Articles

A Multiyear Study of the High Impact Practice of First Year Seminars on Community College Student Success 

Authors

• • Kyoung A Kang kkang@lagcc.cuny.edu Email Kyoung A Kang. (compose email, opens in email app.) Kyoung A Kang ORCID profile. (opens in new tab)
  • Program Effectiveness Analyst
  • LaGuardia Community College
  • City University of New York View ROR record for City University of New York. (opens in new tab)
• • Dr. Ellen Quish equish@lagcc.cuny.edu Email Dr. Ellen Quish. (compose email, opens in email app.) Dr. Ellen Quish ORCID profile. (opens in new tab)
  • Director of First Year Programming & Student Success
  • LaGuardia Community College
  • City University of New York View ROR record for City University of New York. (opens in new tab)
• • Dr. Leigh Garrison-Fletcher lgarrisonfletcher@lagcc.cuny.edu Email Dr. Leigh Garrison-Fletcher. (compose email, opens in email app.) Dr. Leigh Garrison-Fletcher ORCID profile. (opens in new tab)
  • Professor
  • Education and Language Acquisition
  • LaGuardia Community College View ROR record for LaGuardia Community College. (opens in new tab)

Abstract

This multiyear quantitative study looks at the High Impact Practice (HIP) of First Year Seminars (FYS) in a large urban community college. We examine discipline-specific FYS courses at zero credits, two credits, and three credits. We also explore the impact of the FYS on different student subgroups, including full and part-time students and students from different demographics. We use propensity score matching in order to account for selection biases. Our findings highlight that FYS is a promising practice that increases student success as measured by GPA, retention, and graduation rates. 

Keywords: Retention, Community College, Student Success, GPA, Graduation, Academic Achievement, First Year Seminar, High Impact Practices

How to Cite: Kang, K. , Quish, E. & Garrison-Fletcher, L. (2026) “A Multiyear Study of the High Impact Practice of First Year Seminars on Community College Student Success ”, Journal of the National Organization for Student Success. 3(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.61617/jnoss.110