virginia beach, va september 30 – october 2, 2007 1

Virginia Beach, VASeptember 30 – October 2, 2007

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retention 101

Professional Development Workshop

The Educational Policy Institute’s


PART I: Introduction to Student Retention


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This Retreat

• The Staff• The Agenda• The Worksheets• The Networking/Collaboration• The Follow-Up


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Retreat Rules

• Have Fun• Meet and talk with your colleagues• Ask questions• Interact• Think about what you can bring back with you (not

something from the hotel)• Enjoy the surroundings


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Our Objectives• Are objectives during this retreat are to provide participants with:

A more comprehensive understanding of theoretical and practical reasons for student departure and success;

An understanding of the barriers to student success; A framework for developing a comprehensive plan for improving student success at your

institution; Data on student success and persistence at the two- and four-year levels in Canada and the U.S.; Strategies and best practices for improving student success on campus; Information on how to track and monitor students throughout their education; A perspective on leadership and campus change (continuous improvement) necessary to improve

student success; An opportunity to create diverse networks of professionals like yourself who are committed to

serving students at a high level; Motivation to go back to your college and improve services to all students;


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R101 Online Survey


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Retention and student success are important issues to me.


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Retention and student success are important issues to the academic leadership.


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My president/CEO considers retention and student success to be important issues.


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Our faculty/staff consider retention and student success to be important issues.


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I am familiar with the literature that explain why students leave or stay.


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I receive regular information from campus leadership about the status of our retention/ persistence issues on campus.


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Who is in charge of student retention on your campus?• Dean of Academic Affairs and my area, the Department of Academic Success• Under the direct supervision of the Board and CEO at ACCESS College Foundation, that would be me.• I have recently been hired as the coordinator for student retention so I guess it would fall a great deal on

me.• Academic Support Services• There is a Retention Specialist individual in each of our three campuses.• A newly created position of "Director of Retention" that's me...thankfully there are several other new

team members that are also actively involved and in on the groundswell of making a change in our student retention.

• Everyone that works at the college is responsible for student success and retention.• There is shared ownership of the persistence (retention) initiatives on our campus. • I am.• Everyone• No one is in charge however everyone at the college should be accountable for our student retention

and success.


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Why do students leave your campus?

• - MONEY!!!!!!!!!!! • Three quarters of our students leave voluntarily, one quarter leave due to academic failure• Lack of preparation and awareness on how to survive college academically and financially

both before college and during the first year.• My position is in the System office. We do not have information on why students leave

individual UW institutions.• There are various reasons such as, financial, personal, grades, to persue other options.

Simply put, because they are unhappy for one or many reasons.• Financial reasons, personal/family reasons• Personal issues Health issues money issues• Lack of good advising on a regular bassis. Lack of orientation to a college environment.

Students don't have a goal on what they want to acheive for themselves. Lack of campus life on two of the four campuses. Not enough involved faculty as we use many adjuncts. No central admissions for four campuses.


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• Our recent research shows that half go into the local workforce and half transfer to other schools, of which many to college.

• Students leave because don't have money to get to school, they don't have childcare, they become sick or a family member becomes sick, they have a bad experience at the college, or they are not academically and socially ready for college.

• Students leave for a number of reasons. Some leave because they are not doing well in class, others leave because of personal issues conflicting with school obligations... and others leave because the school may not have met their expectations (i.e. service offerings, course offerings, etc)


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• According to our research, there are just about as many reasons as there are people leaving. Because I can't go into too much detail here, we found there were two main categories for those students who did not have to leave because of academic reasons: half of them went into the workforce (not necessarily because of student debt but also because the economy is healthy and they can make good $$ without a degree at this time), the other half went into other post-secondary education (particularly those institutions that offer diplomas in applied programs) because they did not feel that our institution was adequately connecting their program of study with a career outcome. There were sub-categories with particular reasons why first-year students did not return and why upper year students didn't.

• Multiple reasons: Academic preparedness being number one, transfer number 2 (which may have overlap with #1) and financial ability

• Finances, time issues, family matters• 1. No money for tuition and books. 2. Family matters. 3. Employment matters. 4. Unable to

juggle family, home,work, job and school.• A number of reasons, I am unsure at this time.


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What do you think your campus does well in support of students?

• Engage students (ie. campus recreation, fitness centre, University Life 101 Program) Realign and refocus our student services

• Maintaining ongoing contact with students in an outreach/referral/educational & motivational capacity towards services in place on campus that encourage student success.

• At the System office, we do not have information on what campuses do well with regard to serving/keeping students.

• It is a smaller institution within a friendly city. There are many programs and services to meet the needs of just about any type of student. We try to do as much as we possibly can to make the student make connections with fellow students as well as the city.

• Academic Support (i.e., tutoring, etc.) Student Life (extra curricular activities such as organizations, entertainment, sports, choir, band, etc).


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• Low cost small campus• Good online teaching for students. The full time faculty are very dedicated to

serving their students. Two campuses are new and modern with their own libraries.• Decent orientation program with available career councilling during degree.

Improving teaching skills training available to professors.• We do a lot of early intervention.• Our campus is very communicative with the students. Each semester, our

president conducts an open forum with our students to assess the climate of the campus. Viable suggestions are returned to the management team, and we must offer feedback on progress made. This feedback is then displayed to the students.

• We have a Campus Representative program at the four universities in Cleveland where enrollment of CSP recipients is highest.


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• The program provides peer mentoring for CSP recipients by matching upperclassmen with freshmen. It also offers monthly workshops geared towards academic success and a successful transition to college life. We are really aiming to boost retention initiatives this year, so I'm looking forward to learning strategies from others at this conference.

• For the most part, our faculty and staff really do care about the success of our students and our students say that our faculty is our biggest asset in terms of developing relationships with students to help them succeed. On the other hand, our students say that our faculty is our worst asset because they don't develop good relationships with students...

• Good academic support center services. Either not enough staff or not enough awareness of its services

• We care and we respond to students' concerns well.


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• 1. Students attend freshmen orientation class. 2. Students are assigned academic advisor. 3. Students are encourged to attend self-help and student success seminars.

• we can do much better.


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Who do we serve?


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Number of Institutions Attended


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Initial Degree Goal


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Attendance Intensity and Continuity


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Delayed Enrollment


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Degree Goal vs. Degree Attainment


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Highest degree attained

anywhere No degree anywhereSix-year student

persistence summary

Bachelor's degree

Associate's Degree Certificate

At 4-year institution

At less than-4-year

institutionNot

enrolled

Attained any degree

Still enrolled

Total persisted

Total 28.8 10.0 12 8.8 5.6 34.8 50.9 14.4 65.2

First type of institution

Public 2-year 10.3 15.7 9.7 8.4 9.1 46.9 35.7 17.4 53.1

Public 4-year 53 4.4 2.8 14.5 2.8 22.5 60.2 17.3 77.5Private for-profit

4-year 68.8 2.8 1.8 7.1 2.3 17.2 73.5 9.4 82.9Private for-profit less-than-4-year

0.6 8.4 51.3 0.8 2.2 36.7 60.3 0.3 63.3

Degree Attainment and Persistence


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Question 1

• Why is Retention an Important Issue?– Retention stable at 50 percent– Issues of cost and quality– Federal and state intervention


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Dropout and Defaults

15

22

7

2

0 5 10 15 20 25

Unemployed

In Default on

Loans

Borrowers Who Completed BA

Borrowers who Dropped Out


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Question 2

• When does student dropout/departure occur?


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14

17

17

7

15

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12

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15

12

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14

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9

6

6

10

9

5

7

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5

6

5

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7

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0 10 20 30 40 50 60

All four-year students

White, non-Hispanic

Black, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Asian/Pacific Islander

Less than $25,000

$25,000–44,999

$45,000–69,999

$70,000 or greater

After first year After second year After third year After fourth year


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The Ongoing Retention Challenge

• One quarter of all students who enter postsecondary education for the first time end up at another institution before attaining a postsecondary degree.

• Almost half (46 percent) of first-time students who left their initial institution by the end of the first year never came back to postsecondary education.

• Students who attend full-time or whose attendance was continuous were much more likely to achieve their degree goals than other students. However, only about two-thirds of students were continuously enrolled.


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The Ongoing Retention Challenge

• 50 percent of four-year students who did not delay entry into PSE earned their degree at their first institution, compared to only 27 percent of students who were delayed entrants.

• 42 percent of students whose first-year grade point average was 2.25 or less left postsecondary education permanently.


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Question 3

• Why do Students Leave?– Academic Preparedness– Campus Climate: Poor Fit– Weak Commitment to Educational Goals and/or

Institution– Failure to Socially and/or Academically Integrate– Lack of Financial Support/Aid


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Question 4

• Why should institutions care? Loss of revenue to the institution– Poor business model– Lower prestige and morale– It’s the right thing to do; it’s in the mission


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The Cost of Departure

The Individual, the Institutionand Society


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Impact on Students

• Self-Concept– Decline in confidence, perceived incompetence

• Desire to Graduate– Loss of motivation; feelings of helplessness lead to

consideration of options • Perception of Institution

– Less positive view of college;


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Student Outcome Types

AcademicAchievement

Registration StatusPersist Leave

Pass SuccessfulPersister

SuccessfulLeaver

Fail FailedPersister

FailedLeaver


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Confid

Inst. commit

Ed. commit


47Student Voices“Source of Pride this Semester”

• Achieving a higher average than in high school• Achieving above average marks for me • Achieving an 80% in my courses • Achieving an A on an essay• Achieving better grades. • Achieving dean's list status• Achieving good marks. • Achieving high grades• Achieving high grades in Math; it was always

my weakest subject. • Achieving high grades, and being able to tutor

fellow students. • Achieving high marks • Achieving high marks are on first group of tests

• Achieving my goals and receiving amazing grades, as well as realizing that I have a definite passion for what I am studying

• Achieving my marks. I am pretty proud of them.

• Achieving my semester goals academically and personally, maintaining my sanity and really learning to relax and enjoy my life and the lives I influence.


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Cost to Institutions• Lost income

– # leavers x ($tuition + $gov’t. funding) = $M

• Wasted $ – Recruitment, admissions, registration, orientation, instructional time etc.

• Impact on Key Performance Indicators – Student satisfaction, graduation rates

• Impact on Image– Prospective students, trustees, legislators, public


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Cost to Society• Economic Benefits

– Human Capital– Productivity– Wealth generation

• Human Condition– Health costs– Social order


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This is what a 1% increase in student retention looks like.

This is what a 1% increase in student retention looks like. While 'student retention' may sound like administrivia, it's far from it. It's about individual students, their potential and their future...and ours. For each of the past five years, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln has done 1% better in student retention than the year before. That means 36 more students 'hung in there' to move toward graduation...180 more since 2000.


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Best Practices at UNL

1. RETENTION IS OUR JOB.

2. GIVE THE RED CARPET TREATMENT.

3. CHECK IT OUT AT MID-SEMESTER.

4. GET TO KNOW OUR STUDENTS.

5. TELL THEM HOW THEY'RE DOING.

6. BE PERSONAL.

7. DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS.

8. ENCOURAGE RE-ENROLLMENT.


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retention 101

Professional Development Workshop

The Educational Policy Institute’s


PART I: Introduction to Student Retention

virginia beach, va september 30 – october 2, 2007 1

Documents

student retention slide

student success

followup slide

charge of student retention

student departure

retention persistence

department of academic

r101 online survey slide