1. Late Registration:
Bane or Benefit
What the Research Says
Patrick Tompkins, JTCC
New Horizons Conference
Roanoke, VA
April 4, 2013

2.  Propose definitions of late registration (LR)
Participants will…
 Discuss the teleology of late registration
 Review the purpose of the presentation
and the taxonomy of the literature review
 Evaluate the evidence and suggest
policy implications
What is the incidence of LR?
Research Questions

 Who registers late and why?
 How well do LR perform (grades, class
completion, withdrawal)?
 What conclusions have researchers
proffered?

3. Context
 O’Banion (2012)
› LR “wreaks havoc on the ability of colleges
to achieve the goals of the emerging
completion agenda”…evidence is
“overwhelming” (pp. 26, 28)
 Roueche (2011)
› “There is a lot of data showing that students
who enroll late have three times the dropout
or three times the failure rate” of OTR.
(The SOURCE, 2011, p. 6)

4.  Access
 FTEs
Benefit  Choice
Teleology of LR
 Responsiveness
 Flexibility
brewbooks
 Chaos
 Costs
Lost first day of class
Bane

 Student success: grades, retention,
awards/transfer
 Ethics

5. Context
Colleges are eliminating LR, including
Miami-Dade CC, Rio Salado College,
Sinclair CC, Valencia College
Benwards
What
about
your
college?

6. Taxonomy of the Literature Review
(Cooper & Hedges, 2009)
Characteristic Approach
Foci Research methods; findings
Goals Integration; identification of central issues
Perspective Neutral representation
Coverage Exhaustive
Organization Conceptual
Audience General scholars, policy makers, practitioners

7. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria
 Quantitative and/or 26 + 2 =
qualitative
 Dissertations, articles,
publicly available
presentations and
reports
 Studies of patterns,
attitudes, and/or Leo Reynolds
performance

8. Brainstorm LR Definitions
 Goals
› Concise
› Measureable
› Precise
hiromy
› Valid
› Universal

9. LR definitions
 1 week before  After the 8th day of
classes? classes?
 On or after  After first class
semester start meeting (N=3)
date (N=12)
 LR for all classes  LR for single classes
(N=19) (N=9)

10. Study Designs
Population Unit of Analysis Time Frames
Mostly CC’s Student (N=20) Semester
(N=21)
Course Year
Size: from 6 to
260,000 enrollment
Longitudinal
› General or (N=6)
specific
7 and 14 year
N/A (N=2) retrospectives
Unequal
sample sizes
Small subgroups
tmorkemo

11. Analytic Methods
Significance testing vs. Raw
numbers / percentages
T-test, chi-square, ANOVA,
multiple regression, logistic
regression
Course grade vs. GPA
Rate of LR course completion
vs. rate of all course
completion

12. 11 Studies*
LR for every class

In general
Frequency of Occurrence
National data:
 Range: 4-17% 11% of students
for at least one
class (Center,
 Mean: 8.3% 2012)
Most do not
 4 studies continually LR
LR for any class
(Mendiola-
Perez, 2004)
 Range: 3-27%
 Mean: 14.4%
* Excludes Zottos’ (2005) extreme value of 54%.

13. Which Courses?

14. Who?
Number of studies finding demographic
associations
Male Race/ Part- Older Low HS
Ethnicity time GPA
Yes 9 7 7 5 3
No 5 4 1 6 N/A

15. Reasons
Most Common Other
 Schedule conflicts:  Advising problems
46%  Instructor problems
 Class too hard
 Paperwork
 Procrastination
 Medical  Late decision to go to
 Finances college
 Recent relocation
 Employment
 Class cancellations
 Transportation
 Personal convenience:
 Life 4%
(Belcher & Patterson, 1990; Chilton, 1964; Keck, 2007; Morris, 1986; Parks, 1974)

16. Positive Motivators
 Family encouragement / career goals
 Consultations with faculty and advisors
 “Individual background and determination to
complete”
 Avoid online courses / courses with weak
background
 Avoid LR if possible
 “A viable and critical option”(emphasis added)
 Satisfied with decision (Keck, 2007, pp. 126, 132)

17. Negative: 2 studies
LR Course Grade

› Greater effect for upper
collegiate rank, and large
How Well? Grades
classes
 No Sig.: 2 studies
 Negative: 4 studies; Mixed: 7 studies
SGPA/CGPA
 Demographics removed or diminished effects
 Worse for returning students? For freshman?
 More likely 4.0 GPA & more likely 0.0 GPA
 No effect for class switches; > class adds
increased GPA; > class drops lowered GPA

18.  Positive: 2 studies
How Well? Success Rate*
LR Course  No Sig.: 1 study
 Negative: 1 study
 Negative: 5 studies
 Weak: 2 studies
All Courses
 No Sig: 2 studies
 No sig. for new students; negative for
continuing students
 Weak negative effect, but also more likely to
complete 100% of courses
 Other variations by demographics
*Set at “C” level by some, “D” level by others.

19. How Well? Withdrawal/Attrition
LR Course Rate All Course Rate 100% of courses
Negative: Keck, Negative: 4 Negative:
2007 studies Parks, 1974
Large classes only:
Safer 2009 No sig.: 2 studies No sig.:
Chilton, 1964
Restrictive
attendance policy
only: Diekhoff, Slight: 2 studies
1992
Mixed:
Developmental
ENG only: Sova, Mendiola-
1986 Perez, 2004

20. What do you conclude?
Tama Leaver

21. Warrant for these claims?
O’Banion (2012) Roueche (2011)
› LR “wreaks havoc on › “There is a lot of
the ability of data showing that
colleges to achieve students who enroll
the goals of the late have three
emerging times the dropout or
completion three times the
agenda”…evidence failure rate” of OTR.
is “overwhelming”
(The SOURCE, 2011, p. 6)
(pp. 26,
28)

22. What have researchers concluded?
Policy recommendations, number of studies*
Ban LR Maybe Ban LR No Modify None/Unclear
Ban LR for Change / Policies
Some Keep LR
2 4 3 5 17 6
Researchers may have made recommendations that fell into more than one category. Each recommendation was counted separately.

23. Warranted Actions
1) Conduct research on local level, and on
specific courses, subpopulations, etc.
2) Employ robust research methods
3) Create early registration culture
4) Develop rolling schedules/late start courses
5) Target support for LR students
6) Tailor LR policies as/where needed
7) Study effect of banning LR on access,
enrollment, revenues, and student success

24. Images from flickr
 brewbooks, xerophyllum tenax (Beargrass),
(Teleology slide)
 Benwards, Teleology, (Context slide)
 Leo Reynolds, Bingo Number 28,
(Inclusion/exclusion slide)
 hiromy, Using chopsticks, (LR definitions slide)
 tmorkemo, Sammenligning av tommestokker,
(Study designs slide)
 inju, Statistics for the Utterly Confused (Analytic
methods slide)
 Tama Leaver, Warhold Thinker by Macbook,
(What do you conclude slide)

25. Sources
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late registration fee? Miami-Dade Community College, Office of Institutional Research. ERIC
document. (ED328324)
 Bryant, D., Danley, J. Fleming, S, & Somers, P. (1996). “The dog ate it” and other reasons why students
delay registration. College and University, 71(4), 2-8.
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for community college student success (A first look). Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin,
Community College Leadership Program.
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