Improving Retention
The school where I work has tried many methods of increasing student retention. All methods were informally thrown out to instructors and other school personnel with the expectation that each person involved would act accordingly. Each individual appeared to work on their own, and no real improvements in retention were made. A few months back the school established a three step program of working with students to locate problems early.
The three step program:
(1) Student advising (consultation) by the instructor. (An informal meeting between the instructor and student and the instructor keep record of such meeting.)
(2) Instructor / student consultation and a written memo sent to Academic Review Committee
(3) Instructor / student meeting with Academic Review Committee relating to student issues and concerns.
This method appears to be working. It is not 100% retention rate; however there appears to be fewer drops this past six months. Only time will tell if this really works and what changes may have to be made.
Are there any other such programs in place out there?
Retention must be part of a comprehensive approach, starting with strong leadership, Troy.
Having students meeting with advisors can be very powerful. Advising is an opportunity to re-sell the value of your school's institution, but it also offers an opportunity to advocate on behalf of students.
Your program sounds great and is based on instructor involvement. I am working to get more involvement with instructors to refer students to me as Student Affairs Advisor. My office has implemented some strategies for dealing with retention that are based on attendance and academic progress. We work exclusively with students taking online classes. Here is a quick outline:
1) Our Student affairs office sends emails and makes calls to students who have not logged in over 5 days or more. We take attendance twice a week. We offer assistance and encourage students to contact instructors about any issues.
2) We receive mid-term reports from the registrar's office and send emails to students at the mid-term who are doing less than C work to recommend they contact their instructors and us for assistance.
3) I contact student referrals from faculty about academic issues and help them connect with instructors to make an action plan for improvement.
4) For students who request to withdraw, I find out reasons why and provide guidance and resources to help them stay in school. If it is clear that withdrawal is the best option now, I work with them on a re-entry process to get them back into school the next term.
I have been doing these steps over the past year and we are seeing some drops in attrition. We have more work to do in getting instructors more involved in the process.
I have the same situation in my school in regard to ideas being informally thrown out to instructors and other personnel. It seems like the we start a retention program but get to busy to follow through. I like the idea of the three step program and the Academic Review Committee. Who is on your committee and what kinds of things are done in this 3rd step?
Review committees take many forms. Some focus exclusively on academic progress issues; committee members usually come exclusively from the education department [department heads, director of ed, perhaps instructors]. Others are more inclusive and look at non-academic issues as well [behavior, attendance, finances]. These committess include representatives from the student services areas.
Obviously, many of these issues overlap. When creating a review committee, you must have the support of your campus leadership and clearly identify your objectives and expected outcomes. This procedure will help you recognize who should serve on the committee.
The committee also offers an opportunity to get additional people involved - not just the usual suspects. It can be an eye opening experience for faculty members who don't fully appreciate the barriers that students must overcome. The same is true for including representatives from admissions.
We have an early warning form, where the instructor documents any academic or general concerns or issues that he discuss with the students. (They are listed on the form). Also it has a part for a plan of action with a time for resolution between the instructor and student or can be send to discuss with the Programs director.
Is a great tool to keep track of student's performance and improvements.
Who coordinates and tracks results for the system, Luis? Where are the forms filed? Do they become part of the student file? How does the instructor document subsequent conversations?
Our school follows the same practice as mentioned here. We also have a single point of contact for a student who wishes to withdraw. That person contacts any student who is in danger of dropping any class. The theory is that the battle needs to be fought at the first sign of a student dropping any class. Waiting until a full drop is imminent is probably too late.
