Supplemental Instruction
A Helping Hand?

Heather Schulz
School of Science and Natural Resources
Lake Superior State University
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783

Abstract:	Supplemental Instruction (S.I.) is a support service offered at many universities to aid
student retention in targeted classes. This program has been offered at L. S. S.U. since the Fall of
1995 in certain math and science courses. The courses then offered supplemental instruction
sessions for students, providing academic assistance. The program is targeted toward students with
economic or academic difficulties, although it is open to all students enrolled in the course. The
goal of this study was to determine if the disadvantaged students utilized the support service. To
do this three classes where chosen for evaluation; General Chemistry I, General Chemistry II, and
Organic Chemistry. Data was collected for each class for the fall of 1995 and 1996. The students
were categorized by their ACT and high school GPA scores. The "Target" group (most likely to
benefit) was defined as having an ACT score of 2l or below or a high school GPA of 2.2 or lower.
The students with better scores were termed "Non-Target" students, those with no entering GPA
or ACT score were termed "Undefined". Using a Chi Square test at an alpha of .05 it was found
that students enrolled for General Chemistry II for the Fall of 1995 showed a significant difference
in attendance between groups. The "Target" group attended at a higher rate. A Chi square test
performed for the success rate between the groups that attended. (Success is a grade of C or better
for the course). It was found that the only significance at an alpha of .05 was for Organic
Chemistry I 1996. The "Non-Target" students achieved a higher success rate in the course.
Although the program is mainly for "Target" students it appears to benefit all types of students. In
general, after attending S.I. sessions, all the students seem to succeed at the same rate.


Selected References:

Arendale, D. (1995). Supplemental instruction: Supervisor Manual. Kansas City, MO, University of

	Missouri-Kansas City

Siegal, S. (1956). Non Parametric Statistics: For the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York