Retention-Attrition
in the Nineties. ERIC Digest.
Concern about retention
and attrition rates in higher education
have increased over the years. While the
statistics remain fairly constant,
approximately 50 percent of the freshmen
enrolled in colleges and universities
drop out before completing their
programs. Efforts to identify and treat
potential dropouts have grown
considerably.
This Digest updates
earlier studies by concentrating on ERIC
documents of the 1990s. It discusses the
types of students who take early leave
of their programs as compared with those
who remain, the reasons why students
leave and devotes special attention to
intervention strategies that some
colleges offer in their attempts to
encourage retention.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
PERSISTERS AND NON-PERSISTERS
Studies investigating retention and
attrition of students in community
colleges gather data on student
demographics in order to discover
the typology of students who are
likely to remain in school and those
who are at risk of dropping out.
Many studies in this area attempt to
discover and pin-point the
characteristics of persisters and
non-persisters. Moore (1995) and
Windham (1994) found that full-time
attendance at the college is the
most prevalent characteristic of
persisters. Interestingly, the most
prevalent characteristic among
studies of non-persisters is
part-time attendance (Feldman, 1993;
Price, 1993). San Juan College in
Mexico found that in 1991 and 1992,
Fall to Fall persistence rates for
part-time degree seeking students
were 42 percent and 35 percent as
compared to 59 percent and 46
percent for full-timers (Moore,
1995). Feldman (1993), Windham
(1994), Price (1993) and Lanni
(1992) also reported a higher
dropout rate among part-time
students.
Age as a defining
characteristic shows conflicting reports
in the research. Typically, studies
report persisters to be younger students
and conversely non-persisters to be
older students (Windham, 1994; Price,
1993). However, an investigation of
pre-enrollment variables as predictors
of one-year retention of 1,140
first-time students at one community
college found the risk of dropping out
was associated with young students
between 20-24 years old (Feldman, 1993).
Conversely, Mohammadi (1994) in a study
at Patrick Henry Community College in
Virginia found attrition rates after one
year to be higher for those students in
the age ranges of 23-35 and 45-50. Other
attributes found to influence students'
decision to leave the college before
completing their program or degree
include: full-time employment, low
grade-point average, being a member of
an ethnic minority other than Asian,
family obligations, financial concerns,
and female gender (Bonham & Luckie,
1993; Lewallen, 1993).
INTERVENTION STRATEGIES
Identifying the characteristics of
persisters and non-persisters is a
difficult task. Focusing on
intervention strategies represents
an alternative way of approaching
retention and attrition and in the
long-run may have a greater impact.
Intervention strategies in which
colleges engage take on a variety of
styles and types such as orientation
and mentoring programs, and multiple
strategy approaches.
ORIENTATION PROGRAMS
These types of programs are one of
the most common intervention
strategies. They have been found to
provide students with information
essential to their academic
socialization: (1) descriptions of
college program offerings; (2) the
college's expectations for students;
(3) information about assistance and
services for examining interests,
values, and abilities; (4)
encouragement to establish working
relationships with faculty; (5)
information about services that help
with adjustment to college; and (6)
financial aid information (Coll and
VonSeggern, 1991). Glass and Garrett
(1995), in a study of four North
Carolina community colleges, found
that completion of an orientation
program during the first term of
enrollment promotes and improves
student performance regardless of
age, gender, race, major, entrance
exam scores, or employment status
(Glass and Garrett, 1995). Valencia
Community College in Florida has
developed an extended orientation
course that focuses on student
success (Nelson, 1993). Between 1987
and 1992, 81 percent of the students
who enrolled in the extended
orientation course passed their
first-term courses, compared to 56
percent of the students enrolled in
other college preparatory courses
and 67 percent of all other
students. After four terms, 65
percent of the students who enrolled
in the extended orientation course
were still enrolled at the college
(Nelson, 1993).
MENTORING PROGRAMS
Another strategy successfully used
by some community colleges is peer
and faculty mentoring. Santa-Rita
(1993) presents a guidebook that
recommends methods to improve
teacher-student interaction in the
classroom as a means of increasing
student retention. The guidebook
introduces eight major systems of
classroom management, typologies of
student behavior, and information
about interaction patterns,
behaviors, and options for coping
with various classroom situations.
Another program focusing on
teacher-student relationships is
Coffeyville Community College in
Kansas. In an effort to retain
students and improve advisement,
this college instituted the SELECT
Advisor programs in the summer of
1993. Becoming a "Master Advisor"
involves attending a summer
workshop, helping with student
orientations, teaching one section
of college orientation, and
mentoring 10 at-risk students. A
September 1994 retention report on
all Fall 1993 freshmen indicated
that the at-risk students in the
SELECT program had a 73% retention
rate, compared to a 70% retention
rate for students enrolled in
orientation classes and a 42%
retention rate for students not
enrolled in orientation classes
(Clark and others, 1995). Similarly,
Valencia Community College
discovered that when faculty
mentoring was combined with an
orientation course the return rate
increased by 10% beyond the rate of
enrolling in an orientation course
only (Nelson, 1993).
Peer mentoring programs
also have been found to be effective in
retaining students. In order to improve
retention rates, the ALANA mentoring
program at Saint Clair County Community
College concentrates on identity issues
facing Asian, Latin, African, and Native
American (ALANA) freshman. In this
program, peer mentors provide social and
academic support, encourage students to
think critically, and assist them with
academic choices (Mueller, 1993). The
PLACe tutorial program at Miramar
College in California is dedicated to
empowering students to attain
educational success (Fink and
Carrasquillo, 1994). In spring 1992,
developmental English and math students
who used PLACe services had a higher
success rate (58 and 52 percent) than
those who did not (37 and 41 percent).
Retention strategies applied at Canada's
Mohawk College include an assessment in
the first semester to identify "high
risk" students and the development of
peer tutoring (Grevatt, 1992).
MULTIPLE STRATEGIES
In addition to the PLACe tutorial
center, Miramar College considers
student retention strategies part of
a campus-wide collaborative
development effort. The college
developed a "Student Retention
Strategies Handbook" which contains
multiple approaches to counteract
dropout (Fink and Carrasquillo,
1994). Likewise, Allegheny Community
college proposed a series of
intervention strategies. These
included establishing a women's
center to provide support to
non-traditional, female students;
conducting a freshman seminar to
promote supportive relationships
among students and student-faculty
interaction; creating college funded
work-study for on-campus employment;
establishing a faculty development
program; creating additional student
organizations; and developing a
freshman orientation program (Price,
1993).
CONCLUSION
In sum, the intervention strategies
that are widely used and evidence
the greatest impact include
orientation programs, mentoring, and
multiple strategy approaches. Since
different students may require
different approaches, colleges are
beginning to take a more holistic
approach toward persistence by
implementing multiple intervention
strategies. Because dropping out
often has negative implications, it
behooves the colleges to use one or
more of these intervention
strategies in order to raise
retention rates while simultaneously
lowering attrition rates.
REFERENCES
Bonham, L. Adrianne, and Luckie, Jo
Ann I. "Taking a Break in Schooling:
Why Community College Students Stop
Out." Community College Journal of
Research and Practice, 1993, 17(3),
257-70.
Clark, Kim, and Others.
"SELECT: Achieving and Rewarding
Excellence in Faculty Advising."
Coffeyville, KS: Coffeyville Community
College, 1995. (ED 382 264)
Coll, Kenneth, M., and
VonSeggern, D. Joseph. "Community
College Student Retention: Some
Procedural and Programmatic
Suggestions." Paper presented at the
Wyoming Higher Education Student Affairs
Conference, May 22-24, 1991, Powell,
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Feldman, Mary Jane.
"Factors Associated with One-Year
Retention in a Community College."
Research in Higher Education, 1993,
34(4), 503-12.
Fink, Diana, and
Carrasquillo, Carmen. "Managing Student
Retention in the Community College.
Paper presented at "Leadership 2000,"
the Sixth Annual International
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in the Community college and the
Community College Leadership Program,
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008)
Glass, J. Conrad, and
Garrett, Matthew S. "Student
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Grevatt, William K.
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Lanni, Joseph, C. "The
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the National Association for Equal
Opportunity in Higher Education, March
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017)
Lewallen, Willard C.
"Early Alert: A Report on Two Pilot
Projects at Antelope Valley College."
Lancaster, CA: Antelope Valley College,
1993. (ED 369 452)
Mohammadi, John.
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Two-Year Public Community College.
Martinsville, VA: Patrick Henry
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Moore, Nelle.
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Institutional Research, Grant
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Mueller, Michelle K.
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371 778)
Price, Linda A.
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