of CC students work more than 20 hours forward due to simultaneous or sequen-
There was spirited discussion at
a week. More than a quarter work 35 tial enrollment at different institutions,
AACRAO’s most recent Strategic
hours or more. The CC student mix is stop-outs and transfers.” Nevertheless,
Enrollment Management conference
older. Family responsibilities exceed fam- colleges and universities whose students
about attendance and retention on
ily financial support. A student’s time of- receive government-backed student loans
U.S. campuses.
ten has non-negotiable time constraints. are by law required to submit both reten-
Here are three quotes from among that
Western Iowa Tech CC (WITCC) tion and graduation rate reports.
earnest audience that offer perspective
has not thrown in the towel. Dr. Juline
and food for thought and action.
Albert is dean of students there, and she Enter the government
is employing an innovative systems the- and a moving target
College selection is the first
ory approach to create a retention sys- The current definitions and formu-
noncompulsory education decision
tem. Albert is working closely with her las do not include all students and may
that students make and one for which
software provider, in this case Datatel. provide unreliable results. Full-time and
they are poorly equipped.
Other schools may use retention data part-time students are treated separately.
Don Hossler
generated by Campus Management’s Students who are deceased, permanently
Executive Associate Dean
Talisma CRM or CAMS Enterprises disabled, have joined the armed forces or
Indiana University, Bloomington
by Three Rivers Systems. Concluding foreign aid service of the federal govern-
that current detection-intervention ment, and students on official church
The essence of higher education today
approaches are not sufficiently robust, missions may be excluded.
is “swirl.” Most students attend more
WITCC decided to look for innova- IPEDS formulas dominate most re-
than one college prior to graduation.
tions outside of higher education. tention rate calculations for government
Anne Brennan
Albert studied community police and reporting. Even using IPEDS methodol-
AVP Recruitment, Admission &
healthcare programs to design a reten- ogy, universities can be creative as to who
Enrollment Planning
tion system focused on prevention and is counted and who is not. For example,
Saint Xavier University
motivation… rather than detection and admitting students with higher SAT or
intervention. ACT scores in the fall and students with
Merely increasing degree attainment
Measureable results are still a ways lower scores in the spring can boost re-
won’t adequately drive the economy
off, but Burt Peachy, Datatel Academic ported results.
unless the degrees are meaningful.
Affiliate and a retired CC administra- Retention is not easily captured in a
Holiday McKiernan
tor, is optimistic. He expects schools simple formula. Hagedorn thinks that
Senior Vice President
like WITCC to devise a series of reten- “higher education researchers will likely
Lumina Foundation
tion best practices that can be custom- never reach consensus on the correct or
ized for use throughout higher educa- best way to measure this very important
tion. Peachy believes many retention outcome.” Institutional retention tracks
dollars are spent on downstream post- is increasingly public news. For some the proportion of students who remain
admission “Band-Aids.” He advocates schools retention will be the difference enrolled at the same institution from year
allocating 20 percent of retention ef- between thriving or dying. to year. System retention tracks students,
forts upstream by partnering with fami- It’s complicated to identify one stu- allowing for transfer or re-enrollment
lies, communities and feeder employers dent as a persister and another as a non- at another campus. Recently states have
and schools. The analogy he employs is persister, because student enrollment made significant progress in developing
“getting out of our armored vehicle and patterns vary widely. Student “swirl” longitudinal data systems to track stu-
walking the streets of Iraq.” describes much of the marketplace. Re- dent progress through 12th grade and
tention rates reflect the measurer’s per- in postsecondary education. At present
retention measurement: spective and the time covered by the only the National Student Clearinghouse
complicated, confusing and essential measurement. tracks students nationally. Major or Dis-
How successful is your campus at en- “A perfect classification of dropouts cipline Retention tracks student persis-
gaging and keeping the students you at- versus non-dropouts could be achieved tence within declared areas of study or
tract and enroll? Your answer matters to only when all the measured students had departments. Specific Course Retention
prospective students, parents who write either finished college or died without measures course start and completion.
tuition checks and the people at many ever finishing college,” observed UCLA
desks at the U.S. Department of Edu- researcher Alexander Astin. Linda Serra Community colleges are a special case
cation. The reputational and financial Hagedorn at USC concurs saying, “Stu- Standard formulas in use today do not
stakes are high. The retention scoreboard dent paths are rarely direct or straight- accurately reflect student success and
10 T
oday’s
C
ampus subscribe at no charge at www.todayscampus.com
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