Retension Basics
We all are accountable for retension, instructors, management, and departments. We all have to work together to keep in touch with our students. Communication between departments helps greatly in this effort. Not everyone can see what is going on with the students, together we can combine our efforts to help our students help themselfs to a better education.
Agreed. We as well as our students should accept responsibility and accountability. If every one does their part, more holes get filled.
It is very important to have all departments work together. When everyone works together there are so many resouces to help students in need, therefore increasing completion rates.
I agree Beth. Retention takes a "village", as they say :). Communication and sharing information laterally and vertically, from one department to another, from the first moment of acceptance until graduation is key. No one department can or should be held solely responsible for retaining students.
Building a relationship with the students is also important. It allows us to see the possible issues before they get out of hand and cause the student to drop.
That relationship can be key to a student's success. Maintaining communication with a student helps them understand that they are not alone on their quest for a better education and a better life.
I agree it is a challenging task but it is not impossible to be accomplish if everyone communicates among departments.
Showing the students that you care about them as a person has helped to retain students. Letting them know that life throws us trouble sometimes and that they have someone they can talk to can help keep them on campus and attending class to obtain the training to get that dream they have. Just be human and showing it to the students really goes a long way in retention.
Annarose, I appreciate you "Retention takes a village" statement. Sucessful Retention rates are due to good communication between instructors, faculty, and staff. It is virtually imposible for one person, or one department to have a handle on retention rates alone. Also, successful Retention needs to have a multi-dimensional aproach. Students need to feel like their opinions and feelings matter, they need to feel that administration cares about their success, and it is important to see other students previous sucess.
The important idea is that the school feel like a community, where people are accepted for who they are and encouraged to reach their goals. This starts at the top, but includes even those people that students don't see everyday, such as the cleaning personnel and the managers that they don't meet with on a regular basis.
"Students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." I agree developing a relationship with the students is one very important component to retention. If that relationship exists, then the students will be more likely to share issues that they are experiencing with the faculty and staff. Early intervention would prevent many of these students from becoming drop-outs. The instructors are the ones who have the most frequent contact and are vital to this process even though retention should be everyones responsibility.
I couldn't agree more, as an instructor. Sometimes I have women coming into my class that are close to their due dates and expecting a child soon. I believe with detecting possible issues before enrollment can increase retention rates.
Shanika, how does your institution handle these cases for placement?
