Bridging the Cultural Gap: Relationships Between Programmatic Offerings and First-Generation Student Benchmarks

Abstract

Inherent challenges affect first-generation students’ persistence from as early as the first college year. Using cultural capital as a guide, this study is unique in that it investigates the contribution of first-year policies and programs to the success of first-generation students in 57 bachelor’s degree–granting institutions across five states (California, Florida, Iowa, Texas, and Pennsylvania). We identified at least three policies that seem to hold promise toward improving the experience and outcomes for first-year first-generation college students. These policies were (a) residential life or campus support staff who are available and knowledgeable, (b) faculty who attend faculty orientation that includes information about first-year student experiences, and (c) faculty who attend first-year student orientation or attend first-year conferences or workshops. However, policies we might naturally expect to have been useful (e.g., information dissemination to parents, early alert intervention initiatives) showed no statistical significance. The article concludes with implications and recommendations.