Retention and Persistence
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Retention and Persistence
(For more discussion on the issue of retention, see Tracking Learner Outcomes: One-Year versus Multi-Year Reporting Periods)
Teachers who create a sense of community are always already more successful at retention. Sometimes it is difficult to put a finger on exactly what that factor is that creates the environment, but a caring instructor is predisposed to generate great results regardless of time of day, demographics of the classroom, or whatever variables are offered.
Tina Luffman
I agree with Tina that by creating a sense of community students feel comfortable and open to risk taking in their learning. I have a transitions to college program that is based on a cohort model. The students take the same classes and build bonds with each other that carry over when they enroll into their college programs. The retention in that program is high, 86%. Kudos to your teachers.
Toni Borge
Hello Tina,
I wonder if you could say more about what exact data you use to see what your teachers need. Is it attendance or level gain, or something else?
We use attendance data to track total hours students are attending and to determine if they are eligible to post-test (minimum of 40 hours in NM). If students attend at least 75% of the potential hours, then the student is eligible to get a certificate at the end of the session (usually a 12-week session that meets 5 hours each week). We also see what the overall retention rate is by teacher as well as the post-test rate and the level gain rate. I agree that these could indicate a need for training.
We are interested in other ways that programs use data to help with retention. Thank you.
Barbara Arguedas
Santa Fe Community College
Santa Fe, NM
Dear Collegues:
Here at Franklinton Learning Center, we use data everyday in our program to help us track and improve the end results coming out of our program. We use enrollment data to check the reach of our program, average hours attended data to check the depth of engagement of students, and numbers of students through the door versus number completing enrollment to help us improve retention in the crucial orientation period of classes.
We have a program called ABLELink here in Ohio that has made it very easy to track some areas. It has also allowed us to compare statistics from one year to another so we know how we are doing in comparison to previous years. By tracking information collected on attendance, educational gain, hours of engagement and accomplishments, we have been able to improve all of these efforts.
Tracking and constantly checking this data is what has made it possible to improve. We can easily pull up reports on testing, who has tested, progress made, who hasn't tested, attendance, etc. We can organize that information by class, by teacher, by program, or by site, which allows us to compare effectiveness of programs and staff and assign responsibility for improvement where needed.
I would like to be able to track consistency of attendance over time not just total hours attended. I think this might give a better picture of the progress to be expected than the total time attended does. I would also like to understand more about how I can use all of the ABLELink data collected to improve my programs overall effectiveness.
Respectfully submitted by,
Ella Bogard, Executive Director
Franklinton Learning Center
1003 West Town Street
Columbus, Ohio 43222-1438
Phone: (614) 221-9151
Fax: (614) 221-9131
Hi Ella,
Disaggregating by class can be very effective to understanding of what is going on.
I wanted to comment on your last remark about tracking consistency of attendance.
Attendance and persistence are very popular topics these days and most data systems allow for tracking of student attendance and persistence patterns. One thing you might consider looking at learners who "stop out" -- have sporadic attendance patterns, attending for a while and coming back later. Another measure is the percent of time possible that learners attend. You compute this by dividing the attended hours by total possible (e.g., learner attends 8 hours a week for a class scheduled 10 hours a week=80%). Some research I did on ESL students showed that those who attended a higher proportion of possible time learned more, independent of total hours. I think this is so because this measure reflects student motivation to attend.
Identifying and studying "stop out" learners might tell you a lot about why these type of students don't attend more regularly and can inform you of needs, which could help in designing classes and programs for them.
Larry Condelli
