Student achievement in postsecondary education is not only critical to the success of public higher education in America but remains a core component of a national strategy to remain competitive within a global economy. Yet public higher education in America is undergoing a transformation driven by economic stress from reduced public fiscal support, competition from for-profit institutions and the emergence of new technologies. Concurrently, the demographic composition of the undergraduate student population continues to evolve with more non-traditional students attending degree granting institutions, increasing numbers of military undergraduates and students enrolling in courses delivered through distance learning. Against this landscape of change, this study sought to explore the role of distance education to student attainment by examining a cohort of first-time beginning students. The literature is replete with studies of student persistence from a variety of theoretical constructs including sociological, organizational, psychological, and environmental with differing degrees of empirical support. While scholars agree on the benefits of increasing the body of research regarding student retention and attainment, there remains a deficiency in empirical research using a nationally representative dataset that seeks to examine the role of distance learning. Finally, the previous longitudinal study of beginning postsecondary students conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) studied student cohorts from 1996 to 2001. Research conducted using this data is becoming rapidly outdated.
This study used descriptive statistics and logistic regression to explore persistence or attainment among a nationally representative sample of first-time beginning students who enrolled in 2003-2004 and participated in distance education. The findings indicated older adults, independent students, married students, single parents, and students with higher incomes were more likely to participate in distance education. Conversely, the findings suggested students participating in distance education may be less likely to persist or attain.