Information for Lifes Transitions

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Information for Lifes Transitions
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The American Freshman Thirty-Year
TrendsAmerican Council on Education (ACE),
Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP)
at The Universityof California - Los Angeles,
2003. (Cited as Trends)

• The Condition of Education 2004National Center
  for Educational Statistics (NCES) of theU.S.
  Department of Education, 2004. (Cited as
  Condition)
• Digest of Educational Statistics 2002National
  Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) of
  theU.S. Department of Education, 2002. (Cited
  as Digest)
• Knocking at the Door Projections of High School
  Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity
  1996-2017Western Interstate Commission for
  Higher Education (WICHE) The College Board and
  ACT 2003. (Cited as Grads)

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of Freshmen Very Important Reasons to go to
College
1984 1998 2004
75.7 47.9 67.8 65.1 41.6
To be able to get a better job To prepare for
graduate school To be able to make more money To
gain a general education and appreciation of
ideas To improve reading and study skills
76.9 49.0 74.6 62.0 41.5

• 70.
• 57.
• 70.
• 66.
• 42.

Freshman
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Students Who Expect Experience Specific College
Outcomes
To Expect Experience

• Be deciding 7
• Change majors 15
• Fail a course 1
• Take extra time to complete degree 6
• Drop out 1
• Transfer colleges 7
• Work in college 45
• Seek personal counseling 7
• Need tutoring 15
• Seek career guidance 5

20 65-85 16 60 40 28 60 27 20 25
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Pesistance Rates Developmental Students

• 2-yr Community Colleges 24.0
• 2-yr Technical Colleges 33.7
• 4-yr Public Colleges 28.4
• 4-yr Private Colleges 40.2
• Research Universities 48.3

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Comparative Retention Rates by Ethnic Groups

• 4 year Privates-African/American 46.9
• 4 year Publics- African/American 23.8
• 2 year Community College 10.0

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Grades in Developmentaland Standard Courses

• Dev. Math/College Math 77.2
• Dev. English/College English 91.1
• Dev. Reading/College Social SC. 83

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Retention

• . . .commitment on the part of each and every
  member of the institution for the welfare, the
  social and intellectual growth, of all members of
  the institution.

Tinto, Leaving College, 1993
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Themes of Attrition

• Academic Boredom
• Academic Underpreparedness
• Lack of Certainty inmajor/career choice
• Transition/adjustment Difficulty
• Dissonance/Incompatibility
• Irrelevancy

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Fundamental of Persistence

• Retention should not be an institutional goal but
  rather the by-product of improved educational
  programs and services for students.

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Types of Attrition

• Expected and Justified
• Stopping Out
• Unnecessary and subject to institutional
  intervention

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Degree attainment and persistence
(after 6 years)
Descriptive Summary of 1995-96Beginning
Postsecondary StudentsSix Years Later National
Center for Educational Statistics, December, 2002
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What Works in Student Retention (2004)

• Survey sent to 2,995 colleges
• Survey Sections
• Institutional Characteristics (24 items)
• Student Characteristics (20 items)
• Campus Practices (84 items)
• Returned by 1,061(35.4) colleges
• 386 (39.0) two-year public colleges

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Retention Coordination (two-year public)

• Of all 386 two-year public colleges
• 157 (40.7) have a designated coordinator with
  117 different titles
• 6.9 assign responsibility to a dean level or
  higher
• 11.7 include the term retention in title

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Goals (two-year public)

• Of all 386 two-year public colleges
• 27.2 have established a first-to-second-year
  retention goal
• 19.9 have established a degree completion goal

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Institutional Characteristics (two-year public)

• Of 24 institutional characteristics
• Only 2 are cited as making a moderate
  contribution or higher to student attrition
• amount of financial aid available
• student employment opportunities

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John Gardner comments.

• It is disturbing to note.that in spite of all
  we know about student retention that institutions
  are still inclined to hold students responsible
  for their retention/attrition while dramatically
  minimizing the institutional role in student
  retention.

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Greatest Contribution to Retention (two-year
public)

• Programs/Services making the greatest
  contribution to retention fall into three
  categories
• Academic Advising
• Learning Support
• Assessment and Course Placement

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Appropriate Placement into entry level courses
that are interesting and challenging but not
overwhelming can have a significant effect on the
academic achievement of beginning college
students during the first year and is crucial in
an institutions efforts to RETAIN students
Tinto-2001
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Highest Impact (two-year public)

• Identify the three programs on your campus that
  you believe have the highest impact on student
  retention?
• Mandated course placement testing (20.7)
• Tutoring program (19.3)
• Required remedial/developmental courses (19.2)
• Comprehensive Learning Assistance Center/Lab
  (19.2)
• All remaining practices cited at fewer than 10
  of the colleges (58 practices not cited all)

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Institutional Data Questionnaire (IDQ)

• Annual collection of data from all two-year and
  four-year degree-granting institutions
• Includes information about admissions, academic
  programs, co-curricular activities, and other
  campus characteristics
• Includes first-second year dropout and degree
  completion rates
• Data set includes 2,523 colleges (2005)

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D e g r e e C o m p l e t i o n
Above Median
Below Median
HIGHPerforming
Above Median
R e t e n t i o n
LOW Performing
Above Median
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Two-year Public Colleges

• Of the 386 two-year public colleges that returned
  the retention survey
• 55 were High Performers
• Above median in both retention and degree
  completion
• 66 were Low Performers
• Below median in both retention and degree
  completion

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Two-year Public Colleges

• High performing two-year public colleges are more
  likely to implement.
• Math Center/Lab
• Writing Center/Lab
• Reading Center/Lab
• Advising Interventions with selected student
  populations
• Learning Communities
• Foreign Language Center/Lab
• Programs for Racial/Ethnic Minorities

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• What Works in
• Student Retention
• RECOMMENDATIONS

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Recommendation 1

• 1. Designate a visible individual to coordinate a
  campus-wide planning team

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Recommendation 2

• 1.Designate a visible individual to coordinate a
  campus-wide planning team
• 2. Conduct a systematic analysis of the
  characteristics of your students

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Two fundamental questions

• WHO ARE OUR STUDENTS?
• WHAT DIFFERENTIATES STUDENTS WHO STAY FROM
  STUDENTS WHO LEAVE?

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Who are our students?

• Demographics
• Academic Performance
• Academic Plans
• Non-Academic Variables
• Self-Reported Needs
• Opinions and Attitudes
• Institutional Fit

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• Can collect this Data in
• COMPASS/ESL /ASSET
• Educational Planning Form
• Entering Student Descriptive Report

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ACTs RETURNING STUDENT RETENTION REPORT
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Recommendation 3

• 1. Designate a visible individual to coordinate a
  campus-wide planning team
• 2. Conduct a systematic analysis of the
  characteristics of your students
• 3. Focus on the nexus of student characteristics
  and institutional characteristics

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A commentary on youth...

• The children now love luxury. They have bad
  manners, contempt for authority, they show
  disrespect for adults and love to talk rather
  than work or exercise. They no longer rise when
  adults enter the room. They contradict their
  parents, chatter in front of company, gobble down
  food at the table, and intimidate their teachers.

Socrates (469-399 BC)
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Recommendation 4

• 4. Carefully review the high impact strategies
  identified through this survey
• Academic Advising (all college types)
• Learning Support (all college types)
• First-year transition programs (four-year
  colleges)
• Assessment and Course Placement (two-year public
  colleges)

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Recommendation 5

• 4. Carefully review the high impact strategies
  identified through this survey
• 5. Do not make first to second year retention
  strategies the sole focus of your planning efforts

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Recommendation 6

• 4. Carefully review the high impact strategies
  identified through this survey
• 5. Do not make first to second year retention
  strategies the sole focus of your planning
  efforts
• 6. Establish realistic goals for retention,
  progression, and completion

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Measures of success

• Retention
• the percentage of students who return to campus
  in
• in the second and subsequent years
• Completion
• the percentage of students who complete degrees

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• Retention
• the percentage of students who return to campus
  in
• in the second and subsequent years
• Completion
• the percentage of students who complete degrees
• PROGRESSION
• the percentage of full-time students who return
  and achieve class standing commensurate with the
  number of years they have attended

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Recommendation 7

• 4. Carefully review the high impact strategies
  identified through this survey
• 5. Do not make first to second year retention
  strategies the sole focus of your planning
  efforts
• 6. Establish realistic short-term and long-term
  goals for retention, progression, and completion
• 7. Orchestrate the change process

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Recommendation 8

• 4.Carefully review the high impact strategies
  identified through this survey
• 5. Do not make first to second year retention
  strategies the sole focus of your planning
  efforts
• 6. Establish realistic short-term and long-term
  goals for retention, progression, and completion
• 7. Orchestrate the change process
• 8. Make sure your Placement test is working to
• your greatest advantage.

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COURSE PLACEMENTService

• Collecting Validity Evidence

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Placement Assumptions

• Purpose is to identify students who are
  academically underprepared.
• There are certain prerequiste skills necessary
  for success in a course.
• These skills can be measured.
• Grades are valid measures of academic success.

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Result

• There is a statistical relationship between test
  scores and course grades.
• predict success in the course
• set and/or validate cutoff scores
• compare different placement variables
• provide validity evidence

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Methodology

• Developed by Richard Sawyer
• Combines logistic regression and decision theory
• Generates validity statistics

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Logistic Regression

• Continuous independent variable (COMPASS scores)
• Dichotomous dependent variable (success/failure)
• Nonlinear relationship
• Prediction equation for probability of success

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Probability of Success
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Probability of Success
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Validity Statistics

• Accuracy Rate
• Success Rate
• Percent Placed in Lower-Level Course
• Increase in Accuracy Rate
• All depend on the cutoff score.

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Estimated Accuracy Rate

• Percentage of correct decisions
• those at or above the cutoff score who would
  successful in the standard course
• those below the cutoff score would be
  unsuccessful if placed in the standard course

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Increase in Accuracy Rate

• Increase in the percentage of correct decisions
  over allowing all students into standard course.
• Value added by test and cutoff score

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Estimated Success Rate

• Percentage of students at or above the cutoff
  score who were successful in the standard course.
• Percent Placed in Lower-Level Course
• Percentage of Students below the Cutoff Score

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Validity Statistics
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Placement Informationused to validate or set
cutoff scores, estimate impact, and compare
variables
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Underprepared StudentFollow-up
Report(UPSFUR)
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Purpose/Format

• To help evaluate the effectiveness of remedial
  (or lower-level) coursework.
• Descriptive report for a pair of courses (e.g.,
  developmental writing / composition).
• Follows course performance for prepared and
  underprepared students.

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Rationale

• Goal of remedial education is for students to
  eventually succeed in standard courses.
• Underprepared students are advised to take
  remedial or lower-level courses.
• Comparing the standard course performance of
  remediated and nonremediated underprepared
  students gives a measure effectiveness.

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UPSFUR Diagram
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COMPASS / CAAP Linkage Reports Help
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Retention Strategies
Yes

• Improve/redevelop academic advising 72.1
• Improve/redevelop orientation 72.0t
• Establish early warning system 65.6
• Innovations in credit programs 61.7
• Formal remedial coursework 55.7
• Use of peer advisors/counselors 52.5
• Mandatory Course Placement 45.4
• WWISR in AASCU

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College Professor Such rawness in the pupil is a
shame..lack of preparation in high school is to
blame High school school Teacher What crudity
the boys a fool..the fault of course is in the
middle school Middle school Teacher From such
stupidity may be spared.. they send them to me
so underprepared Elementary Teacher
Kindergarten blockhead.and they call that
preparation, worse than none at all Kindergarten
Teacher Such lack of training never did I see -
What kind of mother must that woman be? Mother
Poor helpless child hes not to blamehis
fathers folks are just the same Father
Keeping in lineI doubt that rascal is even mine

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Exemplary Retention Programs

• Academic Advising
• Placement Assessment and Follow-up
• First-Year Experience Focus
• Freshman Seminar/Student Success Course
• Learning Communities
• Mentoring
• Orientation
• Teaching Enhancement
• Tutoring and Academic Support

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Grade Inflation Increase of grades over time
with same level of student achievement Differenti
al Grading Standards Different schools
assigning different grades for same level of
achievement.
Woodruff, Ziomek, Differential Grading Standards
among High Schools-2004
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High School Grade Inflation (1994-2004)
93.6
87.9
20.8
20.9
20.9
20.8
20.7
20.6
85.5
84.5
82.2
83.8
80.5
Freshman Reporting High School GPA as B- to A
Freshmen
ACT Assessment National Composite Averages
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Orientation andExtended Orientation

• Ending of admissions process first experience as
  an enrolled student
• Sometimes synonymous with Freshman Seminar
• Better programs are typically longer programs
• Timing and duration
• Pre-summer, summer, first term/year

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What Works in Academic Advising in Two-Year
Colleges

• ACT 6th National SURVEY

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Primary Research Question

• What are the characteristics of advising programs
  that are associated with retention and degree
  completion?

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Sixth Survey Sections

• Campus Coordination and Organization
• Advising in the Academic Department
• Advising in Centers or Offices
• Goal Achievement and Program Effectiveness

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Institutions in Sixth Survey
Number of
Number of

Institutions
Respondents
Institution Type

2-year public
1054
35
522
37
2-year private
152
5
42
3
4-year public
572
19
308
21
4-year private
1238
41
548
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Other
3
0
1
0
Total
3019
1421
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D e g r e e C o m p l e t i o n
Top25
Bottom25
Middle50
HighPerformance
Top25
ModeratePerformance
R e t e n t i o n
Middle50
LowPerformance
Bottom25
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Characteristics of High Performing Advising
Programs

• Report to VP for Academic Affairs
• Use Total Intake or Satellite Model
• Have a policy statement
• Mission
• Goals
• Rewards

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Positive Campus/StudentRetention Characteristics
Range 0-5 Mean

• Caring attitude of faculty and staff 4.26
• Consistent high quality of teaching 4.06
• Adequate financial aid programs 3.47
• Consistent high quality advising 3.46
• Encouragement of student involvement in campus
  life 3.41
• WWISR in AASCU

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Negative Campus/Student Retention Characteristics
Mean

• Inadequate academic advising 3.39
• Conflict between job and classes 3.37
• Inadequate financial aid 3.25
• Inadequate counseling support system
  2.78
• Inadequate personal contact between students
  and faculty 2.75
• WWISR in AASCU