Every year, a significant number of students across the country leave college and fail to complete their degree.  According to the National Student Clearinghouse® Research Center™ (2019), nearly 29 percent of students who entered college in the fall of 2017 at four-year public institutions did not return to their institutions for a second year.  While the retention rate for those enrolled full-time increases to 79.1 percent, there is a dramatic drop for those enrolled part-time with nearly half (50.3%) retained. The data in the chart below illustrates the retention rate at all of our institutions against the national average. It is important that each institution look more specifically at comparators within their specific peer group when setting benchmarks and goals.

Fall 2017 First-Time Undergraduate Retention (IPEDS) Graph - see link in caption for accessible text-only description
Link to accessible text-only description of Fall 2017 First-Time Undergraduate Retention (IPEDS) Graph

Specific to UMS is the concept of return rate which allows for the opportunity to review student profiles in a number of ways, showing progression across the classes.  The chart below represents the percentage of undergraduate, degree-seeking students enrolled as of October 15, 2018 who were subsequently enrolled on October 15, 2019 and did not earn an academic award (certificate, associate’s, bachelor’s, or higher) between those two dates.

Status Cumulative
Credit
Hours		 UM UMA UMF UMFK UMM UMPI USM
Full-Time 0 65.15% 48.78% 65.47% 61.76% 41.79% 50.00% 63.02%
Full-Time 1-29 77.17% 61.63% 72.04% 67.47% 60.00% 66.23% 73.96%
Full-Time 30-59 87.79% 77.87% 84.11% 68.70% 75.00% 73.77% 85.43%
Full-Time 60-89 89.90% 79.26% 89.31% 80.58% 79.59% 80.53% 85.75%
Full-Time 90+ 78.54% 74.07% 74.63% 77.63% 50.00% 52.50% 71.75%
Full-Time Subtotal 80.79% 69.84% 79.30% 70.98% 61.90% 67.24% 78.25%
Part-Time 0/td> 55.56%/td> 35.96%/td> 100.00%/td> 18.18%/td> 33.33%/td> 77.78%/td> 46.15%
Part-Time 1-29 49.06% 52.04% 25.00% 36.00% 37.93% 50.00% 47.42%
Part-Time 30-59 61.21% 62.10% 50.00% 57.63% 53.33% 53.57% 55.56%
Part-Time 60-89 71.23% 61.01% 52.94% 74.71% 63.16% 70.00% 65.20%
Part-Time 90+ 52.33% 58.93% 52.94% 78.99% 48.15% 50.00% 57.07%
Part-Time Subtotal 59.32% 57.57% 52.08% 68.44% 47.47% 58.91% 57.85%
Undergraduate Subtotal 79.43% 62.79% 78.30% 69.96% 58.27% 65.59% 73.69%

Learning more about the factors that affect retention, as well as exploring ways and means of improving retention can help institutions avoid the costs associated with high attrition rates.  The current landscape of higher education calls for institutions to meet the needs of a changing student population with competing priorities in an increasingly complicated college experience extending beyond initial enrollment. Since today’s college students have more choices and challenges than ever, stopping out or transferring has become commonplace.  One of the most widely researched topics in higher education is student retention.

THEORY

Tinto’s ‘Model of Institutional Departure’ (1993)

One of the most prominent theorists on student retention is Vincent Tinto. Tinto’s theory of student retention was first published in 1975, updated in 1989 and revised in 1993.   Developed primarily for student retention issues at four-year colleges, his “Model of Institutional Departure’ (1993) has been widely tested and accepted by the educational community for over four decades.  This model identifies three major sources of student departure: academic difficulties, challenges in resolving educational and occupational goals, and a failure to become academically and socially connected with the institution.  Whether a student departs from an institution is largely a result of the extent to which the student develops a strong sense of belonging and integration within the community.

Building off of Tinto’s initial model, Pascarella and Terenzini (1979) stated that the absence of significant interactions with other college members is the single leading predictor of college attrition.  Student interaction must go beyond the classroom in order for students to feel integrated.  Research designed to test Tinto’s model often confirms the importance of social and academic integration and the decision to withdraw (Pascarella and Terenzini, 1979; Chapman and Pascarella, 1983, and Bean, 1980).  Integration is an important component for retaining all students, and it is particularly important in retaining minority students.

Peer and faculty mentoring programs have also been found to be effective retention strategies particularly with programs focusing on providing social and academic support.

There are many factors that have been found to influence retention and to be strongly associated with student persistence.  These factors include initial student commitments, peer support, involvement in the institution’s academic life, and frequency and quality of faculty-student interaction (Tinto, 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1979) and vary among institutions. Institutions of Higher Education need to analyze the specific qualities and characteristics of their own students with the most beneficial and effective retention programs being those that are developed over time and are based on coordinated activities of continuous research, evaluation, and policy development.

More recently, Tinto (2012), offered a framework that institutions could use to enhance student success.  He emphasizes the need for assessment and thoughtful reflection before initiating any plan and that there is no ‘one size fits all’ intervention.  As Tinto points out: “The number of retention programs matters less than where the programs are situated in the educational life of the institution and how they are organized and aligned one to another. Merely investing in retention programs does not mean taking student retention seriously” (p. 116).  More recently, Tinto challenged institutions to refocus their lenses and see Through the Eyes of Students (2015, 2017) and move From Retention to Persistence (2016) stating, “To promote greater degree completion, institutions have to adopt the student perspective and ask not only how they should act to retain their students but also how they should act so that more of their students want to persist to completion.”  His view has continued to evolve related to persistence as it pertains to equity and enabling the success of all students (Reflections on Student Persistence (2017). While related, these perspectives are not the same.

“HOLISTIC” STUDENT SUCCESS: AN INSTITUTION WIDE COMMITMENT

Students enter our institutions with a variety of attributes (prior educational experiences, family background, cultural and social preparation, goals/commitments, etc.) which impact their motivation, “grit” and resilience. As they join our institutions, the academic (in the classroom and via co-curricular activities, and in interactions with faculty and staff) and social (extra-curricular and peer group interactions) systems combine to then impact that student’s academic and social integration, engagement and motivation to stay enrolled and complete. Ultimately, best practices start with obtaining a clear understanding of the issues impacting the retention on campus.  For an institution focused on improving student success outcomes, reviewing data and developing a definition of success for a particular campus is an essential first step (Fishman, Ludgate & Tutak, 2017).  Once this goal is clear, the institution can develop a holistic, student-centered strategy across all dimensions of the student experience including the classroom, support services, campus operations, and relationships that integrate with the broader community (Figure 2); every part of the campus community contributes to the ultimate success of that student.  Strategies for improving retention must reflect student needs and circumstances and must be designed and implemented to support reaching their academic goals.

Link to Accessible Text-Only description of Figure 2. in caption.
Link to Accessible Text-Only description of Figure 2. Building an institution design for student success

PROGRAMS and INITIATIVES

Institutions of higher education consist of complex structures that encompass broad decision-making systems and multiple power and authority structures that can impede goals.  One of the greatest challenges to improving student success is overcoming obstacles on how to effectively identify and implement the changes needed.  The following are examples of institutions that have engaged in the challenging work of analyzing data, engaging in a detailed review of structures, evaluating programs and needs with the goal of systemic change.

OVERVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF BEST PRACTICES

There are numerous examples of best practice in student success and completion. These resources provide a comprehensive overview of those key elements fundamental to any student success initiative: applying data, improving the academic experience, integrating academic support and promoting and supporting students’ well-being.  As with any broad based student success initiative, breaking down silos and enabling a cross-institutional approach to student success is key in all of these overviews.

ANALYTICS AND PREDICTIVE MODELING

Several institutions have developed capacity for analyzing data using several data analytic companies including:

Georgia State University – GSU’s work with the EAB Student Success Collaborative enabled the development of its GPS Advising approach which makes the use of over 800 analytics to track and enable student success. Over 500 institutions, including four within the UMS, utilize the EAB platform.

University of South Florida  first developed its own predictive analytic tools and, when retention rates did not improve, they contracted with Civitas Learning

SNHU, ADELPHI, Harvard Business School Online, WGU utilize Eduventures.

Other examples: Middle Tennessee State University, Hawaii Pacific University, Marist College, Purdue University, NYU, Miami University of Ohio, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Bucknell University, working with Deloitte  and utilizing predictive analytics, examined Early Intervention for Students at Risk.

SUMMER BRIDGE AND ORIENTATION INITIATIVES

Within the University of Maine System

Orientation
    • University of Maine at Augusta – Online New Student Orientation (ONSO) – This comprehensive, easily accessed, asynchronous, self-paced program includes multiple modules to introduce new students to UMA and to provide information on services, resources and policies. ONSO significantly improves participation rates and the capacity to track effect.
Summer Programs
    • UM Summer Preparation
    • UMFK, UMM offer Summer Bridge programs, USM offers a program via its TRIO Student Support Service program

ADVISING AND TECHNOLOGY

  • University of Alaska – student success through consistent and comprehensive advising.
    • First Year Advising and Success
    • Campus-Wide Advising Alignment
    • Academic Pathways – meta majors, career clusters, academic umbrellas
    • Seawolf Tracks – EAB SSC
  • Florida International University invested in professional advisors focused on course planning and navigation and have seen substantial increases in both retention and completion.
  • STAR – University of Hawaii – technology that provides students a clear pathway to graduation by allowing them to track progress, review requirements, and explore the impact of scheduling and changes in major on time to graduate.
  • Georgia Southern University – Academic Success Center – dedicated to providing academic support for all students by fostering positive academic mindset, knowledge of resources and belonging within the university community.
  • University of Alabama – Capstone Center for Student Success –provides a network of services to support holistic student success, including a combination of academic support services, specialized support programs, and intentional partnerships

Within the University of Maine System

  • EAB-Navigate – A powerful advising and communication tool to support and promote student success and engagement used by UMA, UM, UMM, UMPI
  • Advising and Course Selection (ACS) — University of Southern Maine – An advising partnership to develop as a self-directed learner, explore resources, and understand and follow the advising and registration processes.
  • Trio programs – UMS has the full range of Trio programs. Most notably, 6 of 7 campuses have Student Support Service programs which are designed to provide students with the academic support and coaching needed to complete once admitted to one of our institutions. The retention rates of SSS students exceed the rates of the regular cohort and could serve as a good model for all students.
  • Proactive Transfer – University of Maine at Augusta – Transfer evaluation process designed to review upfront substitutions, offer prior learning assessment options and incorporates educational planning to accelerate progress towards degree completion.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

Improving the Educational Experience

  • Complete College America is a national initiative whose “Game Changers” provided insight into best practice initiatives such as 15 to Finish, Math Pathways, Guided Pathways, Meta-majors, Co-requisite support and Academic Maps with Proactive Advising.
    • Led by the Education Commission of the States, Strong Start to Finish, is focused on completion of math and English in the first year.
    • Guided pathways is an initiative that is expanding beyond community colleges and is focused on creating clear academic maps to degrees and those pathways that get them to completion.
    • Academic Maps are in use by numerous institutions and help in the development of guided pathways. Florida State University has been utilizing maps for over a decade and has seen a substantial improvement in completion rates. Within the UMS, UMA and UMF utilize academic maps for their students; UMF has developed a “home grown” software solution to assist in this.
  • The Chronicle of Higher Education Monograph The Truth About Student Success details several best practices including examining remedial and gateway courses, developing “meta-majors”, involving industry
  • leaders in the coordination of professional degree tracks, coupling financial supports with extensive advising (for all students but specifically high risk populations), and adjusting the academic calendar to meet the needs of working students and enable faster completion.
  • AAC&U identified High Impact Educational Practices – these include many of the educational practices referenced elsewhere in this overview including first year experiences, learning communities, etc.
  • Peer-to-peer support systems are in place in many institutions – these may be peer tutoring, peer mentoring or peer counseling. Examples exist throughout the US, and many are shown to create additional supports for students, especially first generation students. Within the UMS, a peer-to-peer financial literacy program is in place, peer tutoring is in place across many campuses, and peer counseling is in place in specific areas such as student affairs.
  • Streamline the Transfer Process:
Within the University of Maine System
  • University of Maine at Augusta -Class Steward Program – A unique embedded service and early alert strategy. Class stewards are typically staff members (and in some cases students) who work within the Blackboard site to monitor student progress and encourage completion.
  • UMFK, UMPI and USM, as a part of their work with Academic Partnerships, have introduced two eight-week sessions per semester within selected academic programs, enabling students to attend full time within a semester (UMPI already had this in practice via its YourPace program).
  • The University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System and Maine Department of Education are working on a collaborative with the Dana Center focused on developing more clearly articulated math pathways from K-20.

Completion Programs

Within the University of Maine System

First Year Experience

First year experiences include first year seminar/success courses, living-learning communities, cohort based interest groups, etc. Sparked by the work of the National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition and by its founder, John Gardner, institutions throughout the country have implemented comprehensive first year experience initiatives. With the goal of fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness to the academic and social experience, programs such as that at Southern Utah University offer good examples.

Within the University of Maine System

The University of Maine has launched the implementation of its first year student success initiatives identified as a part of a campus wide study in 2018/2019.

Faculty Development Initiatives

  • Purdue University Impact – A campus wide effort to improve undergraduate teaching and learning
  • Rutgers University P3 Collaboratory for Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship is a comprehensive development center serving the needs of the existing and emerging professoriate, and provides support to increase student success through excellence in teaching, high impact scholarship (particularly publicly engaged scholarship), leadership development, and career success.
  • University of Maryland Global Campus – Center for Innovation and Learning in Student Success – leading the search for next-generation learning models, CILSS supports a collaborative innovation process that selects the highest priority projects to improve the learning experience through rapid prototyping, piloting process, and evaluation.
  • California State University, Bakersfield – Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award, -An AASCU 2019 Award winner, the Kern Rural Teacher Residency Program is designed to increase the number of teachers amid shortage and has morphed into 3 residency programs
Within the University of Maine System
  • Collaborative Faculty Institute – University of Maine at Augusta – An innovative teaching and learning institute offered for the past 30 years (aka the E-Learning Institute). A collaborative event, the Institute has a system-wide planning committee with faculty and staff representing each campus.
  • UMS SAALT Institute (Summer Academy for Adult Learning and Teaching) – Faculty across the UMS gather to learn and implement best practice learning and teaching practices for adult, non-traditional learners
  • UMaine Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) – University of Maine — CITL currently develops and delivers a series of workshops, programs and trainings for faculty and graduate students with a focus in areas relating to research and innovation in teaching and learning, including the use of new technologies in support of teaching.
  • UMaine Student Success Initiative Faculty Support/Development

IMPROVING STUDENT WELL-BEING

Helping first generation and other student populations thrive socially and emotionally is an important component of any student success initiative. Student support groups, special interest groups, support for food and housing insecurity, support for students recovering from addiction, helping students access resources outside the institution (public benefits as an example) are all part of what any institution needs to plan for as a part of a student success initiative:

  • “Wrap around” services are not those needed just for returning adult students – in fact, more students across the spectrum require a range of services to enable them to stay in and complete college (Georgetown University Scholars Program is a good example).
  • Creative financial aid strategies to help students stay in or return to school such as Wayne State’s “Warrior Way Back” program. Dillard University’s SAFE fund provides small amount funding to cover small balances or other emergencies. The MSU Spartan Advantage Program – Michigan State University – SPAD reduces the educational loan debt and supplies students with the final financial assistance needed to fully cover tuition, fees, room, board, and even books.
  • Robust career development programs which include job experience help motivate students (Clemson University created paid, on-campus internships for students as a way to increase engagement)

STUDENT SUCCESS LIFE CYCLE

How students’ progress through an institution from enrollment to graduation and beyond is prompting more institutions to look more completely at the Student Life Cycle as they develop comprehensive success initiatives.

  • Elon University – Identified by AAC&U as high-impact practices structurally embedded within the program and have earned national recognition. Among the nation’s best in key programs that enrich the college experience including: first-year seminars and experiences, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, undergraduate research, diversity and global learning, service learning and community-based learning, internships, and capstone courses.
  • Northwest Missouri State University – Student Success Center – 2019 AASCU Excellence and Innovation Awards Winner – The Student Success Center focuses on transitioning, advising, supporting and connecting students through Academic Support, Advisement & Coaching, Academic Recovery, Orientation, FYE, Retention and Complete 30 campaign.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

REFERENCES

Bean, J. Dropout and turnover: the synthesis and test of a causal model of student attrition. Research in Higher Education, 1980, 12 155–187.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2015/08/Innovations-Role-in-Improving-Higher-Education

Chapman, D. and Pascarella, E.. (September 1983). Predictors of academic and social integration of college students. Research in Higher Education, 1983, 19(3), 295-322.

Fishman, T., Ludgate, A., Tutak, J. (16 March 2017). Success by Design: Improving Outcomes in American Higher Education, Deloitte Insight, Deloitte University Press.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Persistence & Retention, National, Postsecondary, Snapshot Report, July 10 2019.  Retrieved from, https://nscresearchcenter.org/snapshotreport35-first-year-persistence-and-retention/

Pascarella, E., and Terenzini, P. Interaction effects in Spady’s and Tinto’s conceptual models of college dropout. Sociology of Education 1979, 52 197–210.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (2012). Completing College. University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (September 26, 2016), From Retention to Persistence, Inside Higher Ed., https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/09/26/how-improve-student-persistence-and-completion-essay

Tinto, V. (2017). Through the Eyes of Students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 19(3), 254–269.

Accue Community, 14 Nov. 2019; Changemakers: Rutgers University–Newark Leading the Way for Student Success, https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?u=6540ba10fb2e6fa4fec0ba724&id=2bf31caea5&e=d8c5dd474e

University of Hawai’i News, “Complete College America honors UH’s STAR and 15 to finish programs,” November 11, 2016. http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2016/11/11/complete-college-america-honors-uhs-star-and-15-to-finish-programs/.

Nick Anderson, “Georgia State U—a hotbed of growth and innovation,” Washington Post, October 1, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/10/01/georgia-state-u-a-hotbed-of-growth-and-innovation/?utm_term=.33e5ea73355c.

Martin Kurzweil and D. Derek Wu, Building a pathway to student success at Georgia State University, Ithaka S+R, April 23, 2015, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QtoL36WiAVNky6xo5Rb2K6KCruaPfLu4.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “Georgia Status University,” Postsecondary Success, http://postsecondary.gatesfoundation.org/what-were-learning/institutional-snap-shots/georgia-state-university/

Pelletier, Stephen; 2015, Taming “Big Data”: Using Data Analytics for Student Success and Institutional Intelligence. https://agb.org/trusteeship-article/taming-big-data-using-data-analytics-for-student-success-and-institutional-intelligence/

Bean, J. Dropout and turnover: the synthesis and test of a causal model of student attrition. Research in Higher Education, 1980, 12 155–187.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – https://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2015/08/Innovations-Role-in-Improving-Higher-Education

Chapman, D. and Pascarella, E.. (September 1983). Predictors of academic and social integration of college students. Research in Higher Education, 1983, 19(3), 295-322.

Fishman, T., Ludgate, A., Tutak, J. (16 March 2017). Success by Design: Improving Outcomes in American Higher Education, Deloitte Insight, Deloitte University Press.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, Persistence & Retention, National, Postsecondary, Snapshot Report, July 10 2019.  Retrieved from, https://nscresearchcenter.org/snapshotreport35-first-year-persistence-and-retention/

Pascarella, E., and Terenzini, P. Interaction effects in Spady’s and Tinto’s conceptual models of college dropout. Sociology of Education 1979, 52 197–210.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (2012). Completing College. University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (September 26, 2016), From Retention to Persistence, Inside Higher Ed., https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/09/26/how-improve-student-persistence-and-completion-essay

Tinto, V. (2017). Through the Eyes of Students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 19(3), 254–269.

Accue Community, 14 Nov. 2019; Changemakers: Rutgers University–Newark Leading the Way for Student Success, https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?u=6540ba10fb2e6fa4fec0ba724&id=2bf31caea5&e=d8c5dd474e

University of Hawai’i News, “Complete College America honors UH’s STAR and 15 to finish programs,” November 11, 2016. http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2016/11/11/complete-college-america-honors-uhs-star-and-15-to-finish-programs/.

Nick Anderson, “Georgia State U—a hotbed of growth and innovation,” Washington Post, October 1, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/10/01/georgia-state-u-a-hotbed-of-growth-and-innovation/?utm_term=.33e5ea73355c.

Martin Kurzweil and D. Derek Wu, Building a pathway to student success at Georgia State University, Ithaka S+R, April 23, 2015, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QtoL36WiAVNky6xo5Rb2K6KCruaPfLu4.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “Georgia Status University,” Postsecondary Success, http://postsecondary.gatesfoundation.org/what-were-learning/institutional-snap-shots/georgia-state-university/

Pelletier, Stephen; 2015, Taming “Big Data”: Using Data Analytics for Student Success and Institutional Intelligence. https://agb.org/trusteeship-article/taming-big-data-using-data-analytics-for-student-success-and-institutional-intelligence/

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