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STUDENT RETENTION:
UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES OF STUDENT ATTRITION
AND IMPLEMENTING A PREVENTION PLAN
Joe Cuseo
Marymount College
TARGET AREA #3.
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS:
CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, & ACADEMIC-SUPPORT SERVICES
FACULTY ORIENTATION & DEVELOPMENT
UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES OF STUDENT ATTRITION
AND IMPLEMENTING A PREVENTION PLAN
Joe Cuseo
Marymount College
: 3.1 Conduct a new-faculty orientation program that includes discussion of the faculty�s role in promoting student retention.
3.2 Conduct an ongoing faculty development program designed to enhance instructional quality and promote teaching-for-retention strategies, such as: (a) developing rapport with students (e.g., learning students� names and personal interests); (b) actively involving students with the subject matter, with the instructor, and with other students; (c) engaging students in collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom; (d) providing students with feedback on their academic performance that is prompt, proactive, and personalized (e.g., early written feedback on individual tests and assignments); and (e) promoting contact with students outside the classroom (e.g., faculty-student conferences).
FACULTY ROLES, REWARDS, & RECOGNITION:
3.3 Increase the weight given to student-centered, retention-promoting faculty activities when making decisions about faculty retention, promotion, and tenure.
3.4 Publicly recognize and reward faculty for excellence in student-centered, retention-promoting activities.
3.5 Encourage and reward faculty for research and scholarship relating to student learning, student development, and student retention.
3.6 Adopt and enforce a stated policy about the minimum number of weekly office hours that faculty should be available to students, so as to ensure that students have opportunities to interact with faculty outside the classroom.
3.7 Explicitly encourage, recognize, and reward faculty for involvement with students outside the classroom.
3.8 Intentionally design academic programs, structures, or procedures that explicitly foster student-faculty interaction outside the classroom (e.g., faculty-student mentoring programs, faculty-student research teams, faculty-student teaching teams, faculty-sponsored student clubs and organizations).
3.9 Assess and weigh student-centeredness and sensitivity to student-retention issues during the process of recruiting and selecting faculty to the college. (For example, include students and student development professionals on faculty-hiring committees and, as part of the hiring process, ask faculty candidates to provide a teaching demonstration, or engage in a simulated interaction with students.
ACADEMIC ADVISEMENT:
3.10 Require students to confer with, and obtain a signature from an academic advisor before they can register for, add, or drop courses.
3.11 Educate academic advisors about the need to avoid the conception that advising is synonymous with course scheduling, and provide them with a substantive advisor orientation, training, and development program that prepares them to provide comprehensive developmental academic advising�i.e., personalized advising that relates students� present academic experiences to their future life plans, and connects students with key campus-support professionals who can most effectively address their present needs and facilitate realization of their future plans.
3.12 Establish an advisor:student ratio (e.g., 1:20) that is conducive to developmental academic advising.
3.13 Provide special academic advising support for undecided students�e.g., pair them with advisors who are specially trained to work with students who are uncertain about their academic major and future career plans.
3.14 Periodically conduct group advising sessions, whereby students with similar academic or career interests (e.g., sociology majors) are advised together in order to promote peer support and collaboration with respect to academic and career planning.
3.15 Select and train peer academic advisors to support faculty advisors and facilitate the course-selection and registration process.
3.16 Develop a system for recruiting and selecting advisors to identify faculty advisors who have the interest and commitment needed to provide developmental academic advising (e.g., adopt advising experience/effectiveness as one criterion in the recruitment and selection of new faculty).
3.17 Develop an evaluation system that provides advisors with individual feedback on the quality of their academic advising.
3.18 Develop a system for recognizing and rewarding high-quality academic advising�e.g., have advising �count� in decisions about faculty retention, promotion or tenure, and in decisions about �merit pay� or salary increases.
LEARNING-RESOURCE CENTER SERVICES:
3.19 Make learning-support services highly visible to students (e.g., pictures and campus phone numbers of support professionals advertised in campus flyers, posters, newsletters, or the college newspaper).
3.20 Take institution-initiated action to deliver support services intrusively to students through such practices as: (a) bringing support services to students on their �turf� (e.g., providing workshops in student residences or the student union), (b) integrating support services into the classroom (e.g., student-service professionals as guest speakers in class; peer tutors invited to class), and (c) requiring, or providing students with strong incentives to take advantage of support services (e.g., as a course assignment or as a condition for registration or graduation).
3.21 Implement an efficient and effective communication-and-referral system whereby classroom instructors routinely refer students in need of academic assistance to support service professionals and classroom instructors who, in turn, receive feedback about whether referred students actually act on the referral�and, if so, what type of support they received.
3.22 Establish an early-warning or early-alert system through which first-term students receive feedback about their academic progress (grades) at midterm, or earlier, so corrective action can be taken before final course grades are determined.
3.23 Maximize availability of, and accessibility to, peer tutoring�i.e., academic assistance provided by experienced and trained students.
3.24 Have supplemental instruction (SI) available for �high-risk courses� (classes with historically high attrition rates or low grades) and/or �gateway courses� (classes that either enable or block student entry to college majors), whereby students who have done well in such courses, re-attend the class and help novice learners during additional (supplemental) class sessions that are regularly scheduled outside of class time.
3.25 Devise special-support strategies for students on academic probation (e.g., peer tutoring or mentoring).
3.26 Develop academic mentoring programs whereby student prot�g�s are mentored by more experienced undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, or community volunteers (e.g., career professionals or retirees).
3.27 Have academic support professionals provide instructional faculty with diagnostic feedback (e.g., via academic-support service newsletters, presentations or workshops for faculty) about the types of academic assistance that students typically need or seek, and common errors in students� approaches to learning that are witnessed in academic support settings.
3.28 Provide course-integrated library instruction, whereby students learn information search, retrieval, and evaluation skills within the context of specific course content or course assignments (e.g., research paper or group project).
RECOMMENDED REFERENCES & RESOURCES ON STUDENT RETENTION
Beal, P., & Noel, L. (1980). What works in student retention. The American College Testing Program and The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. (Eric Reproduction Service No. 197 635)
Braxton, J. M. (2000). Reworking the departure puzzle: New theory and research on college student retention. Nashville: University of Vanderbilt Press.
Braxton, J. M. (Ed.)(2001-2002). Using theory and research to improve college student retention. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 3(1), 1- 118.
Lenning, O. T., Beal, P. E., & Sauer, K. (1980). Retention and attrition: Evidence for action and research. Boulder, CO: National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
Lenning, O. T., Sauer, K., & Beal, P. E. (1980). Student retention strategies. AAHE- ERIC/Higher Education Research Report No. 8. Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education.
National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities (1990). Undergraduate completion and persistence at four-year colleges and universities. Washington, DC: Author.
Noel, L., Levitz, R., & Kaufmann, J. (1982). Organizing the campus for retention. Iowa City, Iowa: American College Testing Program & The National Center for Academic Advancement of Educational Practices.
Terrell, M. C., & Wright, D. J. (Eds.) (1988). From survival to success: Promoting minority student retention. NASPA Monograph No. 9. Washington, DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Resources: Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing. (http://baywood.com)
Recruitment & Retention in Higher Education (Newsletter). Madison, WI: Magna Publications. (www.magnapubs.com)
Website: http://www.noellevitz.com (See profiles of campuses with award-winning retention programs.)