Genesis

The following study was requested by F. Salsbury of the Physics department. The report is intended to examine differences in DFW rates by gender, race, interational status and students with accomodations for learning.

Definitions and Scope

DFW rate reflects the proportion of students earning D or F letter grade or withdrawing from the course after the official drop period ends.

DFW rate = number of DFW grades / total number of grades assigned

DFW grades include: D+, D, D-, F, F., FPF, FPF., W, WF.

Students who dropped the course during the official drop period and those who were assigned the followign grades were excluded from the study completely (i.e. not counted in the numerator or denominator): AU, NR, I, NR, IPF, NRPF, DR, NC, WD, T, TNS.

Timeframe
Professor Salsbury requested five years of data. The tables below reflect courses offered between the Summer term of 2017 and the Spring term of 2022 (inclusive).

Combining Sections
To avoid counts that are too small to be statistically meaningful, course sections were grouped per Prof. Salsburys specifications (see links below.)

Summary of Results

The table below provides a high level summary of the DFW rates of the stated comparison groups for the most recent five academic years (Summer 2017 - Spring 2022). If statistical significance was not achieved at the 0.05 level, the table will show “not sig.” If significance is achieved, the effect size (Cramér’s V) is given. Effect size is a way to describe practical significance (as opposed to statistical significance) of the measured difference between two comparison groups using the following scale: negligible, small, medium, large.

Sections Gender Race International First Gen. Accomodations
PHY: 109, 110, 115 negligible n too small for Chisq not sig. n too small for Chisq
PHY: 113, 114 negligible small not sig. small
PHY: 215, 230, 262, 265, 266 not sig. small not sig. not sig.
PHY: 337, 339, 340, 341, 343, 344 not sig. n too small for Chisq n too small for Chisq not sig.
PHY: 307, 320, 385, 325 * * * *

Note: An asterisk (*) in the table above indicates that there were no DFW grades assigned.

Tables

Tables comparing the DFW rates for gender, race, international status, and accommodation status can be found at the following links. A separate link/document is provided for each of the respective section groupings.

PHY: 109, 110, 115
PHY: 113, 114
PHY: 215, 230, 262, 265, 266
PHY: 337, 339, 340, 341, 343, 344
PHY: 307, 320, 385, 325