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Recognizing innovative college student retention programs

June 25, 2015 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, I wrote about why we need to hear about college retention programs that are working. I shared that we have the opportunity to learn from the excellent retention programs that are making a difference in student success across the county. Part of my intention in writing that blog was to encourage institutions to apply for the 2015 Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards (REAs). More than 165 colleges and universities have received this award since the REAs began in 1989, and I am excited to share the three institutions (and their retention programs) that are joining this prestigious list in 2015:

University of Central Oklahoma: Operation Degree Completion
Edgewood College: Strategic Retention Plan
Grand Rapids Community College: FastTrack

A common theme among these programs is the importance of innovation in retention.

University of Central Oklahoma helps students and former students become alumni

The Operation Degree Completion program at the University of Central Oklahoma has two steps. The first step is to track down students who have disappeared from campus even after completing almost all of the requirements to graduate and then guide them to graduation. The solution could be changing a major to a more general degree, or taking just one more course, or simply applying for graduation. The full-time advisor for the program knows a little about re-admissions and financial aid and a lot about persistence!

The second step builds on reverse transfer trends by identifying transfer students who have enough credits to receive an associate’s degree from the originating community college. Unofficial transcripts are provided to the community college for each eligible student, and a degree check is run by the community college adviser. Students are then contacted and informed of their new degrees. How innovative is it to improve institutional graduation rates with students who have already achieved (or almost achieved) the requirements and simply don’t know it? Can you imagine how thrilled these students must be?

Result: Since the inception of Operation Degree Completion, the university has awarded 270 bachelor’s degrees, exceeding its goal one year early, and is on track to facilitate more than 2,000 associate degrees. In addition, the program generated an additional 10,651 credit hours due to students returning to complete their degrees. This represents $1.7 million in additional tuition revenue.

Edgewood College’s institutional culture improves retention and graduation

Edgewood College’s Strategic Retention Plan is a multiyear, collegewide project. The Strategic Retention Plan guides efforts to puts students and their success at the heart of what the college does. One initial step of the plan was to establish a group of faculty, staff, and students to research and make recommendations to strengthen the first-year experience. Action steps included establishing a common reading program, expanding the first-year seminar to a three-credit academically-oriented class, expanding the early alert program, and revising the academic advising infrastructure.

Once Edgewood College experienced success with first-year students, they turned their attention to second-year students. Activities included a “sophomore summit” to share research findings, the development of a “welcome to the academic department” program, and a more comprehensive approach to working with students who have not yet declared a major. Edgewood’s Strategic Retention Plan objectives are reviewed annually and action steps are updated quarterly by the retention council. While many of these initiatives are commonly recognized best practices, Edgewood’s comprehensive approach has been innovative and successful in improving student success.

Result: Since committing to this approach, retention for first-year students has steadily increased from a low of 66 percent in 2005 to a high of 82 percent in 2012. Four-year graduation has increased from 27 percent in 2005 to 40 percent in 2014. Five-year graduation has increased from 48 percent in 2005 to 55 percent in 2014. In addition, students indicate higher levels of engagement and satisfaction, and alumni continue to report strong employment and graduate school placement rates.

Grand Rapids Community College develops a program to help students bypass developmental education

Supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title III grant, Grand Rapids Community College created FastTrack–a program to help students bypass developmental education with an emphasis on retention and completion. FastTrack is an intensive three-week, 14-hour-per-week learning lab in which students remediate academic skills through a combination of web-based and tutor-guided activities. There are specific labs for reading, English, and math. The purpose of the program is to give developmental students an opportunity to accelerate skill building so they are able to bypass developmental course work and move directly into college-level courses. Eligible students are referred to FastTrack after they complete their placement tests, and students who choose to participate must accept the requirements to participate in the program (including completing a mandatory student success plan with an advisor and working with a college success coach).

FastTrack is free for qualifying students. Once they complete the program, they are eligible to retake the placement exam for the subject they remediated. This is an innovative approach that avoids students getting slowed down in a semester-long developmental class and gets them into college-level classes sooner and more successfully.

Result: Since FastTrack’s implementation in 2012, 837 students have been recruited for the program and 651 students successfully completed the three-week program. Of those 651 students, 449 were successful in their retake of the placement test and were able to avoid one or more developmental education courses. FastTrack participation saved a total of $324,000 worth of in-district tuition, fees, and books for students, as well as a total of 33,480 hours of instruction for students who bypassed their placement.

Read about retention innovations and successful programs from past Retention Excellence Award winners

This year’s winners will receive their awards and share their stories during the Ruffalo Noel Levitz National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention in Boston July 8-10. If you are not able to join us in Boston this year, you will also have a chance to learn more about these innovative programs during a free webinar on Tuesday, September 29. You can register for this event now. I also invite you to download the PDF of the Compendium of Successful, Innovative Retention Programs and Practices, which provide descriptions of the programs that have been recognized from 1989-2014 (we will be adding this year’s winners to that compendium after they receive their awards).

What are you doing to improve student success on your campus? Consider sharing your approach with us by applying for next year’s Retention Excellence Awards. The application will be available in March 2016. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you have questions about successful retention practices in general.

Why create a 1st through 4th semester plan for college student success and retention?

June 5, 2015 by Dr. Mari Normyle, Asst. Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

One of the assumptions operating in higher education is that once college students make it to their second year of enrollment, they are committed to completing their degrees at their current institution. And, yet, the data from the 2015 Student Retention Indicators Report show there continues to be significant attrition after the first year of enrollment:

Now new data from a second report, Attitudes of Second-Year College Students, confirm the problem, showing approximately 16 percent of second-year students at four-year public institutions and 9 percent of second-year students at four-year private institutions are either uncertain about their plans or are planning to transfer as they begin their second year:

College completion plans of second-year college students

But very few institutions have made the commitment to retention programs designed specifically for second-year students:

Institutions will not realize improved graduation rates unless they make changes in how they are attending to the needs of second-year students in addition to what they have been doing for their first-year students. This calls for the creation of a “1st through 4th semester” strategy for student success.

5 recommendations for building an effective 1st to 4th semester plan

How should a four-year institution or a two-year institution get started with expanding student success efforts beyond the first year? Data from the aforementioned report on the attitudes of second-year college students offer some guidelines. Here are five recommendations for shaping the programs and resources that will improve the retention rates of second-year students, based on student responses to our noncognitive survey, the Second-Year Student Assessment.

Address the advising and career development needs of second-year students early in the second year. Almost 80 percent of the second-year college students surveyed reported they wanted help identifying work experiences or internships related to their majors as they began their second year. In addition, more than two-thirds asked for support in defining goals related to their majors and careers, along with the opportunity to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of their current career choices. And while almost 78 percent reported they planned to continue with the major they had selected, that left a significant number of students who were still searching for the right major “fit.”
Provide academic support to second-year students. Students’ survey responses also indicated significant needs for assistance in getting tutoring and help with study skills as their classes were getting under way. Fully 73.3 percent reported they planned to study harder than they did in year one. Ensuring that academic support services expand to address the needs of second-year students is obviously necessary.
Address the financial concerns of second-year students. Only 55 percent of the second-year students surveyed reported they had the financial resources needed to finish college. An equal percentage of the second-year students requested opportunities to discuss financing their education and help with managing their personal finances. Recommendation: Target financial literacy programs to second-year students.
Continue to create opportunities for second-year students to deepen their “sense of belonging” at the institution. About 30 percent of second-year students reported that they did not have many friends or feel at home at their institutions.
Develop a more holistic view of second-year students. Gathering noncognitive data that goes beyond GPAs and credits earned (although these are important markers, too) will expose issues that impede student success and expectations students have about their second-year experience. Try to answer the question: What is the unique pathway forward for each cohort, each subpopulation, and each individual student in order to achieve institutional goals?

The first place to start is with the data—gathering the right data and making use of it to inform planning and drive decisions about aligning resources with the needs of second-year students. If you are interested in collecting noncognitive survey data with the Second-Year Student Assessment, please email me.

To receive all of our new reports, sign up at the Ruffalo Noel Levitz website.

14-point checklist for retaining diverse students at four-year and two-year institutions

March 30, 2015 by Dr. Mari Normyle, Asst. Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

The idea of a “typical” college student has become a thing of the past. For many colleges and universities today, the “traditional” student is now the minority population, or one population among many. Demographic changes on our campuses and in our programs are one of the most significant trends of this century and the new “look” of our student populations is only going to continue into the future.

So, how can your institution respond? Being prepared for these changes is one of the biggest challenges campus leaders are facing—especially in light of increased pressure to improve student success results as measured by increasing retention and graduation rates.

To assist institutions with responding effectively, I invite you to download our newest 2015 National Freshman Attitudes Report for Four-Year and Two-Year Institutions, which highlights key differences in today’s freshmen by age, race, gender, and for first-generation students. I’ll also be presenting some strategies at the upcoming Symposium on the Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Populations and am sharing some suggestions below.

14-point checklist

The following is a quick checklist to assist your institution with identifying opportunities to better serve diverse populations.

Does your institution track and use:

Data about the diversity of your entering students to drive program design and development? Do you provide both integrated and differentiated programming that addresses both a common core of needs as well as population-specific needs?
Evidence of diverse student success in the form of persistence rates, progression rates, retention rates, and graduation rates on your diverse students, as well as graduate school placement rates and employment rates after graduation?

Does your institution offer:

Orientation programs tailored specifically for diverse students, including segments that address concerns such as academic preparation, finances, career exploration, and meaningful work experiences? Extended orientation?
Programs beyond the usual classroom and advising services that connect students to faculty, staff, and students within academic or co-curricular interest areas?
Faculty and staff development programs to help faculty and staff understand the needs of diverse populations?
Mentoring programs for diverse students? Including peer mentors?
Advisors within the student’s major/area of interest with an early focus on confirming or further refining a written academic plan?
“Early alert” sensor systems that identify diverse students in need of support, including those who are less receptive to support?
Targeted referrals and communications to connect at-risk students to academic resources/tutoring services?
Career services that target diverse students to provide assistance with academic planning/internship/work opportunities related to the major? Including opportunities for diverse students to network with alumni for internship/employment opportunities?
Academic support services based on areas of student need and student demand?
Communications and programs for parents of diverse populations?
Membership in academic honor organizations? Leadership opportunities and recognition?
Research that identifies the satisfaction of diverse students about their college experiences? Are the voices of diverse students “heard”?

Which of these initiatives should become a priority at your institution? In what other ways can your institution position itself to meet the differing needs of specific populations, as early as possible in students’ college careers? What purposeful strategies and opportunities can be put in place to improve your students’ persistence, retention, completion, and graduation rates?

To further explore these topics, I invite you to participate in one of our upcoming webinars:

April 21, 2015: Building Student Success Strategies Based on Students’ Motivational Needs

May 5, 2015: Enhancing the Success of Community College Students: How Data from Motivational and Satisfaction Assessments Can Guide Your Strategies.

May 19, 2015: Extending Your Reach: Student Success Strategies throughout the Freshman and Sophomore Years

For continued discussion, or for information about the retention services of Ruffalo Noel Levitz, I invite you to contact me by phone at 1-800-876-1117 or email mari-normyle@noellevitz.com.

Plan ahead for second-year college student retention and completion

March 20, 2015 by Dr. Mari Normyle, Asst. Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Do second-year students get the attention they need and deserve on your campus? When your next cohort of second-year students begins its second year, will your advisors and student services staff be ready to retain them with focused interventions to keep them moving toward graduation? How will these interventions be prioritized?

I have three nieces who right now are all completing their first-year of college: one in North Carolina, one in Texas, and one in Virginia. They all began their studies with clear majors in mind: chemical engineering, nursing, and aerospace engineering. They have all been reasonably successful in their first-year courses, although each of them also admits that they underestimated how much more they would have to study in college than they ever did in high school (and these women worked very, very hard in high school).

With spring break over now, they returned to their campuses for the last blitz of their spring semesters—only eight weeks remain in their first years of college. What were they all talking about during their spring breaks? Their SOPHOMORE years! In many ways, they have already turned the page and are looking ahead to next fall—registering for their courses, signing leases to live off campus, and sorting through the various components of their social lives.

At the same time I was talking with them over their spring breaks, I received 2014 data from the Second-Year Student Assessment (SYSA) which reports the “motivational status”—non-cognitive motivational variables, prioritized—of more than 5,000 sophomores from 55 institutions across the country. As I looked at these data and tried to understand the national perspective of what seems to be going on with sophomores across the country, I couldn’t help but wonder about my “rising sophomores” and what transitions lie ahead for them as they move from their first to second years of college.

Top 10 needs of second-year college students

In what ways do second-year students need assistance to remain motivated? Here are the “top 10” requests made by second-year college students among 25 requests that were measured in the 2014 data:

Data taken from the Second-Year Student Assessment for college sophomores.

[Read more…]

Three initial considerations for planning and evaluating first-year college student retention programs

March 17, 2015 by Brandi Phillips Leave a Comment

Are you new to your role as a leader of first-year programming? Do you know what your incoming students require to be successful and what resources to recommend? Have you studied the specific needs of diverse student populations within the larger cohort? Do you know how effective your existing programs have been?

If these questions relate to your situation, you’re not alone. While attending the 2015 National Conference on the First-Year Experience last month in Dallas, I talked with colleagues from hundreds of campuses across the country. What was top-of-mind for most was how to be more proactive in planning for incoming students and more timely in responding to students’ needs and requests.

Here are three recommendations that can help you with these tasks:

1) Use data to develop and inform your program goals and outcomes.

What is your fall-to-spring persistence rate? What is fall-to-fall retention for your freshmen? What goal would you like to reach (for example, a 2-5 percent increase in persistence or retention)?
Compare your persistence and retention data with those from similar institutions. Utilize data from our 2015 Student Retention Indicators Benchmark Report.
How much revenue could your campus gain for each student you retain? Knowing this can make a powerful argument for getting retention to the top of the agenda. Try using a retention revenue estimator to determine that figure.

2) Determine the ‘profile’ of your incoming cohort of students.

What strengths are your students bringing with them to college? What are the barriers to your students’ success? For example, can you identify the students who have strong family support or have higher levels of financial concerns? Many campuses use motivational assessments such as the College Student Inventory to assess the strengths of incoming students and identify which students are most at risk.
Who are your targeted populations? Do you serve a large number of first-generation students, veterans, or adult learners? How do the needs of these students differ from others? What programming will need to be offered that is unique to these populations and what do they have in common with other students?
- If serving diverse populations is a priority for you, consider attending next month’s Symposium on the Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Student Populations in Atlanta.

3) Create a plan of action.

Based on your students’ needs, who can you partner with on campus (specifically, which campus departments) to provide relevant resources to meet your intended goals and outcomes for student success? Many first-year student programs have benefited from strengthening collaborations between academic and student affairs, a process that often requires the involvement of senior leadership. Partnering with Institutional Research can also be very beneficial in documenting needs and outcomes.
Based on students’ needs, goals, and outcomes, what strategic programming initiatives can you and your partners put in place to take your first-year experience program to the next level? Answering this question may require stepping back to get a better perspective, perhaps through a planning retreat or a series of meetings. It can also be helpful to study models that are in use on other campuses by attending conferences and webinars.
If you are looking for more specific information on improving your first-year program, consider attending the “Retention for Rookies” session and other retention sessions available at this summer’s 2015 National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention in Boston.

Have a question right now about first-year programs? Feel free to contact me. I’ll be happy to share what I’ve learned from working with campuses across the country here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz as we’ve worked together on projects for retention research and assessment. You can reach me by phone at 1-800-876-1117, ext. 8394, or by email.

Predicting student retention at community colleges

February 19, 2015 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Enrollment at community colleges has been a hot topic lately, especially following President Obama’s announced plan to provide tuition-free classes for students at two-year institutions. In a recent blog, my colleague Mari Normyle shared some reactions based on assumptions about community college students and the quality of their educational experience. The data she shared may counteract some common assumptions people have about community college students (especially their commitment to academics), which illustrates why it is important to study and analyze the data about college student attitudes and behaviors.

One assumption many have is that when college students are satisfied, they are more likely to persist and complete their educations. Noel-Levitz has investigated this topic in recent years. We published a study by Dr. Laurie Schreiner called Linking Student Satisfaction and Retention, which found a significant link between satisfaction and persistence at four-year institutions. In another study last year, The Relationship of Student Satisfaction to Key Indicators for Colleges and Universities, my colleague Scott Bodfish and I reviewed institutional graduation rates, including those at community colleges, and found that colleges with higher graduation rates were also more likely to have higher student satisfaction scores.

However, while many community colleges have long had a commitment to assessing student satisfaction, there has been little definitive evidence that satisfaction with the experience was linked to individual student persistence at two-year institutions, until now.

Dr. Karen Miller, vice president for access and completion at Cuyahoga Community College (OH), in cooperation with Noel-Levitz, recently completed a national study of 22 institutions and more than 22,000 student records to examine student satisfaction and spring-to-spring persistence. The study, Predicting Student Retention at Community Colleges, is the first study of its kind with a national scope. Dr. Miller looked at student satisfaction and importance data from the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) as well as additional institutional and student demographic variables to see how they predict student retention at community colleges.
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P + P = R is the basic formula for student retention

February 17, 2015 by Dr. Tim Culver, Vice President of Consulting Services, RNL Leave a Comment

Many of you have heard me recommend a basic formula for student retention which combines the leading indicators of retention with the actual retention outcome. That formula is P + P = R or persistence plus progression equals retention. While most colleges and universities have policies that allow students to persist from their first term to their second term, those same students may not have progressed, i.e., successfully completed their courses in the first term. I have had conversations with many student success professionals about the above formula and many of us believe that progression indicators are probably more predictive of first year retention than is the persistence indicator.

Let’s take a closer look at progression. Once grades for the first term are posted, many of you may begin to think about the progression indicator of GPA, which may have placed many first year students on warning or probation or suspension, depending upon your policy. At this point, you may ask yourself: Are our probation rates and our students’ credit hours attempted-to-earned ratios “normal” as compared to similar schools? To find out, Noel-Levitz conducts a poll of leading persistence, progression, and retention indicators every other year. Many of you may have participated in the past or in the latest study. See the latest benchmark report to compare your rates with other schools who participated. Once you have compared your first term outcomes, you may want to consider more intensive academic recovery strategies to try to improve progression rates among your students, which, in turn, affects your retention rate.

One must-do intervention for progression

To improve progression rates, I recommend that effective programs which require students to participate in the development of their own academic recovery should be implemented at the end of term one and/or the beginning of term two. These programs can come in the form of courses, individual counseling, academic support, TRIO programs, or a combination of these services. If a student isn’t earning the required GPA or hours that are expected at the end of term one, immediate participation in such academic recovery programs must be expected.

Examples from campuses

I encourage you to discuss the following progression models with your retention committee or task force:

My friends at High Point University in North Carolina use an extensive review process (what one might call a 360-degree review), of each student’s first term and the student’s improvement plan for term two. The plan is developed with a success coach, referrals are made, and progress is monitored.
Academic recovery at Montana State University Billings comes in the form of a workshop in which all students must participate. Group and individual meetings are held with follow-up and monitoring by success coaches.
Albion College requires a course taught by counseling staff which has in-depth assessments, appropriate referrals, and ongoing monitoring as its key elements. To learn more about this model, join us at the Noel-Levitz National Conference (NCSRMR) this July in Boston, where Dr. Barry Wolf will deliver his very engaging workshop describing just how Albion manages academic recovery.

No matter what form your academic recovery strategy takes, please try to be timely in your delivery. Many of you might be on break when or shortly after grades are posted in December. This is the critical time to begin to assess and respond to the progression indicators.

Share your ideas and strategies
I would love to hear from you to learn more about your academic recovery strategies. Please post your ideas so that others might learn from you. Your ideas never to cease to amaze us, and we’re all about helping one another strategize.

If you have questions about P + P = R, or if you’d like to discuss your strategies with me, please e-mail or contact me at 1-800-876-1117, ext. 5602.

Why we need to hear about college student retention programs that are working

January 22, 2015 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Excellent retention programs make a difference in student success every day on college campuses. All across the country, campus retention professionals go the extra mile to help as many students as possible succeed, persist, and complete their educations. It’s important to recognize these remarkable efforts, not just to acknowledge the fantastic work of those dedicated colleagues, but so that others can learn from their examples and make vital changes in their own retention efforts.

So, are you ready to share your story and be recognized for your efforts? Then you should apply for a Retention Excellence Award (REAs).

Lee Noel and Randi Levitz started these awards in 1989 in order to celebrate exceptional retention programs and promote awareness of effective retention practices. The REAs honor the retention achievements of postsecondary institutions throughout North America. More than 165 colleges and universities have received an REA since the program began. As a result of this national exposure, these award-winning programs have served as models of retention excellence to stimulate the creativity and energy of hundreds of two-year and four-year institutions.

These success stories have been compiled in The Compendium of Successful, Innovative Retention Programs and Practices a valuable resource that provides descriptions of the programs that have been recognized over the years. You can download the compendium to find new ideas that may be just what your campus needs to spark additional retention improvement. It includes many examples such as:

Madonna University (MI) developing the Bridging Lost Gaps (BLG) initiative in 2011 to increase the recruitment and retention of African American male students.
Paul Smith’s College (NY) implementing a Comprehensive Student Support Program as part of a strategically driven change in focus to a holistic student success model.
The Six Pillars of Retention that Seward County Community College/Area Technical School (KS) followed to improve Hispanic student retention.
Virginia Commonwealth University developing a proactive advising program for undeclared students.

These programs and many others are shared so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You just need to follow their lead and make it work for your own campus.
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When your college freshman seminar is over, what’s next for your first-year college students?

November 3, 2014 by Dr. Mari Normyle, Asst. Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Data suggest the needs that students have when they enter our institutions continue over time—and new needs emerge.

Many colleges and universities have “first-year” programs, but very often these programs are front-loaded in the first semester. When the “first-year” college freshman seminar is over, and the transition programming in the residence halls has ended, what can campuses do next for their first-year college students? What data and information do first-year program directors have to guide what should be provided to new students for the full year as these students continue to make the transition to being successful college students?

To help identify the continuing support that students require after the first semester is over, the 2014 Report on Changes in Freshman Attitudes Following a Semester of Classes and Interventions provides key insights into how first-year students have changed since they began college, the resources they used during their first semester, and most importantly, their needs now as they turn to the second semester of their initial year in college.

Key findings: What are the greatest changes in college freshman attitudes after the first term?

This study on the attitudes of more than 10,000 college freshmen at two- and four-year public and private institutions found the most substantial growth among freshmen after one semester of classes and interventions came in the areas of academic confidence, the students’ tolerance of other people’s opinions, and in the students’ sociability. Here are examples of these:

I am capable of writing a very clear and well-organized paper—18.1 percent increase (4-year private institutions).
I find it easy to be friends with people whose political ideas differ sharply from my own—18.1 percent increase (4-year public institutions).
I have a very good grasp of the scientific ideas I’ve studied –24.1 percent increase (2-year public institutions).

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Do college students think tuition is a worthwhile investment? Findings from the new national student satisfaction report

October 8, 2014 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

As the cost of attending college has increased over the previous decade, there has been more scrutiny about whether the investment in a college education is worthwhile. New data from the 2014 National Satisfaction and Priorities Report shows that half of students at four-year institutions show dissatisfaction in this area.

The report features responses from nearly 600,000 students at 728 institutions nationwide that administered the Student Satisfaction Inventory™ (SSI) between the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2014. The majority of students responded that they were satisfied with their overall college experience and that they would probably re-enroll at their campuses if they had to do their college experiences all over again. These results have remained steady or slightly improved for all four sectors compared to a year ago.

While the majority of students indicate they are satisfied with their experiences, there are still many areas where there is room for improvement on the national level, including satisfaction with tuition. The report looks at student satisfaction for the statement, “Tuition paid is a worthwhile investment.” As the table below shows, only half of students at four-year institutions expressed satisfaction with this item.
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