A course whose DFW grades produced no expected persistence drop suggests some courses may act as guardrails associated with retained persistence after failure¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? In one course with average DFW rates, students receiving D, F, or W grades persisted only about 2% less often instead of the expected drop of about 18%. → Bloemer 2017
Evidence¶
Bloemer 2017¶
Bloemer, W., Day, S., & Swan, K. (2017). Gap analysis: An innovative look at gateway courses and student retention. Online Learning, 21(3), 5-14. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v21i3.1233
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Among courses with average DFW rates in the four-year institutional records, one course's DFW students persisted only 2% below comparable students rather than the expected ~18% drop; "Students with a DFW grade in this course did not show the expected drop in persistence of about 18%, but rather persistence fell by only 2%." The authors call this an intriguing possibility for "guardrail" courses.
"Students with a DFW grade in this course did not show the expected drop in persistence of about 18%, but rather persistence fell by only 2%."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Gap analysis comparing observed to predicted DFW rates recasts course rankings, revealing courses that exceed or fall below expectations in a way raw DFW ranking does not — related
- Ninth-grade GPA strongly predicts on-time high school graduation, with an especially large gap between F and D students — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
guardrail-courses-attenuate-persistence-drop-after-dfw |
title |
A course whose DFW grades produced no expected persistence drop suggests some courses may act as guardrails associated with retained persistence after failure |
description |
A course whose DFW grades produced no expected persistence drop suggests some courses may act as guardrails associated with retained persistence after failure |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2017 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — bloemer-2017 |
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