Contributors offer a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives on the "departure puzzle" and student retention. -- Adapted from publisher's description.
Student departure is a long-standing problem to colleges and universities. Approximately 45 percent of students enrolled in two-year colleges depart during their first year, and approximately one out of four students departs from a four-year college or university. The authors advance a serious revision of Tinto's popular interactionalist theory to account for student departure, and they postulate a theory of student departure in commuter colleges and universities. This volume delves into the literature to describe exemplary campus-based programs designed to reduce student departure. It emphasizes the importance of addressing student departure through a multidisciplinary approach, engaging the whole campus. It proposes new models for nonresidential students and students from diverse backgrounds, and suggests directions for further research. Academic and student affairs administrators seeking research-based approaches to understanding and reducing student departure will profit from reading this volume. Scholars of the college student experience will also find it valuable in defining new thrusts in research on the student departure process.
Creating the conditions that foster student success in college has never been more important. As many as four-fifths of high school graduates need some form of postsecondary education to be economically self-sufficient and manage the increasingly complex social, political, and cultural issues of the 21st century. But about 40 percent of those who start college fail to earn a degree within 6 or 8 years, an unacceptably low number. This report examines the complicated array of social, economic, cultural and educational factors related to student success in college, defined as academic achievement, engagement in educationally purposeful activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, and attainment of educational objectives. Although the trajectory for academic success in college is established long before students matriculate, most institutions can do more than they are at present to shape how students prepared for college and they they engage in productive activities after they arrive. This is the 5th issue of the 32nd volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.
This Festschrift has a dual purpose: (a) highlight how student affairs has grown as a field of practice in response to the growth of student diversity on college campuses, and (b) honor the remarkable career of Melvin C. Terrell. As one of the unique contributions to higher education attributed to the United States, the practice of student affairs has played a significant role in supporting students as access to college has broadened. In turn, key principles of practice had to evolve to appropriately take into consideration diverse student development theory and needs. The span of Melvin C. Terrell’s legendary accomplishments neatly aligned with the professional evolution of student affairs. Each of the chapters in this Festschrift artfully straddle the dual purpose of this volume. Researchers, practitioners, and key decision?makers will equally be empowered to employ the lessons and approaches informed by the evolution of student affairs over the past 30 years. - Presents cutting edge and thought?provoking chapters on the evolution of student affairs practice shaped by the diversification of the student body and practitioners - Contributions from some of the best minds and practitioners in the field - Includes curated chapters that capture advancements in student affairs practice informed by equity and diversity, while honoring the unique contribution of Melvin C. Terrell to the field
College student retention continues to be a top priority among colleges, universities, educators, federal and state legislatures, parents and students. While access to higher education is virtually universally available, many students who start in a higher education program do not complete the program or achieve their academic and personal goals. In spite of the programs and services colleges and universities have devoted to this issue, student retention and graduation rates have not improved considerably over time. College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success, Third Edition offers a solution to this vexing problem. It provides background information about college student retention issues and offers the educational community pertinent information to help all types of students succeed. The book lays out the financial implications and trends of retention. Current theories of retention, retention of online students, and retention in community colleges are also thoroughly discussed. Completely new to this edition are chapters that examine retention of minority and international students. Additionally, a formula for student success is provided which if colleges and universities implement student academic and personal goals may be attained.
This book focuses on one of the key questions in education: What determines a student’s success?Based on twenty years of work on student success, Ray Padilla here presents two related models he has developed that both provide a framework for understanding success and indicate how it can be enhanced and replicated. The research and theory that inform his models are covered in detail.He defines student success simply as progress through a program of study, such that the student and others expect him or her to complete it and be promoted to the next level or graduate. Rather than focusing on the reasons for failure or drop out, his approach focuses on understanding the factors that account for student success and that enable many students, some of them under the most challenging circumstances, to complete all program requirements and graduate. The models provide schools and colleges with an analytical tool to uncover the reasons for student success so that they can develop strategies and practices that will enable more students to emulate their successful peers. They address the characteristics of the students—such as motivation and engagement, the ability to surmount barriers, and persistence—and similarly surface the characteristics of teachers, the educational institution, its resources, and the contexts in which they interact. The process provides administrators with a clear and appropriate strategy for action at the level of each individual unit or subpopulation. Recognizing the need to develop general models of student success that also can be applied locally to specific situations and contexts, the book presents Padilla’s Expertise Model of Student Success (EMSS) that can be applied to general populations, as well as the Local Student Success Model (LSSM) that can be used to drive local institutional strategies to improve student success.The book demonstrates how the models have been applied in settings as diverse as a minority high school, a community college, and an Hispanic Serving Institution, and for such purposes as comparing a high-performing and a non high-performing elementary school. Contributors:* Kimberly S. Barker is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, System Center San Antonio. She is currently working in the College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction.* Mary J. Miller is the Instructional Compliance Director for the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to this appointment, she served as an elementary school principal for ten years.* George E. Norton is the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs for Admissions, Orientation & Transition Services at The University of Texas at San Antonio.* Ralph Mario Wirth is an administrator and director of educational planning at The San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity, as well as lead researcher for the Democratic Schools Research Institute, Inc.
In this 1994 classic work on student retention, Vincent Tinto synthesizes far-ranging research on student attrition and on actions institutions can and should take to reduce it. The key to effective retention, Tinto demonstrates, is in a strong commitment to quality education and the building of a strong sense of inclusive educational and social community on campus. He applies his theory of student departure to the experiences of minority, adult, and graduate students, and to the situation facing commuting institutions and two-year colleges. Especially critical to Tinto’s model is the central importance of the classroom experience and the role of multiple college communities.
Drawing on studies funded by the Lumina Foundation, the nation's largest private foundation focused solely on increasing Americans' success in higher education, the authors revise current theories of college student departure, including Tinto's, making the important distinction between residential and commuter colleges and universities, and thereby taking into account the role of the external environment and the characteristics of social communities in student departure and retention. A unique feature of the authors' approach is that they also consider the role that the various characteristics of different states play in degree completion and first-year persistence. First-year college student retention and degree completion is a multi-layered, multi-dimensional problem, and the book's recommendations for state- and institutional-level policy and practice will help policy-makers and planners at all levels as well as anyone concerned with institutional retention rates—and helping students reach their maximum potential for success—understand the complexities of the issue and develop policies and initiatives to increase student persistence.
The Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms of its conceptual and methodological rigor, and sets forth an agenda for future research intended to advance knowledge on the chosen topic.
In the current nursing shortage, student retention is a priority concern for nurse educators, health care institutions, and the patients they serve. This book presents an organizing framework for understanding student retention, identifying at-risk students, and developing both diagnostic-prescriptive strategies to facilitate success and innovations in teaching and educational research. The author's conceptual model for student retention, "Nursing Undergraduate Retention and Success," is interwoven throughout, along with essential information for developing, implementing, and evaluating retention strategies. An entire chapter is devoted to how to set up a Student Resource Center. Most chapters conclude with "Educator-in-Action" vignettes, which help illustrate practical application of strategies discussed. Nurse educators at all levels will find this an important resource.