Social Integration In Higher Education

College enrollment of minority students has steadily increased over the past two decades. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2013), the percentage of minority students in higher education has risen for each minority group between the years of 1976 and 2011. While these students are representing a higher percentage of the student body than in the past, graduation and retention rates of this group are still lower than the rates of other students. With the exception of Asian students, the graduation rates of minority students who started school in 2005 and completed their degree within 4 years is half that of White students in the same cohort (NCES, 2012). Given these statistics, it follows that special attention should be paid to

This outcome is important because of its manifest in the social and academic integration. This integration is important because it encompasses students’ relationships with both the educational and social aspects of college life. More specifically, academic integration is the extent to which students align themselves with the academic environment of college (Tinto, 1975). Social integration, on the other hand, refers to students’ social relationships within the college environment. Estrella and McKay (2008) found that interaction with faculty was positively associated with the academic and social integration of first-generation college students participating in service-learning. Similarly, Wolff and Tinney (2006) found that students who participated in service-learning reported having more connections with each sub-categories of academic and social integration (i.e. their peers, faculty, and school environment) than those who did not participate. Research has shown that academic and social integration are also positively associated with other student outcomes, including GPA (Woosley & Miller, 2009), student retention (Jensen, 2011; Gallili & Moley, 2003), and re-enrollment in the same university (Bringle, Hatcher, & Muthiah, 2010). Therefore it is important to consider all outcomes when studying service-learning programs as they all underline the importance of these programs in schools. This

We used a multiple regression model to test the hypotheses. We created the interaction term by multiplying participation in SL by quality of SL. Because the independent variable is categorical we dummy coded the variable (1=participated in service learning, 0=did not participate). We centered the moderator, quality of service learning, around the mean. A hierarchical regression model was conducted with demographic variables (i.e. race, gender, and age) in Step 1, participation in SL and quality of SL were entered in Step 2, and the interaction term (participation in SL X quality of SL) in Step 3. We repeat those steps using institutional integration as the dependent variable instead of academic self-concept. Finally, we repeat those steps using reported GPA scores as the dependent