2025/01/07 by Dora Gicheva, Julie Edmunds, Marie Hull +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Innovations in Educational Methods #Higher Education Research Studies #School Choice and Performance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/coep.12685
openalex publication_date 2025/01/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract This paper studies the impacts of withdrawing from and failing an online course, relative to successful completion, on persistence for community college students. We leverage random assignment of students to instructors for identification. Withdrawing reduces the probability of persistence by about 20 percentage points, while the impact of failing is smaller and statistically indistinguishable from zero. Course withdrawals are highly correlated with institutional withdrawal, which is then linked to lower likelihood of returning the following semester. Our findings reinforce the importance of academic momentum: remaining in a course keeps students attached to college even if they earn a failing grade.