developing a retention plan

Developing a Retention Plan

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

10:15 – 11:30 AM

Evaluation: copelandretention

Tim Copeland

DemandEngine

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Level set – retention vs. student persistence

• Student persistence is the attainment of educational goals.• Retention is an institutional indicator of the number of students who

graduate• Do you differentiate at your institution?

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The office of success prevention

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• We don’t value it … really.• We fail to intentionally manage a business process that is

remarkably predictable.• We haven’t applied “what works” to non-traditional populations.• “Sink or swim” is alive and well.• Most institution’s lack a “secret sauce” for the “classroom”

experience

Research on student retention is voluminous … despite all the research that has been conducted to date little work has

been devoted to develop a model of student persistence … to enhance student success.

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Vincent Tinto

Agenda

• Let’s talk retention and student success

• Guiding principles to establish or strengthen your retention efforts

• Effective strategies to implement on your campus

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Here is what the research says …

• Socio-economic status and level of high-school academic rigor are significant background factors

• There is a linear relationship between academic abiity and retention

• No delay between high school and college

• Successful completion of “gateway” courses

• Completion of at least 20 hours by end of 1st year

• 1st year GPA

• Few course withdrawals or repeats

• Continuous, full-time enrollment (vs. part-time or stopping out)

• Involvement in campus life (student organizations, leadership positions, study abroad, community service/service learning, living on-campus)

• Affiliations with peers and faculty

• Enrollment in first-year seminars and learning communities

• Use of campus resources (academic, advising, career, library)

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Post-traditional students are characterized by…

• A delay after high school• Non-continuous enrollment• 1st year GPA is impossible to calculate in a non-credit program• Not interested in the Thursday night mixer with Phi Mu• Little involvement on-campus … in fact, may not step foot on

campus• Go to school IN ADDITION to other day-to-day involvements and

obligations …

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Five categories of issues

• On the surface, time, money and personal issues, but …• Personal – Lost, stressed, undisciplined, unmotivated, insecure,

institutional mismatch• Social – Alienation and social isolation, uninvolved• Academic – Unprepared, unchallenged, poor study habits, lack of

academic or career goals• Life – Insecurity about financial circumstances, job and school time

conflicts, home and family issues, personal problems, health problems

• Institutional – Experience the “run-around”; experience operational problems; experience negative attitudes in the classroom, advising centers, administrative offices; experience poor or indifferent teaching.

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Source: Levitz and Hovland

“Over the years, colleges and universities have designed programs and services to help retain students … yet even with the

implementation and strengthening of these programs and services, the retention data reveal that students are not retained at a higher rate than they were twenty years

ago.”

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Alan Seidman

We don’t value it …

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11% 3%

Professional, Online, and Continuing Education Units

Respondents that indicated “practice was fully deployed.”n = 91 institutions

Source: Enrollment Management Practices Survey. July 2013.

33% 14%

Discussion

• What efforts are in place to help your post-traditional populations succeed?

• How is student success measured at your institution?• Is “retention” a priority? How would you prove this?

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• I feel like giving up.• I feel lost and confused.• I can’t juggle kids and school and home.• I wasn’t cut out to be a student tweny years ago, and I’m not student

material now, either• I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

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Agenda




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“But given that we have to improve persistence and degree attainment rates across the board, we need to

better understand why colleges and universities typically ignore the body of literature about ‘what works’

produced by higher education scholars and social scientists”.

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George Kuh

1. Retention programs must be intentional

• It’s intrusive.• It requires leadership.• It requires structure.• It requires integration.

We can’t simply hope that our students will succeed because we are nice people.

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A word about “early alerts”

• In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in software to produce early alerts.

• Identify behaviors that may predict “risk”– Academic ability coming in– Engagement online– Attitudinal or motivational

• The problem is … then what?

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• The learning environment is the one thing all of your students have in common … it’s the basis of community.

2. Quality academic experiences are a must

04/11/23 | 17

“Classroom instruction has to be superb not theoretical, but more

applied, with teamwork. Adult students are making particular

sacrifices of their time to be there … and are savvy buyers as

consumers.”

Carol Aslanian

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3. It must be empower students to develop relationships

• Internal and external to the learning environment.

• Onboarding processes.• Ways you accomplish this today?

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Agenda




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Five Steps to Retention Planning

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1. Baseline what you know

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"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot

express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.“

Lord Kelvin

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What do we need to measure?

• Persistence data (relevant for credit/non-credit)– Course-to-course– Enrollment term-to-term

• Additional questions to ask– What is the D, F, W, etc. rate for each course?– What is rate of students who begin one enrollment term and

return during the next available one?

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How do you measure it?

• Persistence data– Student information system

• Attitudinal and motivational– Incoming student surveys– Interaction surveys

• Enlist the help of your institutional research office

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2. Experience “you” as a student does

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Strategies

• External– Secret shop– Research all messages sent to students (proxy)– Focus groups– Surveys

• Internal– Map the journey

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Nothing will shine the light more on the “run-around”

• What are the student touch points?• Where are the pain points in your relationship with students?• What happens backstage?

– People– Processes– Policies– Technology

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3. Review the evidence

04/11/23 | 28

Write your consulting report

• Enlist a small team to review the findings• Prepare a summary of the assessment• Use research to supplement your report

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4. Build the “burning platform” for change

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Share your findings

• Prepare a presentation• Share your findings• Build the case for change

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5. Write your plan

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A systematic and comprehensive approach

Enrollment Planning HierachyEnrollment Planning Hierachy

Institutional Strategic PlanInstitutional Strategic Plan

Division Strategic PlanDivision Strategic Plan

Annual Enrollment Marketing Plan

Annual Enrollment Marketing Plan

Annual Retention Plan

Annual Retention Plan

Clear goals and objectives

Clear goals and objectives

Key enrollment initiatives

Key enrollment initiatives

Road mapRoad map

Source: DemandEngine

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The construct of a plan

1. Executive Summary

2. Narrative

3. Situational assessment

4. Planning assumptions

5. Retention/success goals and objectives

6. Key initiatives

7. Road map (e.g., action plans, accountability)

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Check your efforts with this 12-point checklist

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12-point planning inspection

Does your plan …

1)Identify factors that indicate a student's "retention" risk?

2)Set annual student retention or persistence headcount goals?

3)Designate an owner?

4)Identify the objectives (what you must do well) and the initiatives to achieve them?

5)Develop effective (and efficient) onboarding and service processes?

6)Develop an intrusive advising function for our students?

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12-point planning inspection

7) Coordinate communications across departments?

8) Dedicate academic support services specifically to serve the needs of our adult students?

9) Define key reports and use a retention "funnel" to monitor the persistence of our currently enrolled students?

10) Address student-facing enrollment processes and policies to minimize barriers?

11) Assess the efficiency and quality of staff interactions with prospective and current students?

12) Define clear competency standards and response expectations are in place to guide staff follow-up with students (e.g., Level 1, 2, & 3 questions, time to return calls)?

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Summary

1) Baseline what you know

2) Experience “U”

3) Review the evidence

4) Build the burning platform for change

5) Document a plan

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