Strategies for Improving Student Retention

1
Strategies for Improving Student Retention

• COE Annual Conference
• Chicago, Illinois
• September 6, 2007
• Vincent Tinto
• Syracuse University
• Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in
  Higher Education
• vtinto_at_syr.edu

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Working Together to Solve Problems

• What is the state of student retention on your
  campus / in your program?
• What are you now doing to improve student
  retention?
• What issues/problems are you now facing in trying
  to improve student retention?

3
Process

• Introduce yourselves and identify your
  institution
• Share your answers to these questions to your
  group so that you have three rounds of
  conversation, each on a seperate question
• Generate one question about a problem you are
  facing that you want to pose to all of us

4
Conditions for Student Success

• Moving from teaching to learning.
• Focusing on the conditions that promote student
  success over which we have control.

5
Conditions for Student Success

• Expectations
• Clear, consistent expectations
• High expectations
• Validation

6
Conditions for Student Success

• Expectations
• Support
• Academic support
• Social support
• Financial support
• Language support

7
Conditions for Student Success

• Expectations
• Support
• Feedback
• Entry assessment and placement
• Early warning systems
• Classroom assessment of learning

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Conditions for Student Success

• Expectations
• Support
• Feedback
• Involvement
• Frequent contact with students, faculty, and
  staff

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Conditions for Student Success

• Expectations
• Support
• Feedback
• Involvement
• Learning
• Support for learning
• Feedback about learning
• Active involvement in learning / time-on-task
• Relevant learning

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• Students will get more involved in learning,
  spend more time learning, and in turn learn more
  when they are placed in supportive educational
  settings that hold high expectations for their
  success, provide frequent feedback about their
  learning, and require them to actively share
  learning with others.

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Resources Successful Programs

• J. Engle and C. OBrien, Demography is Not
  Destiny Increasing the Graduation Rates of
  Low-Income College Students at Large Public
  Institutions. (Washington D.C., The Pell
  Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher
  Education, 2006).
• L. Muraskin and J. Lee, Raising the Graduation
  Rates of Low-Income College Students.
  (Washington D.C., The Pell Institute for the
  Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, 2004)