In an initial study funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation a total of 837 high school seniors from New York City public schools were scored using the BDI: 488 the first year and 349 the second year. The findings represent data obtained from surveying the first and second cohorts after four years and include four-year graduation and persistence rates. While correlation data were weak due to factors such as selection, the small sample size, the restriction in range; and outside influence on the sample, cross tabulation suggests that the BDI is worth continued study and may have predictive ability. It is important to note that the BDI has very little correlation with the SAT (.1184). Therefore, the BDI may be able to identify students who have the potential to succeed at selective institutions that the SAT might miss.

The tool was originally designed to identify students with greater ability to overcome obstacles. It was thought that students who could communicate more effectively, who could negotiate conflict, who could collaborate with others well–would be more likely to persevere in college. Since high school students are prepared for college at widely varying levels, identifying students with these traits could be helpful to admissions officers who were looking for highly motivated students. This could assist a student, for example, who was applying to a selective college but went to a poorly performing high school. For some freshmen, the academic learning curve during the first year in college is much steeper than for others. The students more likely to “persist” might be the students who demonstrate these traits.

The study defined persistence as re-enrollment each year in college. A student who returned after freshman year for her sophomore year, for example, was considered having “persisted.” Ability to Access Resources referred to how a student made use of resources available on campus. The study looked specifically at how often a student visited her professors during office hours, how often a student used a mentor, how often a student made use of peer study groups, and how often a student asked her friends for help with class work. Ability to Contribute to a Campus Community/Leadership included a range of activities that illustrated a student's involvement on campus. Specifically, the study focused on the number of leadership activities a student was involved in on campus and the number of activities a student participated in but did not have a leadership role. The study also looked for academic leadership. It looked at class participation, which was defined as the average number of times a student raised her hand in class; and it looked at how often a student sat in the front of her class. The study examined outcomes for different definitions of a “high” score for the BDI to see if the outcomes changed. Overall findings showed that the higher the BDI score, the stronger the outcome.

Most significantly, a “high” BDI score made a difference in outcome within most relational groups. High scoring Posse Scholars did better than low scoring Posse Scholars. High scoring students, with no BDI scholarship, did better than low scoring students with no BDI scholarship.

In general, Posse Scholars persisted at a higher rate than most of the students in the comparison groups. In most cases, this was true whether or not Posse Scholars had a high or low BDI score and suggests that the combined program effects of Posse (the selection, the cohort model, the scholarship, the training and five year on-going support services) are powerful in the success of the Scholars. Posse Scholars sat in front of their classrooms more than any other group, and Posse Scholars participated in or lead activities on campus more than any other group.

Following Posse Scholars, students who scored the highest on the BDI were the students who had the greatest persistence among the groups in our sample. They were also the students, along with Posse Scholars, who accessed resources most often and who became most involved in contributing to their campus communities. Most often, the high scoring BDI students who were awarded an annual scholarship to attend one of our participating universities, did somewhat better than the high scoring BDI students who did not win an annual scholarship. For this reason, it seems that the scholarship had some program effect.

For a more detailed report of the BDI study, click or “save target as...” the summary paper.