improving a student’s academic preparation can make the transition from
high school to college a little bit smoother.
When looking at diverse student attrition, Aragon and Kose (2007) found that this
category of students were typically not prepared for the rigors of the college classroom.
Admission requirements at four year institutions keep getting higher, which only makes it even
more difficult for low SES minority students to obtain the opportunity to attend. One group
though that continues to gain admission even though they might not be academically prepared
are student-athletes. Although the NCAA does not address socioeconomic status, their recent
graduation reports (2010) show that only 63% of African-American student-athletes earn their
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degree within in six year period as compared to 84% for white student-athletes. Why the
discrepancy if they have access to the same resources?
Since the conception of intercollegiate athletics, student-athletes have been admitted with
poor and insufficient skills necessary for success in the college classroom. Prior to the 1980’s,
the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) didn’t give much attention to the academic
experiences of student-athletes. Athletic departments were not concerned with graduation rates
and retention rates. Public scrutiny led to a change in focus by the NCAA and major reforms
resulted that have completely changed the academic experience for student-athletes. However,
the admission requirements for a student are much higher than the NCAA initial eligibility
requirements for student-athletes and the gap only appears to be getting wider and wider with
each class. In today’s economy with massive budget cuts and elimination of programs, how do
you help the academically unprepared student-athlete find success in the classroom?
University of Illinois Context
This study is valuable here to the University of Illinois because of the recent decision to
terminate the Summer Bridge component of the Transition program on campus. Established in
1986, the Transition program is an academic support program for students who are admitted into
the university that do not quite measure up to the admission requirements. The program admits
100 students each year, with 50 being assigned to the Summer Bridge component. The athletic
department was allowed up to fifteen spots each year for the Summer Bridge program, but in
recent years never used more than five.
Due to economic reasons, the LAS department made the decision to drop the program. It
is hard to justify spending so much money for such a small group of people. The bridge piece
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consisted of a six week academic intensive course work in the subject areas of mathematics,
composition, and basic skills development. The residential program had all expenses covered for
the participants, including a weekly stipend of twenty dollars and a lump-sum payment of fourhundred dollars at the end. The Transition program will continue to admit the type of students
mentioned above, except the bottom half will not have the extra benefit of the academic
preparation from Summer Bridge.
The student support services in the athletic department will need to come up with an
alternative plan for their incoming student-athletes who are admitted under this program.
Coaches will continue to recruit at the level that the NCAA and the University of Illinois allows
them to. Each recruiting class will continue to have a group of low achieving student-athletes,
particularly in football and men’s and women’s basketball. What, if any, skills from the Bridge
component are necessary to help insure not only the success for incoming student-athletes at-risk
but also to retain them past the first year.
Proposed Research
The problem to be addressed by this study is to examine how much do retention
programs assist student-athletes from a low academic-achieving background. It is expected that
individuals will credit such programs for their success by developing necessary skills to survive
in a college classroom. “The focus of some of the earliest research on diverse student attrition is
the argument that these students are, generally, academically unprepared for the demands of
college level coursework and thus drop out or are dismissed for academic reasons.” (Aragon &
Kose, 2007). Obviously not all retention programs are completely successful for all participants,
but for this particular program being reviewed the incoming student-athletes who participated
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were unprepared, and yet they found success. It will be interesting to compare the background of
individuals who experienced academic success after completing the program.
The research is grounded in Vincent Tinto’s retention theory that focuses on academic
integration and social integration as the variables that influence a student’s persistence during the
first year of college. Tinto’s schema begins with the individual traits a student brings with them
to college and then how that student interacts with campus, socially and academically. He
believes the most critical time to effect retention and attrition rates is during a student’s first
year.
In the spring of 2008, Markierra White, an undergraduate student, conducted an
ethnography project on the Bridge program. This study will build upon her findings and shift the
focus to the success of student-athletes who attended the Summer Bridge program. The subjects
will be student-athletes who are in at least their second year on campus and they are doing well
academically. The group will be limited to students of African-American race due to the
discrepancy in graduation rates presented earlier. The student-athletes will be chosen from
revenue and non-revenue producing sports. The subject pool will also consist of a mixed gender,
two male and two female.
In order to gain access to the subjects for this particular study, I will take ask the other
counselors in my department for a list of current student-athletes they work with that meet the
criteria of Summer Bridge participant, completed first year, and are having academic success. In
our student support department, each counselor is assigned specific teams to work with. I will
not use any of the student-athletes from my assigned teams in this research. The method used
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will be convenience sampling and I expect the interviews to last about one hour each with the
four individual students.
Research Method
The research method I will use for this study is qualitative, because it captures the
experiences and influences of the student-athletes. I am not interested in numbers, but rather the
what, how, and why the individual participants felt the Bridge program impacted their scholastic
performance. My aim is to understand what skills and benefits the Summer Bridge may have
provided to the student-athletes. This will allow my department to assess if it can replicate in
some form or fashion the same services to the next class since the program has been terminated.
From this study, my research will answer the questions on how the Summer Bridge
program effected student-athletes success academically and helped them to carry on in school.
What skills did they learn that they feel have been necessary in their success? What social and
cultural capital did these student-athletes bring into school? What role did their family
background, individual attributes, and aspirations play? Why are these student-athletes
experiencing success now? What do they credit their success to? Did they ever think about
dropping out during their first year? If so, what made them persevere? If not, at what point did
they realize that they could have success in the classroom? Are there any other influences for
their academic success? Why or why not?
Reflexivity
I am a white, middle-upper class male with two master’s degrees and currently trying to
gain admission to a doctorial program so I can earn my Ed. D. Due to my parents’ financial
backing and scholarships I received I have never had a school loan to pay back. If privilege ever
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needed a poster child it could be me. Success in academics has not ever been an issue for me. It
was not a matter of if I would graduate from a program, just how was I going to go about doing
it. Growing up I had a very limited perspective when it came to academics.
My thirteen-year professional career has been spent in college athletics. I was an
assistant coach for men’s basketball for eleven years, working at University of Illinois, Western
Illinois, and Florida Atlantic University. I worked for four head coaches between these three
stops and all had the same plan when it came to academics. Each coach was assigned a few
players to meet with on a weekly basis. In these meetings I would talk to the player about
upcoming assignments and exams, as well as any grades they had received back. Through these
meetings I learned where the student-athlete was at academically. It was very easy to pick up the
varying levels of study and organization skills. Regardless of the institution I was at, there were
incoming student-athletes who had major deficiencies. The major difference though was the
other two universities did not have the same financial resources as Illinois did. The Summer
Bridge program was only offered at Urbana-Champaign campus.
It is a well known fact that the majority of student-athletes playing men’s basketball at
the division one level are African-American. I spent eleven years as a coach and recruiting men
who didn’t have the initial set of tools needed to be successful in the classroom. Recruiting
practices are not affected just because a place does not have the financial resources. It is a
competitive, cut-throat business where wins and losses mean more than A’s and B’s, and at the
end of the day one just figured the student-athlete would figure out a way to get it done.
My career path took a turn two years ago and I am now an academic counselor in
athletics. I have moved off the little island that college coaches live on and I am swimming in
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the deep waters with the rest of the academic world on campus. With the elimination of the
Summer Bridge program, I am very interested in learning what our department can do to make
up for this lost resource. What caused the light to come on for the student-athletes who were
successful upon completing the program? I am curious to see if these students credit their
success to the program or to other influences or services.
With the unprecedented financial crisis our campus and country faces right now, we can
only hope that the support services stay status quo, but know that more cuts may come. Each
department will have to take on a little more in order to insure the same opportunities are still
there for the less-privileged incoming student. This study will help show the impact Summer
Bridge had and predict possible effects on the future not only for the athletic student support
services, but recruiting philosophy as well.
Literature Review
This research is grounded in Tinto’s theory of student retention and persistence, structure
and evaluations of retention programs, and the effective practices and experiences of AfricanAmerican student-athletes. Critics and findings that argue Tinto’s theoretical model will be
explored and considered here. There are many different types of retention programs, but this
review will focus on summer bridge programs at four year institutions. The literature reviewed
on student-athletes performance in the classroom will spotlight groups that traditionally have
performed lower than their peers, particularly football for males and women’s basketball for
females.
Included in this review are a combination of original sources, primary sources, and
previous work done on the subject. Any research on student retention and attrition must include
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the seminal piece written by Vincent Tinto in 1975 that established him as a leader in this area of
higher education. Over the past thirty years there have been studies and reviews of his model
that found different results. During the 1990’s there was a lot of interest in effective retention
programs, how these plans were organized, and how do you evaluate the effectiveness. This
review will also analyze the findings from an earlier ethnography project conducted here at the
university on former participants’ perspective on the value of the summer bridge program.
The aim for this research is to provide a coherent, integrated, and critical examination of
the selected literature for the issues presented in the proposal. After a brief section on terms of
use, the review will begin with Tinto’s theoretical model, its application, and present opposition
to his theory. Using his theory as a framework, the review will set up an understanding of
retention programs. Emphasis will be placed on characteristics of effective programs, evaluating
programs, and finding the factors that impact a student’s decision to continue or drop out.
Finally, the assessment will move to student-athletes and how Tinto’s theory mirrors the
experiences and the level of success they have.
Terms of Use
Prior to the discussion of the literature, it is helpful to identify the definitions to attrition,
retention, and persistence that will be used for this paper and a description of the summer bridge
program here on campus. Joel R. and Mary E. Levin classify these terms as they refer to the
issues being examined (1991). In the context of at-risk minority student, attrition refers to
students who have either dropped out of school or transferred to another campus, or are dropped
due to poor grades. Retention simply denotes a student who continues to reenroll at the same
school and eventually graduates. Levin and Levin note that persistence “refers to students who
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elect not to drop out of college.” (Levin & Levin, 1991, p. 324) For this study, persistence and
retention will be used interchangeably.
At the University of Illinois, the summer bridge program was founded in 1986 and is a
six week program that takes fifty students each year for six weeks who do not fully meet
admission requirements, particularly in standardized test scores. In order to be admitted to the
institution, the University requires that the participants complete the program with a C or better
in all course work. It is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and remedial
courses cover mathematics, composition, and basic skill development. Participants gain an
understanding regarding the relationship between hard work and success in higher education
(White, 2008).
Tinto’s Theoretical Model
Vincent Tinto first released his theory on student departure back in 1975. He created the
model of persistence to demonstrate the different variables that influence a student’s decision to
continue or leave an institution. At this time, the literature focused on the reasons students were
dropping out, but it did not explore how students came to this decision. Is there a consistent
group of factors that impact a student’s experience that leads them to this decision?
Many years later, in an interview with Nancy Spann, he revealed the motivation for his
research (1990). As a graduate student, he was asked by the federal government to research how
changing financial aid policies could influence student persistence. Tinto wanted to know the
process a student went through in their experiences when deciding to continue or drop out. In
this section the reader will learn Tinto’s theory on student retention, effective principles in
retention, and other educators’ evidence that is critical of his theory.
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Theoretical Model. Tinto equates institutions in higher education as a social system with its
own values and structures. He uses William Spady’s analogy where he applied Durkheim’s
theory of suicide to dropout (1975). Social conditions affecting dropout resemble suicide in a
wider society. He theorizes that students bring individual traits with them to college and are
merged with their aspirations and commitment to their institution through the academic and
social systems on campus. The student’s decision of whether to persist or dropout is influenced
by their level of academic and social integration.
The incoming traits mentioned earlier are broken down into three areas, background
characteristics, individual attributes, and pre-college schooling. Tinto defines family background
as social status attributes, value climates, and exceptional climates. Examples of individual
attributes and pre-college schooling are age, sex, race/ethnicity, and academic aptitude based off
their high school achievement and test scores. All of these areas have a direct and indirect
impact on academic performance. “More importantly, background characteristics and individual
attributes also influence the development of the educational expectations and commitments the
individual brings with him into the college environment.” (Tinto, 1975, p. 96) This leads us to
the next part of the production line in his theory.
The three areas of incoming traits play an important role in the level of commitment a
student has towards her or his educational goals and institution she or he is attending. Tinto
believed that an individual’s aspirations towards degree completion and institutional components
that led the student to attending were “important predictors of and reflections of the person’s
experiences, his disappointments, and satisfactions, in that collegiate environment.” (Tinto, 1975,
p. 96) With the individual traits and a student’s dedication toward an education and an
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institution already established upon matriculation to campus, the determining factor in their
decision to persist or dropout is the level of integration in the academic and social systems.
Academic and social integration can lead to new levels of commitment. Academic
integration can be measured by grade performance and intellectual development (Tinto, 1975).
Grade performance is seen as an extrinsic reward that is concrete, whereas intellectual
development is intrinsic, based on a person’s personal development. Social integration “occurs
primarily through informal peer group associations, semi-formal extracurricular activities, and
interaction with faculty and administrative personnel within the college.” (p. 107) These two
variables play a deciding role in student persistence and attrition. The more invested a student
feels regarding their education and social life at an institution, the more likely they are to push
ahead and continue with their studies.
Principles of Effective Retention. Tinto’s model explains the process and factors involved
when students try to decide whether or not to continue with their education. He also developed
three principles of effective retention and summarized them in an interview with Nancy Spann
(1990). The first principle is an institution must be committed to student service and have a
genuine care for the welfare of the student. Tinto believes this should be the crux of an
institution’s mission. The second principle is retention programs must be committed to an
education for all. Educators and administrators traditionally focus on how they hold on to their
students. “The question institutions should ask themselves is not how to retain students, but
how they and their students should act to ensure that all students, not just some, are able to grow
and learn while in college.” (p. 19) The third principle for a retention program is being
committed to development of social and educational communities. Tinto supports schools
integrating students into the mainstream of campus and providing guidance for social and
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intellectual development. These three principles provide a focus for support programs and Tinto
felt programs had more success when programs such as summer bridge engaged the students
early in the journey and provided the structure to help in the transition to college during the first
year.
From Tinto’s theory and principles on retention it is evident that persistence starts with
involvement. The question to ask then is to what extent does involvement matter? The answer
to that question is that it matters most during the freshman year (Tinto, 1996). The impact of
support programs is critical during the first year when persistence is in doubt the most. Tinto
suggested several organizational reforms for the first year of college including a community
model and a distinct program for the curriculum the first year. Students could work together in a
learning community where they shared resources and took the same classes.
Retention Programs
After reviewing Tinto’s theoretical model the focus now shifts to the programs and
solutions being offered to retain students. What are institutions doing in order to assist students
in making a successful transition to college? In particular, summer bridge programs have been
around since the 1960’s and have been receiving public funds. How do they measure success?
How do the results validate the cost of the programs? In this section, we will examine the
characteristics of effective retention programs, how educators are evaluating the programs, and
conclude with a brief review of University of Illinois student Markierra White’s paper on the
Summer Bridge program at Urbana-Champaign campus.
Characteristics of Effective Programs. In the fall of 1996, Tinto wrote a review on changing
the structure of the first year of college. His focus was on retention programs and what can be
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done to make them more effective. In his piece, Tinto states that colleges and universities have
responded to retention and attrition issues by implementing a wide array of programs (1996).
Despite these efforts, results have displayed only modest gains. Tinto credited this to the fact
that “most retention programs are largely non-academic in nature.” (p. 3) Retention efforts are
typically coordinated through student affairs and rarely are faculty involved. Orientation to
college, freshman advising, increased financial aid, and better residential hall arrangements all
are beneficial, but the foundation of an effective retention program needs to lie in better
education.
Another characteristic is creating a learning environment of shared experiences. Students in the
program share two or more courses together so the group is linked together. One student in such
a program said “we knew each other; we were friends…if we had questions, we could help each
other.” (Tinto, 1996, p. 5)
Evaluating Retention Programs. In an issue of the Journal of Developmental Education,
Dennis Congos and Nancy Shoeps (1997) presented the obstacles in creating a model for
evaluating a retention program. The authors stressed the financial influence retention rates can
have on an institution. Retention programs save money by reducing time to degree and it cost
more to recruit a student then it does to retain them. Since retention is a result of effective
programs, then it stands to reason that it is best to look at the effectiveness of programs.
Congos and Shoeps (1997) did list obstacles for creating an evaluation of a retention
program. The first problem identified was addressing the issue of self-selections into a program.
Research shows that for programs such as supplemental instruction where participation is
voluntary, majority of students who attend are better students (1997). Another issue is “common
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to all research involving educational outcomes,”(pg 3) and that is the difficulty in quantifying
ability, cognitive functioning, and motivation. A third concern listed is designing a model that
other researchers can use and understand the rationale and procedures.
In another study, Mary and Joel Levin (1991) examined academic retention programs for
at-risk minority students. The purposes for their study were to identify critical parts of a
program and issues for improvement. The researchers only focused on academic-based retention
programs. Levin and Levin found five critical components to a successful retention program: (a)
proactive intervention, (b) small-group tutorials, (c) teaching study and test-taking skills, (d)
development of students’ basic language skills, and (e) quality instruction. However, they also
said that there are few convincing findings reported because there are fundamental problems in
the methodology and simply there are no such findings available.
The next two pieces were evaluation studies done on specific summer bridge programs at
institutions. Michael York (1994) and Lisa Garcia and Chiara Paz (2009) presented reviews of
summer bridge programs at single institution and a comparison of several institutions. York
studied the CHALLENGE program offered to minority students only prior to their enrollment at
Georgia Tech University. The survey process York developed and implemented found that
students increased their social integration, organizational and time management skills, and
understanding of resources available on campus. On the other hand, changes in the perceptions
of academic fit and self-efficacy were not evident (1994). This was credited to the inability to
perform a longitudinal study that would have allowed for follow up upon completion of first year
and beyond of the participants.
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Garcia and Paz (2009) studied four summer bridge programs and were discouraged to
find the lack of clear evidence of these retention programs meeting their goals. Surveys,
interviews, and campus material revealed only one campus had a complete evaluation process in
place. This particular program collects data from focus groups during the program and then
collects data again during the first year on student academic and social involvement.
“Talking with the different students made me realize Bridge was actually beneficial and
has helped me with the transition from high school to college in many levels, socially and
academically.” (White, 2008, p. 10) Markierra White, a summer bridge participant here at the
University of Illinois, felt that the retention program benefitted her as well as the fellow
participants she interviewed. The author found that former participants of the program credited
the daily structure and intensity of academic work in their successful transition to higher
education.
Critique of Tinto’s Model
The experiences a student has once on campus can be influenced by support services in
an in-direct and direct manner. Of the variables listed above in Tinto’s model, the pre-college
characteristics are the only ones that a school cannot change once the student matriculates into
the system. However, it is important to note that in Terenzini et al., (1985) research provides
evidence that pre-college characteristics have no direct effect on student retention or attrition.
The longitudinal study, conducted at a large, public, research university in the northeast with
11,000 students, confirms Tinto’s belief that experiences and interactions at the institution are
what influence a student’s decision to continue or dropout.
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William Tierney (1992) wrote an anthropological analysis of Tinto’s model and critiques
a few of the interpretations in the theory that have an anthropological background. In this piece,
Tierney makes the case that Tinto has “misinterpreted the anthropological notions of ritual, and
in doing so he has created a theoretical construct with practical implications that hold potentially
harmful consequences for racial and ethnic minorities.” (p. 603) He also suggests that rather
than use the social integrationist approach and Durkheim’s theory of suicide, one should
highlight the differences of minority students and celebrate their diversity. Why ask an AfricanAmerican to forgo his culture just so he can fit in with the dominant culture? Tierney believed
institutions needed to adapt to the student rather than student to the institution.
In a more recent study, Rendon, Jalomo, and Nora (2000) came to the conclusion that
using the acculturation and assimilation framework to study retention does not complete the
picture. In order to take retention theory to the next level, a new theory needs to be generated.
The study focuses on applying Tinto’s theory to minority students and how his framework
addresses students’ attempts at integrating into the dominant culture on a campus. As mentioned
earlier, Tierney criticized Tinto’s retention model for its social integrationist approach and Tinto
replied “that the majority of colleges are made up of several, if not many, communities…rather
than conforming to one dominant culture in order to persist, students would have to locate at
least one community in which to find membership and support.” (p. 8)
Rendon, Jalomo, and Nora introduce concepts of biculturalism and dual socialization.
Biculturalism is defined as a student stepping in and out of two cultures and dual socialization as
the amount of overlap between two cultures (2000). They found that minorities did not need to
break all ties and commit cultural suicide in order to obtain membership. Minority students could
find support within their communities and not lose her or his ethnic identity through another
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group’s rituals and actions. Rendon, Jalomo, and Nora point out the new research since Tinto’s
model and request that it be used to lift the knowledge on student retention, particularly in regard
to minorities.
African-American Student-Athletes
The latest graduation rates released by the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(2009) show a poor trend for African-American student-athletes at the division one level. The
latest cohort included students enrolling in Fall of 1999 through Fall of 2002. AfricanAmericans who participated in football were second lowest minority group for males at a 47%
graduation rate while women’s basketball tied with women’s track for lowest female graduation
rate for African-Americans at 62%. What does research say about these groups and the attrition
issues? What practices and programs have been identified as effective for minority studentathletes? This section will explore the experiences of African-American student-athletes and
effective educational practices for this group.
Academic Inadequacy. In an issue of the Journal of Higher Education, Kirsten Benson (2000)
presented her findings on the experiences African-American student-athletes have in higher
education. She points out how research has traditionally looked at test scores and programs
rather than the experiences this minority group was having. Benson claims that this poor success
problem is due to the fact that the success of the at-risk minority student-athlete is placed all on
the athletic department. (2000) She calls for more support from all academic groups on campus,
including faculty, academic advisors in colleges, and peer interaction.
Effective Educational Practices. Research on the collegiate experience for student-athletes
shows that they are just as engaged socially as non student-athletes and in most cases student-
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athletes participate more in effective educational practices. (Umbach, Palmer, Kuh, & Hannah,
2006) The authors compare their findings to recent harsh criticism on student-athletes academic
performance at selective institutions by highlighting the fact that their study was based on a
national sample, whereas the other ones were limited to students attending Ivy league schools.
However, Umbach et al. (2006) did identify the limitations in their findings to the quantitative
model they used to conduct their research and inability to identify student-athlete responses by
neither sport nor ethnicity.
In a recent book by Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson (2009), they reported similar
evidence in a study regarding the African-American student population as a whole becoming
more engaged and surpassing white students in persistence. Unfortunately they found that even
as of today it is still difficult to find effective institutional policies but do reference Tinto’s
principles of effective retention, founded over fifteen years ago, as somewhere to start.
Limitations
Even though summer bridge programs began over fifty years ago and Tinto introduced
educators to his theoretical model for retention and principles of effective retention during the
past thirty-five years, there are still major gaps in the literature. Despite researchers making calls
the last twenty years for solid research on results of retention programs, no one has embarked on
the mission. Another area that needs to be addressed is the lack of short and longitudinal studies
on the effects of summer bridge programs. Federal and institutional money is being invested and
the programs are not being held for accountability. Finally, the last area I would like to see more
research is in the effect athletic department support services have on at-risk minority student-
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athletes. Are there any effective practices in this area that can be duplicated in other retention
programs?
More out of Literature Review
My recommendations for future research are influenced heavily by the limitations found
in the literature and narrowed to a specific population of students. I believe more research needs
to be done on comparing student support services for student-athletes and non student-athletes.
Financial cost of programs, academic ability, race, and gender are all factors that should be
considered when evaluating effective programs and retention models used by each in reaching
the goal of degree obtainment for the at-risk student-athlete and overall student populations.
Findings
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the effects of the Summer Bridge
program here at the University of Illinois on at-risk minority student-athletes. Using Tinto’s
retention theory to frame the inquiry, it was anticipated that data would be uncovered to support
the idea that this particular retention program shared necessary academic and social expertise in
order to be successful at the institution. Some of the expected findings in this study included
development of time management and organizational skills, as well as fostering a sense of
familiarity with the campus and resources offered here. One surprising finding is that none of
the participants acknowledged the lopsided numbers in demographics in the student population at
this PWI institution. All of the minority student-athletes felt like they fit in and did not identify a
dominant white culture at the school.
Descriptive Data. Two women and two men participated in this study, two sophomores, 1
junior, and 1 senior at the University of Illinois. Three student-athletes identified themselves as
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
21
African-American and the other identified as being mixed (African-American and white). All
the students were from major cities, three from out-of-state (Cleveland, Minneapolis, and
Jacksonville, FL) and one from Chicago. All the students lacked what Tinto would call precollege attributes. The group all came from families with little or no college experience, three of
which will be the first to graduate within their immediate family. They all scored below a 16 on
the ACT standardized test and felt that there high school curriculum did not prepare them for
higher education. However, it is evident through their interviews and current GPA that they are
all having academic success. The participants cum GPA are ranged from B- to B+ and one is
graduating this spring. All signed on their waivers that they did not want their names revealed so
pseudo names will be used when quoting from the interviews conducted in this research. Below
in Table 1, their pseudo names are assigned to the participants:
Pseudo Name
Year
Major
Sport
Jerry
Senior
Community Health
Women’s Basketball
George
Sophomore
Undecided
Football
Elaine
Junior
Communications
Women’s Basketball
Kramer
Sophomore
Recreation, Sport, & Tourism
Football
Table 1 – Pseudo Names
Three themes emerge from general coding analysis of the interviews. The questions
focused on the individual’s bridge experience, expectations, feelings during, and reflection after
completing the program. The student-athletes openly talked about what they feel were key
contributing factors in their academic success via the summer bridge classes. The themes that
emerged were non-academic skill development (time management and organization skills),
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
22
awareness (familiarity with campus, resources, and other students), and social integration
(finding a support group within the institution).
Non-Academic Skill Development. One prevailing theme through all the interviews the
participants shared was the growth in their time management and organizational skills during the
program. The student-athletes credited Summer Bridge teaching them how to balance the rigors
of college academics. George and Elaine both stated that the summer bridge program was
important in their success at Illinois because it taught them how to prioritize and plan their daily
and weekly schedule. Jerry points out, “after awhile you learn the system, like if maybe if I cut
down my lunch time I can get more homework done and get to sleep earlier.”
From the time the participants woke up in the morning till the time they went to bed,
Summer Bridge kept them on a strict daily schedule. Kramer describes a typical day, and reveals
his growth in time management:
We started off probably wake up around 6, breakfast at 7, class at 9, 9 to probably like 11, then at 11 you
have another class, then you have a break and go eat lunch, come back from lunch have math from 1-3, and
then go to practice so we would do 7 on 7, come back from practice, eat some dinner, then study, study like
7-10. And then lights out at 11 so. You had to be in your room before 11 so I was in there like at 10:50pm.
The team lifted weights during the day and I wanted work out too. So I got up early before six and get my
lift in.
Summer bridge participants took classes whose curriculum on the surface appears to be writing
and mathematics. However, the hidden curriculum is teaching how to organize ideas and
manage a daily schedule. George’s reply to what did he learn was, “writing because um you had
to read. She gave you an assignment and you had to read a book and you had to put like these
main themes and put all your thoughts on there.” As the interview went on, George credited the
hidden curriculum in his academic success in his first year. He said, “the class work just helped
me you know how to handle a load and how to schedule everything. You know I was basically
like on time. My freshman year I did all my work ahead of time.”
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
23
Student-athletes did not feel the course work was difficult, but rather it was demanding
and kept them busy every night. All the participants acknowledged the benefits of the nonacademic skill development they received from Summer Bridge and the positive effect it had on
their first year in college. Time management and organizational skills can be just as important
the first year in college when students are faced with so many unknowns. How comfort and
confidant an individual is plays a key role as well.
Awareness. As the interviews continued, another them emerged from the student-athletes’
responses. Participants expressed an increased sense of awareness they felt upon completing the
summer bridge program. When Elaine arrived on campus, she felt, “scared and nervous.”
Others such as Jerry were terrified. She described her state-of-mind as:
First off what did I get myself into? I didn’t know I couldn’t work out. I couldn’t do half the stuff I
thought I was gonna be doing. When I first walked up they were in full army suits, like the camouflage
pants and all that and I looked at my parents like oh my gosh. I was calling my parents the first night crying
please please don’t leave me.
Upon successful of the retention program, the participants experienced a new sense of comfort
and confidence. Elaine said that going into that first fall semester she was happy she had gone
through bridge because she was able to learn her way around campus before the rest of the
student body returned. Jerri and Kramer both said their confidence increased as they became
more comfortable with campus. Kramer said from, “like the first day of bridge and you walk
and they show you every building. Like where the bookstore is, where financial aid is at, um
where your classes are gonna be. It as a long day of walking but good because you learn the
campus pretty well and that made me comfortable in the fall.” When asked if Summer Bridge
was useful, Jerry answered:
I think so. I moved in with another freshman in the six pack and she didn’t know anything and I already
knew how to find things, like I had class in Gregory or you always had class in English building and I knew
where that was.
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
24
As the student-athletes awareness with the campus and resources increased, they also felt
more assured of themselves in their classes their first year due to familiar classmates. With the
exception of George, the other participants expressed a positive feeling from having fellow
bridge participants in their classes their first year. Elaine said it was a benefit because if you
ever needed something, you had friends you could ask. Kramer described his first year classes as
being:
All bridge students. I had at least seven people who were bridge students. Yea you not used to not knowing
anyone. Like when I’m in class now I don’t know no one. You are more comfortable when you know
someone, like in speech com I knew everyone in there so you could talk more. Now I’m struggling. It was
easier to participate.
Participants found that they had a built in support group right from the beginning of their college
career. To have sense of a familiarity with classmates and social group on the first day of classes
as a freshman at a large, predominantly white institution has a powerful effect on a minority, atrisk student.
Social Integration. The student-athletes all felt that had strong bonds with their respective
teammates and some even with their fellow bridge classmates. The amount of time athletic
teams spend together can be overwhelming or suffocating. Between the practice time, team
travel, workouts, meetings, and even classes, these student-athletes are cloaked with the security
blanket known as their team. All of them responded that they fit in on this campus and do not
feel that they have sacrificed any part of their ethnicity nor race. All of the participants with the
exception of George claimed to have stayed in touch with friends from bridge. Jerry even said
that, “if I hadn’t gone to bridge and been around all those black people, I would have been so
uncomfortable with my team. It helped me understand more about my culture.” Kramer spends
the majority of his time with other African-American teammates, bridge participants, or high
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
25
school friends because, “teammates can relate. Because most people from Chicago public
schools they know what we went through.”
Between athletic teams and bridge friends the student-athletes all did not feel a need for
another cultural outlet. Only Kramer visited any of the cultural houses after completing the
bridge program and even then it was because he was on a date with a girl and they went to a
show there that night. The participants in this study felt they found a niche in this large
community and did not desire any more. The question which group do you prefer to hang out
with gave mixed answers. George said he hangs with his teammates and, “pretty much no one
else.” Elaine provided the same answer but continued that it is nice to have an outlet from
teammates. Kramer replied that:
Yea, I have a couple friends I hang out with, you just get so used to being with the football players that it’s
good to just chill out with my other friends. I just need a break from them. Some of them tell me of events
that are going on around campus.
The social needs in order to fit in, feel comfortable, and provide the confidence necessary in
order to be successful at this campus is being met for these four student-athletes. All of the
participants found social networks via bridge or their team without having to sacrifice their
cultural or ethnic heritage.
Discussion
The findings discussed in this paper reveal the effects that the summer bridge program
had on the student-athletes who participated in this study. The experience this retention program
provided to students who were viewed as at-risk led to benefits and positive effects that rippled
on-through the summer and past the critical first year of higher education. Jerry, who graduates
this term, praised the efforts of summer bridge staff by saying, “I give a lot of credit to Michelle
and Pam. They always stayed on my case even after that summer,” and George summed up his
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
26
experience in two words, “tough and disciplined. Pam Greer stays on you even after you leave!”
The evidence shows that the program did have long lasting effects for these participants.
Major Findings. The stories and information shared by the participants provided insight to the
reasons for success for these at-risk minority student-athletes. According to Tinto’s model of
retention, Appendix A, the participants had deficiencies in more than one of the three incoming
areas of attributes. Family background was poor, as three of the student-athletes will be the first
to graduate from higher education in their family. Evidence for poor individual attributes is
found in the fact that all four candidates scored lower than a 16 on the ACT. High school
curriculum did not prepare them for the rigors of coursework at the university level. Kramer
described his experience as:
Maybe the AP course did but I took other regular courses and didn’t do a good job like teaching me how to
write papers. They didn’t do a good job of how to prepare for college, like with the workload and stuff like
that. We just had little assignments.
However, just as this did not affect their academic success, Terenzini et al. (1985) wrote that
when studying effects on retention and attrition, it does not matter if students lacked in precollege characteristics.
Evaluations of retention programs continue to tell us that learning the non-academic skills
are just as valuable, if not more, than the academic skills. Summer bridge programs emphasize
this point in the strict and committed approach taken towards the daily schedule. Tinto (1996)
said that the academic part of an effective retention program was not important. It is more
important for students to learn the daily regimen of college life so she or he can navigate the
deep waters during an academic term. York (1994) found similar findings in his study of a
summer bridge program when he reported that organizational and time management, familiarity
with campus resources, and social integration all increased. Becoming familiar with the
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
27
unknown and gaining a competitive edge in the fall term once all incoming freshmen are on
campus can make up some of the deficiencies in other areas that are lacking for summer bridge
participants.
Spann (1990) provided detail on principles of effective retention programs as defined by
Tinto and quotes earlier by Jerry and Kramer support this argument. It is critical for a program
to be committed to student service and genuine care for welfare of students, and from the
director, Pam Greer, down, it was evident that this was present. Another critical component is
the development of social and educational communities. Three of the four participants in this
study confirmed the comfort and confidence they felt from having quite a few bridge students in
their classes that first year.
Tinto (1996) emphasizes the critical first year in retention and persistence. The
importance of fostering a sense of community within the classroom and campus environment is
valuable to an at-risk student. With this support framework in place at a large institution,
minority students can find a niche and harbor feelings of fitting in and belonging. If you recall,
Tierney (1992) criticized this area in Tinto’s theory, objecting to a minority having to give up
their culture in order to fit in. Minority students only need to find a support group, not
necessarily within the dominant culture. The student-athletes in this study found their group via
bridge and their respective athletic teams.
Summer bridge programs are also criticized for lack of data collection on students in the
first year on campus (Garcia & Paz, 2009). Here at Illinois this is not the case as bridge advisors
continue to meet on a weekly basis with participants and send out mid-term progress reports on
all their classes. Another issue particular to the population in this study, at-risk student-athletes
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
28
need support from other services other than the intercollegiate athletic department (Benson,
2000). The Bridge program provides the additional outlet for at-risk student-athletes.
Implications
The findings in this study provide a few implications that may have an influence on
policies and practices in higher education. Evidence in this study, and supported from a larger,
more in-depth one (Bowen, Chingos, & McPherson, 2009) demonstrates that pre-college traits
for incoming students, particularly low standardized test scores, may not be a good determinant
for success in college. Another implication that builds off of this one is introducing at-risk,
minority students to a PWI in the summer, may play an integral role in their success. This
practice would provide the opportunity for an immediate support group and nurture an awareness
and comfort with campus resources, facilities, and daily life that are all important factors in a
student’s persistence.
Limitations / Recommendation for Future Study
One major consideration to note is that I only looked at successful cases. Having a group
of participants who are struggling academically to compare would be very beneficial and provide
more insight. Another limitation in the population of this study is that they are all studentathletes who have access to another academic support center that is provided by the
intercollegiate athletic department. It is hard to distinguish the varying levels of influence the
summer bridge program and this one have on the student-athlete. As for retention, another bias
is the fact that all four of the participants are on a full athletic scholarship. Therefore the
economics and financial obstacles that affect so many students in their path towards degree
completion are not relevant here.
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
29
I recommend interviewing students prior to entering the bridge program, during, and after
to truly get a sense of their feelings and thoughts. It would also be interesting to perform a
longitudinal study by interviewing participants throughout their college career. My last
recommendation for future research is to look at minority students experiences who are admitted
under the transition program and do not attend Summer Bridge. Transition students are admitted
into Illinois who have similar profile as bridge candidates, except a slightly higher test score. It
would be interesting to compare the first year experiences and success rates across those two
different groups.
Conclusion
In this research the benefits of bridge on retention and academic success for minority
student-athletes with a poor academic background are presented. This program cost $500,000 a
summer to operate and it has become a victim of the campus-wide budget cuts enveloping our
institution. With the termination of this support program, one wonders what alternatives can be
provided in order to aid at-risk minority student-athletes, because even though the programs and
services are changing, the recruiting philosophies of coaches are not. Maybe in the future, when
economy bounces back, the program can be revived, maybe even reduce from six to four weeks
and theoretically save one-third the cost. Until then, at-risk minority students will need to
continue searching for that place where she or he fits in, finds support, encouragement, and
guidance to steer through the minefield known as higher education.
Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
30
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Applying Tinto’s Retention Theory to Evaluate the Influence of the Summer Bridge Program
APPENDIX A
33