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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Robert Brown
Robert Brown CHEP

Attrition

Interacting regularly with studdents helps me to be aware of areas that they need help in.
David Scholl
David Scholl

improvements to my own retention efforts

I am going to make surte to keep in constant contact with all of my students, refer the ones who have issues I feel I cannot resolve to the proer personnel, and make evry effort to make every student feel safe on our campus.
Benetta Moore-Miller
Benetta Moore-Miller

Model,Mentoring & Monitoring

I really believe that all these areas must be met to assist a student the way instructors need to. (1) Always #1 be an example for the student to follow. That includes dressing, attitude and gestures. (2) I like to share career life experiences with my students. I find that it opens up a means of communications. They will come to me with all kinds of issues. I try to assist or refer them to someone who can help them. (3) I can't figure out rather I have succeeded without monitoring. My first awareness that something is not right comes from watching attendance, attitude in class, test scores and class participation.
Aldgenette Leatherwood
Aldgenette Leatherwood

The Importance of Retention

It was interesting to find that each department plays an important role in student retention.  I knew that retention was important in career colleges; and how it impacted the funding of the school when enrollment is down.  However, I did not know that each department was involved in the process.  Now  I can understand why so many added responsibilities are placed on faculty, other than what we were hired to do.  In the past, I have always tried to go the extra mile to do whatever is necessary to see our students successful in completing their program.  Now I will be willing to do even more; because if our students fail, the we all fail.

Paul Burchett
Paul Burchett

Student feedback

I know the instructor can affect the perception of course objectives. My question is this: How much does the instructor affect the proper perception of course objectives? I know I try to explain the course objectives on the first day and reinforce these throughout the term.
Paul Burchett
Paul Burchett

Objectives

There is no doubt the objectives should be clearly stated on the syllabus. My comment is this: when coming up with objectives for a math course, one should keep in mind application. My question is this: How much should the foundations be stressed at this level?
Paul Burchett
Paul Burchett

Stress levels

When managing the classroom, worrying about student's stress levels is important. However, balancing this with keeping up with the objectives of the course can be difficult. I try to place myself in the student's shoes, keeping in mind my course likely isn't the only time commitment they have.
Paul Burchett
Paul Burchett

RT101

I've noticed some differences at MMTC about retention. It seems to be very much stressed, as it should be. My question is, how do we balance retention with the need to not "baby" students?
Paul Hudson
Paul Hudson

Interventio techniques

I do believe that this process can work, but just the fact that we are not the right person to talk to sometimes can make it very difficult to understand where they are coming from. My own approach would to be find common ground with the person first and establish a comfortable place where they will entertain the idea of opening up to you.
John Hughes
John Hughes

First Day Intro...

The first day of class is always stressful for students. There learning something new and they want to see what type of teacher they will have. The teaching style that you have and your experience that you bring.
Paul Hudson
Paul Hudson

Coping with stress

In todays world, we are dealing with so many multiple tasks per day that it's hard to know what exactly the stress is. When people add school to the equation I think it can be used as an escape from their other realities. As instructors this can be our opportunity to make them fall in love so to speak with school and put that fire in them so retention won't be an issue.
Donald Griswold
Donald Griswold CHEP

Retention and the Informed Student

I feel that an important part of retention is not just "selling" the program to the student, but informing the student what life in the area is like in regards to housing, jobs, transportation availablilty and cost of living while attending school. All too often, students arrive on campus ready to start school but are then hit with the reality of having to survive along with having to study and stay focused on school. Ultimately, students are our customers and if we can't maintain customer satisfaction, the burden of trying to exist while going to school outweighs the benefit of trying to get an education. In some cases, the school experience is the students first time away from home, and home can be a long way away. Getting the student involved in school programs as well as providing the proper guidance as part of the enrollment process can do alot to at least prepare the student for school life away from home.
Paul Spilko
Paul Spilko

New student contacts and follow ups.

Program directors and faculty should contact new students prior to class, just to welcome them and set up excitment for the first day. During the first week, admissions and the program directors should contact new students and ask how it is going.
Paul Spilko
Paul Spilko

First day of class

Faculty should introduce self and novel way to have students introduce and share with class to start the class support system quickly. Syllabus, class rules, should be spelled out clearly. You can discard items from the first days instructions, but difficult to add sometimes.
Paul Spilko
Paul Spilko

Orientation

While the idea of having a traveling Orientation is great. Going from department to department. Great care should be given that bottlenecks, delays and space issues are brainstormed prior to orientation.
Luis Ortiz
Luis Ortiz

Retention Success

A little over three years ago I was hired to start a new program with my present employer. I was a rather tall order due to the fact that it was a program to be deliver in Spanish. After countless hours of translation and reviews we finally implemented the new program. To my personal and professional pride today that program as a Hispanic that program has a retention rate of 86% even better than the overall institution retention rate.

We attribute that success to the fact that the instructors and I keep constant contact with all the students in the program. During the initial orientation I place great emphasis in the relationship between attendance and academic success. We also point out the need of staying in contact with the instructors at all times. The team of instructors works together to identify and assist the slower learning students. I do believe that the overall success of the program is due to the neat closeness that we are able to develop within the instructors and students. We always know the whereabouts of all our students and I also managed to know all of them by their first name.

Openness and availability are crucial in the success of a great program.

 

Joel Campbell
Joel Campbell

Placement as Retention

Good placement rates absolutely drive retention..it keeps students eye on the prize. Placements should be shared with students on a regular basis and serve as a constant reminder of why they are in school.
Joel Campbell
Joel Campbell

Websites and Retention

Particularly at Career colleges where students are coming and going often and have busy lives school websites can create a common place where students get information such as important dates, events, and activities. It is a "hub" for students to connect with the school from home, work; anywhere. A well designed, informative website can improve retention as well.
Joel Campbell
Joel Campbell

Mentoring

The biggest challenge for an mentoring programs is organization, especially with a large student body.How do you facilitate a program with 600,800, or 1000 students?
Teresa Keith
Teresa Keith

Intervention Techniques

Faculty have a responsiblity to help students with goal setting and goal achievement and information about progress toward that goal should be made readily available. The faculty and other employees should always tell students about the institution's support services and the school's commitment to student success. Students must have opportunity to connect with service providers in an environment that protects their dignity and acknowledges the importance of the issue. The services you promise must be proactive, positive and show the students that the institution really cares about each student's success. After proper and adequate service is provided the students will then make others aware of the schools apportunities. "Word of mouth" is a powerful tool among students. If the word in the halls is that people at the schools care students will take advantage of your offerings.