College Environments and Student Academic Achievement

In this study, selected aspects of the college environment were related to student academic achievement at 27 small liberal arts colleges. Academic achievement was measured by senior students' scores on the Area Tests of the Graduate Record Examination; the Scholastic Aptitude Test (Verbal and Mathematics) scores of these same students prior to college entrance were used as a control measure for differences in initial aptitude. The colleges' social and academic environment were assessed through students' perceptions and included five scales describing the extent of faculty-student interaction, student activism, curriculum flexibility, academic challenge, and the colleges' cultural facilities. All but the Activism scale were related to student over or underachievement on one or more of the three Area Tests (Humanities, Natural Science, Social Science). In particular, students at colleges with high scores on the Faculty-Student Interaction scale more often overachieved on two of the criteria tests, while students at colleges with low scores on this scale underachieved on all three of the tests. The results suggest that certain student-described college environmental features are related to academic achievement, although replication with another group of colleges would be desirable.