Retention Research: Issues in Comparative Analysis

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Retention Research Issues in Comparative Analysis
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Association for Institutional Research, Long
Beach, CA, June 2001.

• Joseph W. Filkins
• Laura E. Kehoe
• Gerald W. McLaughlin

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Introduction

• Retention research at DePaul
• Background on retention
• Retention as a strategic issue
• Studies completed
• Communicating with constituencies

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Introduction

• Retention research at DePaul
• Background on retention
• Retention as a strategic issue
• Studies completed
• Communicating with constituencies
• Communication is key!

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Models of Student Persistence

• Tintos Student Integration Model
• Degree of student-institutional fit plays an
  important role in student persistence.

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Models of Student Persistence

• Tintos Student Integration Model
• Degree of student-institutional fit plays an
  important role in student persistence.
• Beans Student Attrition Model
• Students beliefs about their institutional
  experience affect persistence.
• Recognizes the influence of external factors on
  student persistence.

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Models of Student Persistence

• Tintos Beans models have spawned new research
  on student retention
• Confirm, deny integrate basic tenets of these
  models
• Focus on particular student populations
• Identify factors affecting student persistence

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Models of Student Persistence

• Tintos Beans models have spawned new research
  on student retention
• Confirm, deny integrate basic tenets of these
  models
• Focus on particular student populations
• Minority Students
• Commuter Students
• Graduate Students
• Two-Year College Students
• Transfer Students
• Non-Traditional Adult Students
• Identify factors affecting student persistence

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Models of Student Persistence

• Tintos Beans models have spawned new research
  on student retention
• Confirm, deny integrate basic tenets of these
  models.
• Focus on particular student populations
• Identify factors affecting student persistence
• Academic Aptitude
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Student Services
• Financial Factors
• Learning Communities In and Outside the Classroom

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Establishing Student Retention as a Strategic
Issue

• Strategic issues have serious consequences for
  the long-term success of the institution.

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Establishing Student Retention as a Strategic
Issue

• Strategic issues have serious consequences for
  the long-term success of the institution.
• Retention is a strategic issue

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Establishing Student Retention as a Strategic
Issue

• Strategic issues have serious consequences for
  the long-term success of the institution.
• Retention is a strategic issue
• Federal, state and private consortia request
  these data
• U.S. News and other college rankings
• Common Data Set

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Establishing Student Retention as a Strategic
Issue

• Dolences Research Evaluation Matrix
• Relationship between various criteria
• Leadership
• Comprehensiveness
• Key Performance Indicators
• Participation, etc.,
• Across four dimensions
• Decisions
• Information and Data
• Processes
• People

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Communicating with Constituencies

• Overcoming obstacles that impede flow of
  information

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Communicating with Constituencies

• Overcoming obstacles that impede flow of
  information
• Presenting attrition in terms of lost tuition
  revenue

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Communicating with Constituencies

• Overcoming obstacles that impede flow of
  information
• Presenting attrition in terms of lost tuition
  revenue
• Getting stakeholders to accept undesirable change

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Communicating with Constituencies

• Chickering and Gamsons Principles of Good
  Practice in Undergraduate Learning

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Communicating with Constituencies

• Chickering and Gamsons Principles of Good
  Practice in Undergraduate Learning
• Good Practice
• Encourages contact between the student and
  faculty
• Develops reciprocity and cooperation among
  students
• Uses active learning techniques
• Gives prompt feedback
• Emphasizes time-on-task
• Communicates high expectations
• Respects diverse talents and ways of learning

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Types of Retention Comparisons

• Internal Comparison
• External Comparison
• Entry/Intent (Special Student Populations)
  Comparisons

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Types of Retention Comparisons

• Internal Comparisons
• Cohort-to-cohort retention studies
• Trends in retention and graduation through
  multiple cohorts
• Identify changes within and between groups of
  students
• Longitudinal retention studies
• Tracks magnitude of retention or graduation of
  one cohort, or set of cohorts through multiple
  enrollment years.
• Identify patterns of retention and graduation
  within particular cohorts or groups of students
• External Comparisons
• Entry/Intent Comparisons

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Types of Retention Comparisons

• Internal Comparisons
• External Comparisons
• Evaluate retention rates referenced against other
  similar institutions
• Identify areas of strength and weakness in terms
  of retention
• Powerful tool for addressing retention as a
  strategic issue
• Entry/Intent Comparisons

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Types of Retention Comparisons

• Internal Comparisons
• External Comparisons
• Entry/Intent Comparisons
• Student populations other than traditional
  first-time, full-time freshmen
• Transfer Students
• Non-Traditional Students (e.g., Part-Time
  Adult)
• Graduate Students
• Provides a more complete institutional picture
  from which more meaningful decisions can be made

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Internal Comparisons

• Cohort-to-Cohort Analysis Overall Retention and
  Graduation Rates

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Internal Comparisons

• Cohort-to-Cohort Analysis Students Earning a
  First-Term GPA Between 2.00-2.49

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Internal Comparisons

• Cohort-to-Cohort Analysis Retention and
  Graduation by Gender

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Internal Comparisons

• Longitudinal Analysis Attrition of New Freshmen
  Over Six Years

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Internal Comparisons

• Longitudinal Analysis Attrition Rates by Bridge
  Status and Academic Status Over Six Years

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External Comparisons

• Establishing a Reference Group
• Choose institutions similar to yours based on
  pre-determined statistical and mission-related
  factors
• DePaul is a large, Catholic urban Doctoral
  Intensive institution with a large
  non-traditional student population

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External Comparisons

• First-Year Retention DePaul vs. Reference Group
  over several cohorts

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External Comparisons

• Benchmarking First-Year Retention

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External Comparisons

• Benchmarking Sixth-Year Graduation

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students Entry/Intent Status
• Transfer Students
• Transfer Institution Type
• Transfer Level of Student
• Part-Time Adult Students
• Undergraduate Graduate Level
• Expansion of Suburban Satellite Campuses

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students by Transfer Type
• Likelihood of graduating from DePaul varies by
  transfer institution type
• Transfers from other four-year institutions and
  transfers from the City Colleges of Chicago seem
  less likely to graduate

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students by Transfer Type
• Likelihood of graduating from DePaul varies by
  transfer institution type
• Transfers from other four-year institutions and
  transfers from the City Colleges of Chicago seem
  less likely to graduate
• Degree of Transfer-Shock varies by transfer
  institution type
• Transfers from two-year institutions experienced
  more transfer-shock than students from four-year
  institutions.

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students by Transfer Type
• Likelihood of graduating from DePaul varies by
  transfer institution type
• Transfers from other four-year institutions and
  transfers from the City Colleges of Chicago seem
  less likely to graduate
• Degree of Transfer-Shock varies by transfer
  institution type
• Transfers from two-year institutions experienced
  more transfer-shock than students from four-year
  institutions.
• Research in this area has sparked interest in
  transfer student success

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students by Transfer Level

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Retention of Students Entry/Intent Status
• Transfer Students
• Transfer Institution Type
• Transfer Level of Student
• Part-Time Adult Students
• Undergraduate Graduate Level
• Expansion of Suburban Satellite Campuses

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Adult Students (Graduate Undergraduate)
• Expansion of Suburban Satellite Campuses Has Been
  Met With Annually Increasing Enrollments

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Adult Students (Graduate Undergraduate)
• Expansion of Suburban Satellite Campuses Has Been
  Met With Annually Increasing Enrollments
• Annual Snapshot Research Is Not Appropriate
• Part-Time adults exhibit transitory enrollment
  patterns
• Patterns differed greatly between programs

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Adult Students (Graduate Undergraduate)
• Expansion of Suburban Satellite Campuses Has Been
  Met With Annually Increasing Enrollments
• Annual Snapshot Research Is Not Appropriate
• Part-Time adults exhibit transitory enrollment
  patterns
• Patterns differed greatly between programs
• Cohorts Created by College, Level and Entry
  Campus
• Credit-hour enrollment patterns examined for each
  cohort

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Entry/Intent Comparisons

• Credit Hour Analysis Northwest Campus, Part-Time
  Graduate Business Cohort

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Lessons Learned

• Reach Your Primary Audience
• First-Year Program Faculty Administration
• The majority of attrition of traditional freshmen
  cohorts occur in the first year. Interested in
  comparing freshmen.
• Student Advising Center
• Transfer students have expressed various
  difficulties and concerns about the transfer
  process. Better advising may improve their
  retention.
• Office of Multicultural Student Affairs
• This office runs a program designed to assist
  both first-year and transfer, multicultural
  students transition to DePaul.
• Deans
• Responsible for assessment and some get growth
  revenue.

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Lessons Learned

• Research Studies Should Meet the Criteria for
  Good Practice
• Encourage Contact Between Researcher Audience
• Comparative studies provide multiple contact
  opportunities but do not automatically cause
  frequent interactions.
• The lack of data on various student populations
  prevents meaningful discussions with some key
  audiences such as the Adult and Professional
  Education programs.
• Develop Reciprocity/Cooperation Among Audiences
• DePauls rapid growth created a sense that we are
  over capacity.
• External comparisons revealed that DePaul is
  doing well in terms of retention.

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Lessons Learned

• Criteria for Good Practice (Contd)
• Practice uses active learning techniques.
• The studies resulted in involvement of the
  various audiences in a direct and in an indirect
  manner.
• Encourage questions and nurture follow-ups.
• Gives good feedback
• Rapid access to external data good but limited to
  freshmen.
• Able to up-date, replicate, and drill-down into
  categories.
• Emphasizes time-on-task.
• The comparative study in and of itself is a
  presentation of a set of facts. The amount of
  time on task by the audience depends on the level
  of concern that exists, or that the research
  creates. Only moderately successful.

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Lessons Learned

• Criteria for Good Practice (Contd)
• Communicates high expectancies.
• We were able to set an external expectancy by
  comparison to a reference group of institutions.
• DePaul is already performing at, or above, the
  level of the reference group. If it had been
  otherwise the results would have been much more
  compelling.
• We resisted the temptation to select a group of
  small private schools and reconstitute the
  reference group.
• Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
• Comparative analyses is most compelling to those
  who are looking for limited key indicators and
  the tracking them over time.
• Those who are context people and people
  people are less well served.

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Retention Research Issues in Comparative Analysis

• Copies of this presentation and the paper are
  available on our website at
• http//oipr.depaul.edu/open/general/presentations.
  asp