New Article on Sophomore Success

I have co-authored a second article with my frequent scholarly collaborator, Dr. Shelley Price-Williams (University of Northern Iowa). In this sequential mixed-methods study, we examined sophomore success efficacy. This is related to their intent to persist towards graduation. Although there is context-dependent factors for sophomore students, they have the highest probability to engage in student departure compared to other class years or ranks. In this study, we noted that sophomores with high levels of self-efficacy reported high confidence in social engagement and course-related tasks. Yet, most transfer students in this group lived off campus and those students were not involved in any activities or organizations, unlike the native sophomore students with high self-efficacy. There is a clear pattern of university engagement with self-effiacy for sophomore students and provide recommendations for practice to increase sophomore success. The artice is available open-access from the Journal of Higher Education Economics & Politics.

Price-Williams, S. R. & Sasso, P. A. (2025). A cross-case analysis of sophomore students’ reflections on self-efficacy: Signals for innovative sophomore programming. Journal of Higher Education Economics & Politics, 11(2), 56-76.