Student Retention

Colleges spend millions on campus improvements that some consider luxuries: fancy dorms, gourmet restaurants and huge recreation centers, to name just a few.

But while this may attract more prospective students, is there an accompanying payoff in student success?

That’s the question Jay Mathews raises on his Class Struggle blog at washingtonpost.com. He cites a Collegiate Learning Assessment test given to freshman and seniors, which found that just half had significant gains in analytic and writing skills.

Matthews questions the focus of many institutions on “shiny toys.” One example is the “Texas College Climbing Wall War,” which started at Baylor University. The university was going to build a 41-foot wall, but when Texas A&M announced plans for a 44-footer, Baylor upped its to 52 feet. Then, the University of Houston built one just one foot taller.

“The money gets much more serious when the competition is over new buildings and star professors, neither of which do much for those colleges’ success in producing well-educated undergraduates,” Mathews writes.

With the U.S. spending 3.1 percent of its gross domestic product on postsecondary education, it is still surpassed by other developed countries who have more college graduates per capita while only spending 1.5 percent of their gross domestic product, Mathews wrote.
Washington Post, November 2011

Colleges that want to boost their freshmen retention rates should focus on two areas — good teaching practices and a diverse student body, according to an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Ernest Pascarella, a co-author of “How College Affects Students,” recently presented research that showed these two areas also boost critical-thinking skills in students.
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As Americans pay down their mortgages and credit cards, student loan debt is skyrocketing. Total outstanding student loan debt is expected to pass $1 trillion this year, leaving experts to speculate that this is the new credit bubble. Defaults rose two percentage points to 8.8 percent from 2007 to 2009, with the highest default rates among students at for-profit schools.
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ABC News recently revisited the issue of the man in New York who is accused of being paid to take the SAT for high school students. Education officials are again questioning “how much cheating goes on in the world of high-stakes testing.” The experts say they are especially concerned because the community where the scandal occurred is wealthy and is “an illustration of the SAT arms race.”
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Tuition growth has soared beyond the real estate appreciation peak, driving student loans to increase at a double-digit rate for the last decade, according to U.S. News & World Report. A Moody’s Analytics report estimates that, if the benefits of a college education continue to be overshadowed by growing student debt, the U.S. will flounder with fewer college attendees.
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Although a 19-year-old at Emory University was arrested last month for allegedly accepting money to take the SAT for six high school students, testing officials claim it was an isolated event. According to the New York Times article, school officials and prosecutors strongly disagree. And they’re continuing their investigation of other schools and students.
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While most four-year colleges and universities are monitoring student persistence and graduation rates, a new study shows that more resources are still needed. Most schools have a retention coordinator, but that person has little authority or resources to actually change things.
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While most schools have a Facebook page and tweet daily, a school’s social media manager can take their reach to the next level by employing focus, resources and a little creativity. To up your game: coordinate your strategy across campus, invest in education and training, get students involved and put your school’s president on Twitter. ...continue reading

Community colleges are supposed to be the good guys, right? After all, they’re cheaper than big universities, easier to get into and generally more accessible to everyone....continue reading