Early Identification of Students at Risk for Academic Difficulty in a Doctor of Physical Therapy Program

Physical therapy education programs use preadmission factors to admit qualified applicants. These factors have limited ability to predict academic outcomes and 5% of enrolled students do not graduate. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether early assessment scores in a Human Gross Anatomy course can be used to identify students at greater risk of academic difficulty.

This is a retrospective analysis of data from 272 students enrolled in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program 2011-2013 and 2015-2019. Independent variables included scores on assessments in a Human Gross Anatomy course. Dependent variables included course score and first-year GPA. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to evaluate each assessment's ability to differentiate between students who did and did not have academic difficulty and determine cutoff scores.

4% and 11% of students were found to have academic difficulty in the course and the program, respectively. Practical Exam #2 (AUC 0.95, 95% CI 0.89-1.00, p<0.001) best differentiated between students who did and did not have academic difficulty. The calculated cutoff score of 61.5% had the same sensitivity (90.91%) and greater specificity (91.95%) than the standard passing score of the program of (sensitivity 90.91%, specificity 72.41%). Scoring < 61.5% on Practical Exam #2 increased the odds of academic difficulty in the course and first year of the program.

This study demonstrated a method that could be used to identify students at greater risk of academic difficulty before submission of any course grades. Using this evidence-based approach can benefit students and programs.