3 School Scholar Retention Methods to Prioritize at This Time of 12 months

It’s that point of 12 months when retention committees, pupil success professionals, and management groups throughout the nation calculate the retention price for the autumn 2024 cohort and evaluate it with their earlier years’ outcomes. Some campuses have undoubtedly stayed the identical, others decreased, and a few elevated, however the general dialog is often about how “it” may be completed higher for the autumn 2025 class. 

Let’s speak about “it” for a minute. A lot of you might have heard the message that two of our founders, Lee Noel and Randi Levitz, and the coed success professionals who’ve adopted of their footsteps, have shared for a number of many years: Retention just isn’t what you do. “It” is the result of what you do. “It” is the results of high quality school, workers, applications and providers. As you contemplate enhancements to your efforts which can influence the autumn 2025 coming into class and past, be mindful the next three pupil retention methods and practices. 

1. Assess faculty pupil retention outcomes fully

The primary technique RNL recommends is a complete outcomes evaluation. All faculties and universities compute a retention price right now of 12 months as a result of it must be submitted through the IPEDS system as a part of the federal necessities. However many faculties go above and past what’s required and compute different retention charges to tell planning functions. For instance, at what charges did you keep particular populations or college students enrolled in applications designed to enhance pupil success? With a purpose to greatest perceive what contributed to the general retention price, different outcomes need to be assessed as properly. As an illustration, what number of college students continued however didn’t progress (efficiently accomplished their programs)? Earlier than you finalize the faculty pupil retention methods on your fall 2025 college students, make sure you understand how your 2024 college students continued and progressed in order that methods may be developed for the 12 months forward. 

2. Know what labored and what didn’t

The second technique we suggest is to contemplate what labored properly in the course of the earlier 12 months and what didn’t. Many people have been in conditions the place we proceed to do the identical factor and count on totally different outcomes, which has been referred to as madness! (Enjoyable reality, this quote is commonly attributed to Einstein, however in response to Google, was not really stated by him!) A standard instance can be the tutorial advising mannequin.  RNL has a few years of information which present that educational advising is among the most vital faculty pupil retention methods. However simply doing what you might have at all times completed could not nonetheless be working with at the moment’s faculty college students. Advising is an space which wants fixed consideration for acceptable enhancements. Listed here are just a few questions so that you can contemplate: Does your educational advising mannequin, its requirements of observe, and outcomes evaluation reveal that your college students are academically progressing by taking the programs wanted for completion? Are you able to determine for every of your advisees an anticipated commencement date (which is among the anticipated outcomes of advising)? Establishing wealthy relationships between advisors and advisees, offering a high quality educational advising expertise, can in the end handle and enhance the establishment’s commencement price. 

3. Don’t restrict your scope of exercise

After getting assessed the 2024 class outcomes and the standard of your applications and providers, RNL encourages you to assume in another way about how you’ll develop faculty pupil retention methods that can influence the 2025 class. Every faculty has an attrition curve, or a distribution of scholars with their probability of being retained. The attrition curve, like every regular distribution, will present which college students are least and most definitely to retain and can reveal nearly all of college students beneath the curve. See the instance beneath:

As you contemplate your present actions, chances are you’ll discover that a lot of your applications are designed for the scholars on the tail finish of the curve (part A above) or to additional assist the scholars who’re already prone to persist (part B). Establishments set targets to extend retention charges however then restrict the scope of scholars they’re impacting. To have the perfect return on retention methods, contemplate how one can goal assist to the biggest group of scholars within the center (part C) who’re open to affect on whether or not they keep or depart, primarily based on what you do or don’t do for them, particularly throughout their first time period and their first 12 months at your faculty. 

Onward for the 12 months forward

RNL congratulates these of you who’ve achieved your retention targets for the 2024 cohort. You actually will need to have completed some issues proper and will need to have had pupil retention methods that had been efficient. For these of you who’re on the lookout for new instructions in planning, contemplate the three practices outlined above. 

And if you happen to aren’t at the moment one of many lots of of establishments already working with RNL, chances are you’ll need to implement a number of of the RNL pupil success instruments to assist your efforts: the RNL motivational survey instruments to determine these college students who’re most dropout inclined and most receptive to help, the RNL student retention data analytics to determine the distinctive elements that contribute to persistence at your establishment, and the RNL satisfaction-priorities surveys that inform determination making and useful resource allocation throughout your campus inhabitants. RNL can present assist in all of those areas together with on-going consulting providers to additional direct and information retention practices that may make a distinction in your enrollment numbers and the success of each your college students and your establishment.  Contact me to study extra in any of those areas. 

Word: Because of my former colleague Tim Culver for the unique improvement of this content material.