Research Brief: Mapping A Strategy to Attract the Politically Engaged Student to East Evergreen University Consultants: Elizabeth Goff Scott Gravitt Kim Huett Carolyn McDermott EDSI 9961: Quantitative Methods Project 3 November 2011

Research Questions Are there students among the general college population that are strong in the following areas: cooperation, self-confidence, and understanding of others? How can their dispersion be described? If these students exist, what is their academic performance as compared to their peers? Can these students be described in terms of demographic data for future recruitment efforts?

Descriptive Statistics Political Engagement The four variables of cooperativeness, self-confidence (intellectual), self-confidence (social), and understanding of others were combined into a new “Political Engagement” variable. Kim’s Notes on Building the Political Engagement variable. I scaled it differently from Elizabeth, but our results were the same: Reliability Alpha and Computing Variable “Political Engagement” The researchers wished to create a single construct “political engagement” by combining the four variables of cooperativeness, self-confidence (intellectual), self-confidence (social), and understanding of others. Before doing this, however, a Cronbach’s alpha of .658 was calculated, which indicates a reliable scale for these items (Field, 2009), and the suitability of combining these variables. Once the new variable “political engagement” was created, the scale was adjusted accordingly, so that now the targeted values were 16 or higher, with 16 indicating above average and 20 indicating Highest 10%.  

Inferential Statistics Independent Samples t-test comparing means of males and females on the Political Engagement variable Group Statistics   Your sex: N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Political Engagement Male 14545 15.5732 2.32265 .01926 Female 24848 15.1882 2.17696 .01381 Independent Samples Test   Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Political Engagement Equal variances assumed 84.922 .000 16.523 39391 .38500 .02330 .33933 .43067 Equal variances not assumed 16.246 28878.003 .02370 .33855 .43145

Results Reliability Alpha and Political Engagement Independent Samples T Test An independent-samples t test was conducted that compared the average score on political engagement between males and females found a significant difference between the means of the two groups (t(28878) = 16.24, p < .05). The mean for males was significantly higher (M=15.57, SD = 2.32) than the mean for women (M = 15.19, SD = 2.18). The results suggest that males are more politically engaged than females. Reliability Alpha and Political Engagement The construct “political engagement” was created by combining the four variables of cooperativeness, self-confidence (intellectual), self-confidence (social), and understanding of others. A Cronbach’s alpha of .658 was calculated, which indicates a reliable scale for these items (Field, 2009), and the suitability of combining these variables. Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Independent Samples T Test An independent-samples t test was conducted that compared the average score on the GRE Verbal test between males and females found a significant difference between the means of the two groups (t(1530) = 3.802, p < .05). The mean for males was significantly higher (M = 550.93, SD = 103.65) than the mean for women (M = 533.27, SD = 97.91). The results suggest that college males are more verbally capable than females. Descriptive Statistics 47.8% of respondents indicated they were either “above average” or among the “highest 10%” of their peers when it came to being politically engaged. An independent-samples t test was conducted that compared the average score on the GRE Verbal test between males and females found a significant difference between the means of the two groups (t(1530) = 3.802, p < .05). The mean for males was significantly higher (M=550.93, SD = 103.65) than the mean for women (M=533.27, SD=97.91). The results suggest that college males are more verbally capable than females.

Findings RQ1: Are there students among the general college population that are strong in the following areas: cooperation, self-confidence, and understanding of others? How can their dispersion be described? A high percentage of new college students sampled (47.8%), rate themselves in the above average or highest 10% categories when considering the descriptors that EEU finds as the most important for their student population to possess: cooperativeness, self-confidence, and understanding others. According to this self-rating, many college students are strong in the qualities that comprise the political engagement construct. RQ2: If these students exist, what is their academic performance as compared to their peers? This study revealed that male students are more likely to be politically engaged than female students. Looking at the academic indicator of GRE verbal score, our analyses revealed that males tend to significantly outperform females on this measure. Findings – how do your results compare to the case presented and your research questions/hypotheses RQ3: Can these students be described in terms of demographic data for future recruitment efforts? The relationship between being male and being politically engaged is significant. However, more sophisticated analyses need to be conducted to isolate the student qualities (in addition to being male) related to political engagement to guide future recruitment strategies.

Implications A large population of students rating themselves high on EEU’s most valued characteristics (cooperativeness, self-confidence, and understanding) does, in fact, exist. The population can be described as more likely male, and males as a group have higher GRE verbal scores. Additional tests can be run on the dataset continuing to specifically compare the new combined “political engagement” variable to demographic and academic performance variables. Recruiting can be targeted to students who fit the description of “political engagement” for EEU’s future student population. Once more sophisticated analyses are conducted, EEU may also be able to develop academic programs and other initiatives to foster the skills and abilities related to political engagement. Implications/recommendations – what should we take away from the analysis and/or how is this information useful