Transcript Success in the First Year of College: Achievement

Success in the first year of college:
Achievement, Development and Retention
Members of the College Board
Academic Assembly Council
• Moderator: Carol Jago, Past President, National
Council of Teachers of English, IL
• Dan Davidson, President, American Councils for
International Education, DC
• Arthur Eisenkraft, Distinguished Professor of
Science Education, University of Massachusetts,
MA
• Roxy Peck, Professor Emerita of Statistics,
California Polytechnic State University, CA
• Karen Waples, Social Studies Teacher, Cherry
Creek High School, CO
In this session we will:
• Provide data regarding college graduation rates
• Discuss the programmatic, institutional and
individual factors that influence academic success
and persistence among incoming college students
• Develop a set of recommendations to support
students more effectively as they transition from
high school and during their college experience
The US Department of Education has compiled statistics about
institutional retention and graduation rates for undergraduate
students.
• The following charts show the percentage of
students seeking a bachelor’s degree at 4year degree-granting institutions who
completed a bachelor’s degree within 6 years,
starting cohort year 2005:
All Institutions
Public Institutions
Private nonprofit
Private for-profit
Retention Strategies and Results at
One Institution
• Dan Davidson, Chair of WLAAC
• American Councils and Bryn Mawr College
Current Retention Rates at Bryn Mawr and Haverford
Colleges: Faculty Perspective
Year 2005
All students
returned in spring
92.1%
graduated %
81.6 (4yrs); 87.3 (6)
Pell Grant Recipients Only
82.9 (4yrs);
86.9 (6)
No federal loans or grants
76.5% (4yrs);
81.1(6)
African-American 93.3%
Latina
91.1%
84.0% (4yrs); 87.7 (6)
72.6% (4yrs); 76.4 (6)
International
92.6%
83.7% (4yrs); 89.3%
On-going interventions
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Q-Center (quantitative readiness)
Writing Center, Writing-intensive courses all fields
Health support. Psychological support (15%)
Peer-to-peer mentoring
Tutoring Center, college sponsored
Dorm advising system
Academic support, advising (faculty and deans)
Multi-cultural Office
Digital tools for college use: digital archiving, data
mining, computational modeling, “cool tools”
Skill challenges
• Time management (16 contact hours/week)
• Self-management (executive function,
reflection, intellectual risk-taking, selfassessment; pushing the envelope )
• Dealing with distraction (24/7 connectivity)
• Identity competence (constructing the self in a
new environment)
Predicting success of entering
freshmen
• AP courses, especially when they represent
longer 9 – 12 sequences, strong indication of
proficiency/competence, academic ambition.
• Diversity of course work. Persistence. Excellence.
• Evidence of strong emphasis on fundamental
thinking skills, “open-mindedness” < Grade 9 -10
on.
• Caution about spreading self too thinly: lots of AP
but few good AP grades.
Success in the First Year of
College
Roxy Peck
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Institutional Initiatives and Practices
• Cal Poly—25 – 35 Program
• New Mathematics Pathways—The Plastic
Brain
Cal Poly—25 -35 Program
• The Issue addressed:
Most students don’t study very much. It may
work in high school, but not in college.
High school students don’t study very much but
they are really busy with school and activities.
• Informal group surveys of Cal Poly freshmen suggest most
studied only 3-5 hours per week in high school.
• Brookings Institute paper in 1997 reports high school
students average 19 minutes a night of study .
• 2005 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
reports 55% of high school students study three or less
hours per week and only 8% study 10 hours per week.
• However, Cal Poly freshmen say they averaged at least 15
hours/week in other activities in high school such as sports,
music, publications, or employment.
• Considering these students were in class 30 hours a week
(5 days, six periods) as high school students, they were
quite busy managing a 50 hour work week.
College students increase their study relative to
high school but still fall far short of what is
needed
• National Survey of Student Engagement
(NSSE) studies show that around 45% of
college students spend 10 hours a week or
less studying and only 11% study 25 hours per
week or more.
Most new freshmen have no idea what
the study expectations are in college.
• They may triple or quadruple their high school efforts and
feel good because they had never studied so much. But
this is not nearly enough in college.
• Class and lab time runs 15-20 hours per week.
• Anecdotally, many students may proudly triple or
quadruple the hours they studied in high school upon
entering college. Even though this may total only 10-15
hours a week, they feel good about what they are doing as
they have never independently studied this much before.
• But total time in class and studying adds to only around 30
hours per week - not even a full time job, not even as many
academic hours as in high school.
The 25-35 Advice to Students
• Study 25 hours a week if you are taking three courses, 35 if
you are taking four.
This is about 2 hours/unit/week. Time in class and studying
is equivalent to a 40-50 hour work week; quite reasonable.
• Make sure you are learning. You know something if you
can talk about it and teach it to someone else. If you can’t,
you don’t.
• Test yourself before exams; don’t let the instructor be the
first to test your knowledge.
Spreading the 25-35 Word:
Obsession on Saturation
• Open House in April: Briefly mention 25-35 in all
college/department meetings for prospective students. Display 2535 banners.
• Summer Advising: Display signs and banners. Introduce 25-35
program to new students and accompanying parents.
• Communication to New Students in August: Includes yellow 25-35
poster, letter from the dean, four page pamphlet on studying and
learning, list of offices/phones for student services and advising;
memo on alcohol abuse; study log.
• Mailing to Parents of New Freshmen in August: Includes yellow
25-35 refrigerator magnet, letter to parents asking them to put the
magnet on the refrigerator for the rest of the summer; copy of
letter to students.
Spreading the 25-35 Word:
Obsession on Saturation
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Moving into the Residence Halls: Lobbies of each residence hall display a 2x3 feet
25-35 banner and lots of the yellow 8.5x11 inches 25-35 posters. A 25-35 poster
and refrigerator magnet are placed on each student bed before they arrived.
Week-of-Welcome: WOW counselors talk about 25-35 program throughout week.
25-35 is part of the academic day message at college and department levels.
Yellow 25-35 banners and posters are displayed in meeting sites.
Fall Quarter, First Week of Classes: Display yellow 25-35 banners around campus.
Yellow posters placed on bulletin boards outside faculty and department offices, in
labs and lecture rooms. Faculty members implement their roles in the 25-35
program (see next section).
Fall Quarter, Third Week of Classes: Letter or email to all new freshmen
encouraging them to evaluate their efforts, check actual study hours against 25-35
advice, and focus on preparation for their first set of exams.
Winter Quarter, First Day of Classes: Letter to new freshmen describing how their
class did the first quarter. Reminder of 25-35 advice. Focus on continuity in
studying and learning. Encouragement to further find that new maturity that
leads to intellectual achievement and student success.
The Role of Faculty
• First Class Meeting: Hold up a 25-35 sign. Talk about the privilege and
responsibilities of attending college. Explain your academic expectations
and give guidance on how to meet them successfully. Describe how to use
8-10 hours a week studying for your course.
• Course Syllabus: Clear, complete, informative course syllabus. Make sure
there is a section on academic expectations and how to accomplish.
• Early and Frequent Grading Experiences: These allow students to analyze
study strategies and make adjustments during the term without losing the
opportunity to earn a decent grade. Don’t let your exams be a mystery. If
students know what they are responsible for and are not surprised by
their first exam, they are more likely to have confidence that studying and
learning equates with success.
• Encouragement and Guidance throughout the Quarter: Take time
frequently to ask students how things are going and let them know that
you care. Continually provide guidance for studying and learning.
New Mathematics Pathways
• Texas Community Colleges in collaboration
with the Dana Center at University of Texas.
• For students who place into developmental
mathematics.
• Designed to accelerate progress—remediation
and transfer-level mathematics course in 1
year (two semesters).
Intentional Consideration of Student
Success Issues
• Integrated into course work
• Focus on
– student confidence and direction
– Persistence
– Commitment
– Belonging
Two Key Components
• Changing belief system
– Students believe that A students study less, but
data support a strong correlation between effort
and grades.
– Students believe that they are either good at math
(or ???) or not, and that there is nothing they can
do about that.
The Plastic Brain
• Students read article from Health and Science
News: “You Can Grow Your Brain: New
Research Shows the Brain Can be Developed
Like a Muscle”.
• Weightlifter analogy
– Difficult at first, but strength developed through
exercise and persistence.
– Watching a weightlifter is not helpful!
• Productive struggle
Success in the First Year of
College
Arthur Eisenkraft
UMass Boston
Success in the First Year of College
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Motivation
Accessing printed material
Patterns
Metacognition
Eliciting prior understandings
Transfer of learning
Knowledge vs information
Motivation and Relevance
• Motivated students have
higher achievement
• Relevance to their lives now.
• Why are we learning this?
– This is chapter 14.
– One day this will be useful
• Not about “now” and therefore
not about me
• Not even true!
Why should I care?
“Education is not a preparation for life;
education is life itself.”
John Dewey
Why should I care?
• If we want students to learn about science
content, we have to respect them and
their age appropriate perspective.
• We have to find ways to help them
understand how the content is relevant to
them and the society they live in.
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Physics of sports,
Chemistry of cooking,
Earth science of global warming
Biological implications of prescription and
non-prescription drug use.
– Science content into a larger context by
adopting project-based learning.
Accessing Curriculum
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Accessing curriculum and instruction
Accessing printed material
Learning information
Remembering information
Completing assignments
Working with others
Other Symbolic Structures
(graphic organizers)
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Graphs
Charts
Flow diagrams
Venn diagrams
Equations
Schematics
How People Learn
(www.nap.edu)
• Students come to class with preconceptions about
how the world works.
• Competence in science includes a foundation of
factual knowledge, a conceptual framework, and a
means to organize scientific knowledge.
• Students can learn to take control of their own
learning by defining goals and monitoring their
progress in achieving them.
Recognizing Patterns
• Experts vs novices
– Chess studies
– Boats
– Brain tumors
– Teaching
• Competence in science includes a foundation
of factual knowledge, a conceptual
framework, and a means to organize scientific
knowledge.
Metacognition
• Students can learn to take control of their own
learning by defining goals and monitoring
their progress in achieving them.
– How People Learn (nap.edu)
Eliciting Prior Understandings
• Students come to class with preconceptions
about how the world works.
• Prior knowledge impedes subsequent
learning.
Transfer of Learning
• Thorndike
– Near transfer and distant transfer
• Pendulum/optics experiments
• How People Learn – NRC (www.nap.edu)
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One set of subjects to another
One school subject to another
One year of school to another
School to non-school activities
y=3x+6
x
y
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6
1
9
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12
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15
4
18
5
21
6
24
Near Transfer
y = 4x2 + 3
y = 4x2 + 3
x
y
-5
103
-4
67
120
100
-3
39
-2
19
-1
7
40
0
3
20
1
7
2
19
3
39
4
67
5
103
80
60
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-6
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-2
0
2
4
6
Fitness Club
Distant Transfer
• Do I join the fitness club?
• Membership = $15 per month BUT each visit
costs $2.
• No membership = $4 per visit
• Solve with:
– Data chart
– Graph with slope and y-intercept
– Algebraically
Fitness Club
Distant transfer
45
40
Number of visits
Cost at $4
Cost at $15 + $2
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0
15
1
4
17
2
8
19
3
12
21
4
16
23
5
20
25
6
24
27
7
28
29
8
32
31
9
36
33
10
40
35
35
30
25
Cost at $4
20
Cost at $15 + $2
15
10
5
0
0
5
10
15
Transfer of Learning
• Thorndike
– Near transfer and distant transfer
• Pendulum/optics experiments
• How People Learn – NRC (www.nap.edu)
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One set of subjects to another
One school subject to another
One year of school to another
School to non-school activities
Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information…
Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information…
Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge?
T.S. Eliot
Some Steps High Schools Might Take
Karen Waples
Social Studies Teacher
Cherry Creek High School
Greenwood Village, CO
Some Steps High Schools Might Take
• Focus on skills—agree as a department (or as
a school) which skills will be developed at
each grade level
• Early, targeted, personal intervention—
intervene immediately with students who are
struggling academically
• Rigor—develop a common understanding of
what it means to deliver a rigorous and
challenging course
Skills by Grade Level/Common
Understanding of Rigor
Ninth grade: Cornell note taking, small DBQ, small term paper
Tenth grade: AP-style DBQ, 10-page analytical term paper
Upper classmen: research paper each semester
AP Classes: research paper or project, hour long group
presentation each semester
Early, Targeted Intervention
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Do not treat all struggling students the same way
Freshmen who are failing only Social Studies
Mandatory support two days per week (during lunch)
Focus on study techniques, providing resources,
organization, time management, interpersonal skills
(how to talk to your teacher)
• Positive, cheerful, inviting atmosphere—very personal
• Students move in and out over three week intervals
• Immediate feedback to deans, parents and teachers
Additional Recommendations
• High schools tend to focus on the
percentage of students who attend
college following graduation
• High schools should develop systems to
track student success throughout college