Academic Leadership Courses: Catalysts for Students’ Retention and Graduation

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether students’ completion of an introductory leadership minor course is associated with their first-year retention and their four-year graduation or continued enrollment. The authors used propensity score matching techniques and discovered that first-year students who enrolled in an academic leadership course had significantly greater odds of retention, graduation in four years (over withdrawal), and continued enrollment in four years (over withdrawal) compared to their peers who did not enroll in an introductory leadership minor course.