The current study explored the relationship between student perceptions of the effectiveness of involuntary tutoring in a writing center as part of a developmental course requirement and their subsequent performance in mainstream English courses as measured by pass/fail rates, course completion rates, or corresponding attrition rates. However, unlike classic retention studies of developmental education college students, this study only investigated course completion rates and cumulative grade point averages alongside students' views of the impact of tutoring on their skill attainment to determine if a relationship exists between what students perceive and what they actually achieve in subsequent, regularly enrolled English courses. Furthermore, findings were disaggregated by age, gender, GPA, and home region to assess whether a relationship could be established between these variables, student perceptions of tutoring efficacy, and performance in mainstream English courses. Therefore, a crucial purpose of this study was to ascertain a relationship between student anecdotal records of skill proficiency due to tutoring and their subsequent performance in regularly enrolled coursework.

A chi-square analysis revealed a strong association between gender and students' success, as measured by pass/fail rates in college-level courses. Further analyses using chi-square suggested that home region was not significantly associated with student success at the first level of regular college courses nor at the second level of courses. In addition, students' perceptions of tutoring efficacy were significantly associated with academic success at the first level of regular college courses and at the second level of mainstream courses. A standard logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the extent to which age and cumulative GPA were predictors of student satisfaction with tutorial services as effective in gaining skill competency and completing course requirements. Regression results indicated that both age and GPA were statistically significant in predicting students' perceptions. Qualitative themes related to the importance of tutor attitudes, perceived skills attainment, facilities and environmental concerns, policy mandates of required remediation, and affective constructs including motivation, self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-regulation emerged.