American International Journal of Social Science

Development and Validation of College Level Academic Retention Scale
Jackson de Carvalho, PhD; Felix O. Chima, PhD

Abstract
Research regarding academic retention has been advancing, however, a universally accepted, standardized, and reliable method to predict academic retention has not been developed. This study proposes a relatively new concept of academic retention exploring extrinsic and intrinsic measures of academic constructs rather than the more widely accepted classification of academic retention as an attitude. This paper also introduces a newly developed instrument of measurement, the Academic Retention Scale (ARS), seeking to measure academic retention as a personality trait. The purpose of the study is to a) illustrate that academic retention can be defined as coming back to pursue a college degree, b) to validate the ARS, and c) to assess whether the scale is an internally reliable metric of academic retention. This paper evaluates the ARS construct validity using factor analytic methods and tests of reliability.

Full Text: PDF