In October 2018, the state of Colorado announced its participation in Complete College America’s National Momentum Pathways Project. The Momentum Pathways Project (Momentum Year) is comprised of several strategies aimed to help first-year students stay on-track for graduation, to build momentum through their first year, propelling them into their second and onward to graduation. 

Since 2011, IRP&E has been investigating leading indicators of student success, namely completion of a college-level math course, the completion of a college-level composition course, and completion of 30 credits within a student’s first academic year at CSU. Findings have consistently found positive associations between the completion of these indicators and student success. 

The most recent study conducted in 2019, utilizes logistic regression models to explore the association between the completion of Momentum Year behaviors within the first year and second fall persistence (persistence to the start of the second fall semester) after controlling for students’ demographic and academic attributes. This report also focuses on exploring differential associations by running the models among specific populations to understand if momentum year behaviors have differing associations for specific populations, such as students with historically underserved identities and students with differing levels of academic preparation.