Slide 1

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 2

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 3

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 4

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 5

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 6

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 7

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 8

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 9

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 10

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 11

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 12

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 13

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 14

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 15

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 16

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 17

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 18

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 19

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 20

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 21

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 22

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 23

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 24

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 25

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 26

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 27

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 28

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 29

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 30

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 31

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 32

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 33

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 34

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 35

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 36

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 37

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 38

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 39

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 40

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 41

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 42

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 43

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 44

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 45

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 46

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 47

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 48

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 49

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 50

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 51

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 52

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 53

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 54

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 55

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 56

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 57

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 58

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 59

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 60

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 61

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 62

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 63

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 64

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 65

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 66

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 67

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 68

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 69

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 70

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 71

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 72

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 73

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 74

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 75

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 76

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 77

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 78

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 79

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 80

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 81

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 82

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 83

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 84

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 85

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 86

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 87

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 88

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 89

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 90

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 91

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 92

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 93

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 94

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 95

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 96

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 97

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 98

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 99

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 100

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 101

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 102

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 103

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 104

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 105

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com


Slide 106

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 23, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com

Pathways to Persistence
•Reflect on the missions of your
campuses and their goals for student
engagement, learning and success. Why
does student success matter?
•Review the status of student
persistence—trends, theories, myths,
realities.
•Test some theories through a simulation
exercise: Pathways to Persistence

If you don’t know
where you are going,
you might end up
somewhere else….
Lewis Carroll

Universities are doing far more
these days than educating
students. In fact, the education
function is becoming less
dominant at many institutions,
almost like an auxiliary
enterprise….
Louis Paradise
Chronicle of Higher Education
January 6, 2004

Colleges and universities are
businesses…
students are a cost item,
while research is a profit center.
Marty Nemko, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008

Colleges are in the dream
business….
Bridgewater provides students
with the finest possible
educational experience and
boundless opportunities to
achieve…

Eastern Connecticut State
University affords students the
opportunity to acquire
knowledge, values and skills
necessary to pursue meaningful
careers and advanced study,
become productive members of
their communities, and embrace
lifelong learning.

Most of today’s LSC students
come to Lyndon for the
opportunity to improve their
social mobility….

The students who are least likely
to attend college gain the
strongest economic benefits from
holding a college degree…
“Disadvantaged Students May Benefit Most
from Attending College”
Chronicle of Higher Education April 1, 2010

You gotta be careful if
you don’t know where
you’re going, because
you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Flagship public universities
have become less accessible
to low-income and students of
color.
Education Trust, 2007

Mission
Answers the question:
Why does this college exist?

Statement of Commitment
As a member of the University,
I pledge to help members of the
community to realize their
potential….
UMPI

BSC is strongly committed to
serving the region’s needs and
is most committed to students
who lack the educational and
cultural opportunities available
to their wealthier counterparts.
The Mission of BSC
About the College

Lyndon State College
prepares every student for
personal and professional
success….
Lyndon State College prepares every student for personal and professional success

Lyndon State College
Mission Statement

Colleges are in the future
business….
Teachers touch eternity.
They never know where
their influence stops.
Henry Adams

Although faculty are formally
designated as teachers, there
are circumstances where
others in the campus
community are also teachers….
Professor Burns Crookston,
University of Connecticut

It takes a campus
community to support
student achievement and
success….

Increasing student
persistence is a source of
increasing concern in
higher education…

Higher retention rates matter
to policy makers, including
federal and state legislators,
who have a concern about low
college graduation rates.
USA Today, 10/12/05 (page 6D)

The University of MainePresque Isle has been
committed to retention issues
for many years through a wide
variety of strategies….

Eastern Connecticut State
University has recently
implemented its new Strategic
Plan, which has a primary
objective of strengthening
retention and graduation for all
Eastern students….
About The College

Less than 60% of students
earn a degree
from their first institution
of enrollment.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

77% of high income students

54% of low income students
graduate in six years.
The Education Trust, January 2005

National Collegiate Dropout
and Graduation Rates
ACT Institutional Data Questionnaire,
since 1983
1700 two-year and four-year
institutions.
2008 Institutional Data File

National Graduation Rates*
Overall
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)

46.2%
38.8
37.8
35.0

* Graduation in 5 years for BA/BS
Source: ACT Institutional Data File. 2008

Graduation Rates*
MA Public
Traditional (960-1070 SAT)
Liberal (870-990)
ECSU (mean SAT 1005)
BSC (mean SAT 1015)
LSC (mean SAT 915)
UMPI (n/a)

38.8
37.8
35.0
45.7
42.2
37.8
28.2

* 5 year graduation rate

Source: Education Trust College Results On-line

The New American University
measures its academic quality
by the education its graduates
received rather than by the
academic credentials of the
incoming freshman class….
ASU: A New American University

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three types of attrition
•Expected and justified

•Stopping out
•Unnecessary and preventable by
institutional interventions

Three terms used
interchangeably

•RETENTION
•ATTRITION
•PERSISTENCE

RETENTION

The process of holding or keeping in
one’s possession.

ATTRITION

The process
or state of
being
gradually
worn down.

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[ reproduction number LC-USF34-9058-C]

PERSISTENCE

To continue to exist or prevail,
especially where others have not

Why students leave college
•Psychological factors
•Environmental factors
•Societal factors

•Institutional experiences
What about us?
What about me?

Public colleges and
universities are far more
likely to attribute attrition to
student characteristics than
to institutional
characteristics.
What Works in Student Retention, 2004

We build beautiful campuses,

 We hire distinguished faculty,
 We develop a challenging
curriculum…

…then the “wrong” students show up!
Dr. Betty Siegel, Past President
Kennesaw State University (GA)

Why do students leave college?
Incongruence
What they encounter is not
what they expected….

Often there is a Grand Canyon of
difference between reality and
what higher education
institutions, especially research
ones, tout in their viewbooks and
on their websites….
Nemko, 2008

Bridgewater State College
Expect More Achieve More
EXPECT students to access exceptional
growth opportunities defined by intensive
engagement with a devoted faculty.
EXPECT a rigorous and innovative
academic environment that enriches the
learning experience.

What do students expect?

UMPI affirms, as central to its
mission:
Close student, faculty and
staff interaction in support of
intellectual growth and
personal development

Why do students leave college?
Isolation
Inability to connect with
significant members of the
campus community….

A sense of belongingness
can really make a
difference.
BSC student

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs

Less than 25% of students
leave college because they
are academically ineligible
to continue.
Tinto, 1987, 1993

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal

What happens to students
after they enroll frequently
has a more powerful impact
on whether they stay and
achieve their goals or leave.
Astin; Tinto; Pascarelli & Terenzini

Talking About Leaving

40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Talking About Leaving
Students with 650+ Math SATs
40% leave engineering
50% leave biological sciences
60% leave mathematics
Why undergraduates leave the sciences
E. Seymour & N. Hewitt, 1997

Transforming Students Through
Validation

Success appears to be
contingent on whether [faculty
and staff] can validate students
in an academic or interpersonal
way.
Dr. Laura Rendon, 1994

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure

When students cite financial reasons for
leaving, it is another way of stating their
view that the benefits of attendance do not
outweigh the costs.
Conversely, when students are satisfied
with their educational experiences, they
often are willing to accept considerable
hardship in order to attend.

Myths about Attrition
•Drop outs are flunk outs
•Pre-college attributes are primary
determinants of persistence or withdrawal
•Financial issues are the major cause of
departure
•Retention is a student affairs
responsibility.

ALL aspects of campus life can
have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and
behaviors.
Promoting student persistence
requires an institution-wide
commitment.

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality
Teaching

Comprehensive
Support
Programs

Developmental
Advising Program

I assumed the that the most important
and memorable academic learning
goes on inside the classroom. The
evidence shows the opposite is true.

When we asked students to think of a
specific critical incident or moment
that had changed them profoundly,
four-fifths of them chose a situation
or event outside the classroom.
Making the Most of College
Richard Light, Harvard University, 2001

2009 National Student
Satisfaction Report
Conducted by Noel-Levitz, Inc.

• 84,638 public university students
responded

What do students expect from their
colleges?
7= Very Important

1= not important

National Student Satisfaction Report
Four-year Public Institutions
 Academic advising

(6.35)

 Instructional effectiveness

(6.33)

 Safety and security

(6.32)

 Registration effectiveness

(6.21)

 Recruitment and financial aid (6.16)
 Concern for the individual

(6.13)

 Campus climate

(6.12)

 Student centeredness

(6.11)

 Campus support services

(6.07)

Experience is the hallmark of a
Lyndon education,
linking theory and practice,
both inside and outside the
classroom.

Effective enrollment management
is necessary to manage
enrollment pressures and employ
effective retention strategies.
Universities will need to augment
tuition with other [revenue]
sources….
Leading The Way: Pennsylvania State
System Strategic Plan, 2004-2009 (pg.3)

Financial Costs of Attrition at Compass U
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
·State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
30%
20%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

First to Second
Year

30%

224

4

$12,633,600

Second to Third
Year

20%

104

3

$4,399,200

Total Lost Revenue $17,032,800

A conservative estimate of loss-Does not include lost revenue from:
•Room, board, books, and other
expenditures

•Recruitment and re-recruitment
costs ($500 +/- per student)
•Adverse impact of students’ leaving
on future enrollments of family,
friends, and others

THREE PERCENT (3%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
27%
17%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

27%

201 (+23)

4

$11,336,400

1,297,200

Second to Third
Year

17%

93 (+11)

3

$3,933,900

565,300

Additional Revenue $1,762,500

FIVE PERCENT (5%) INCREASE IN RETENTION
Assumptions
· FTE First-year class
· Annual Tuition & Fees
· State Appropriation per FTE
· First to second year attrition rate
· Second to third year attrition rate
Attrition Rate

Lost
Students

745
$8900
$5200
25%
15%
Years
Remaining

Lost
Revenue

Additional
Revenue

First to Second
Year

25%

186 (+38)

4

$10,490,400

2,143,200

Second to Third
Year

15%

85 (+19)

3

$3,595,500

803,700

Additional Revenue $2,956,900

The loss of potential graduates
adds up to a problem of central
importance to our education
system, economy, and societyat-large. We cannot afford to
waste the aspirations of
countless young Americans.
One Step From the Finish Line
The Education Trust, January 2005

Pathways to Persistence:
A Simulation Exercise

ASSESSMENTS
You get the results of your English
and Math assessments and you
discover...

COURSE SELECTION

As you begin to think about
selecting your first-term courses,
you find out...

COURSE AVAILABILITY

When you go to register for classes,
you find…

CHOICE OF MAJOR

Midway through the first term, your
thinking about your chosen major
is...

ACADEMIC PROGRESS

During the middle of your
first term...

FACULTY ATTITUDES
Following a class, you approach the
professor to ask a question about
an assignment, and the professor...

QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION

At the end of the first term, before
you get your grades, you feel the
quality of instruction...

DIFFICULTY OF COURSES

At the end of the first term, your
feelings about the difficulty of your
courses is...

PERSONAL FINANCES

The following describes the status of
your personal finances...

ROOMMATE RELATIONSHIP

You live in a residence hall and
your roommate…

RESIDENCE HALL ACTIVITIES
You live in a residence hall and
have found that activities for
residents...

RESIDENCE HALL RULES &
REGULATIONS
Your residence hall has a policy on
room visitation by the opposite sex
and...

STUDENT EMPLOYMENT
You decide to look for a job to
supplement your finances and...

SUPPORT STAFF ATTITUDES
Your perception of the attitudes of
support staff at this university is…

SUPPORT STAFF
RESPONSIVENESS
The last time you went to an office
to ask a simple question...

CONTACTS WITH HOME
Last night you called home and...

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
You were looking forward to joining a
particular on-campus club and...

SOCIAL LIFE
Looking back on your social life
during the first term...

Sum the Scores
+5 +

-5 = 0

+5 +

-3 = +2

-5 +

+2 = -3

ORIGINAL COMMITMENT SCORES for
Entering Student Profiles
Student ID #
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010

Original Commitment Score

+14
+21
-6
-17
+35
+1
-30
-2
+9
0

Group Discussion
•On the basis of your entering profile and
incident outcomes, would you be likely to return
to Compass University?
If so, why? If not, why not?
•What incident had the strongest negative
impact? Why was it so negative for you?

•What could a faculty member, an advisor, or a
staff person have done to reduce this negative
impact?

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that the decision to withdraw
is usually a complex process involving
a series of events which occur over
time, rather than a decision resulting
from a single event at one point in time.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that student characteristics
(profiles) combine with
institutional experiences (incidents) to
shape a student’s decision to persist or
withdraw.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that similar experiences and
events affect students differently and
that we can respond to students and
their needs if we come to know them
from our interactions with them--in
class, in advising meetings--by paying
attention to small encounters.

We demonstrate concern for
students through what we
do and how we are as we
interact with them.

Demonstrate concern for
students through our actions.
Manage “moments of truth.”
Act “as if” small encounters
matter because they often do.
James Black
University of North Carolina Greensboro

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that ALL aspects of campus
life can have an impact on persistence
or attrition decisions and behaviors.

Sustained institution-level change
supporting increased student
success and retention requires
on-going collaboration from across
the college—including executive
leadership and students….
Assumptions Project Compass

Our work has demonstrated
that each person has an
important role to play in the
success of each of our
students.
LSC Project Compass Proposal

Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
Illustrates that careful interventions by
individuals and/or specifically designed
programs can have a positive influence
on students’ social and academic
integration and, subsequently, on their
persistence behaviors.

SIMULATION OBJECTIVES
To encourage and promote an
institutional dialogue about
collaborations that can enhance
programs, services, attitudes and
behaviors that can enhance student
satisfaction, achievement, and
persistence.

At Lyndon, everyone is dedicated to a
single, shared goal—the success of
each and every individual student.
You will find that the minute you
enroll at Lyndon, everyone here will
be committed to YOU.
A Welcome from President Carol Moore

Poor outcomes will continue
unless the University changes
to become an institution which is
culturally responsive to Native
American students.
UMPI Project Compass Proposal

Institutions can’t change.
Institutional/organizational
change happens only when
individuals take the initiative to
create change in their areas of
responsibility.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning

We need to be the change
we want to see happen.
M. Gandhi

Vision
Provides a bridge between
where we are today and where
we want to be.

Most missions and visions
never become reality because
people usually underestimate
the amount of time, energy and
commitment that are required to
make a vision real.
Peter Senge, MIT Center for
Organizational Learning
The Fifth Discipline

The biggest and longest lasting
reform in undergraduate
education will come when
individuals and small groups
adopt the view of themselves as
reformers in their immediate
spheres of influence.
K. Patricia Cross 2004

Pathways to Persistence
Compass Project
Learning Community Meeting
April 13, 2010
Thomas Brown
[email protected]
www.tbrownassociates.com