High Risk Factors for Retention Freshman Year Experience

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High Risk Factors for RetentionFreshman Year
Experience

• Review of the Literature
• Review of Preliminary Data

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Strategy team

• Dr. Conley Winebarger
• Bill Harris
• Rhoda Bliese

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What does the national data say about the risk
factors for dropping out of college?

• The U.S. Department of Education National Center
  for Educational Statistics lists seven risk
  factors.
• We will consider each of them.

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Risk factor 1

• Being an independent student
• Independent students receive little or no
  financial assistance from their parents
• Often, they have dependents themselves and are
  more likely to work full time.

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Dependent students

• Dependent students receive the bulk of their
  financial support from their parents
• Across all income categories, dependent students
  fare better than independent students in
  persistence.

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Why do dependent student persist?

• Dependent students usually have two support
  systems
• Financial support from parents
• Emotional support from family

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Risk factor 2

• Students who work full time are at greater risk
  of dropping out of college.
• Regardless of income, students working full time
  were less likely to be retained.

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Risk Factors 3 and 4

• Having dependents, particularly being a single
  parent
• Nearly three out of four low-income independent
  students are supporting dependents

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Risk factor 5

• Delaying entrance to college after high school
• This often translates to a lowered intent to get
  a degree.

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Risk Factor 6

• Not having a traditional high school diploma
• They may have a GED, modified diploma, or no
  diploma at all.
• This usually translates into the student being
  underprepared for college.

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Risk factor 7

• Attending college part time

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Literature on Income and Persistence

• Many studies indicated the strong connection
  between income and persistence.
• Students from the lowest income category were
  three times less likely to gain a Bachelors
  Degree than middle income students, and six times
  less likely to receive a Bachelors Degree than
  high income students.

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• Low income was strongly correlated with parental
  education and whether the student was a minority.
• As parental education increased, the percentage
  of low income decreased.

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• Low income students are less likely to persist to
  graduation than middle income students, even when
  other factors such as family background and GPA
  are controlled.

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Financial Aid and Persistence

• All of the financial aid programs had a positive
  effect on persistence.
• Work study students have the greatest likelihood
  of within-year persistence
• However, students at the lowest level of income,
  receiving the greatest amount of financial aid,
  were still more likely to drop out.
• It is suggested that these students had a greater
  amount of unmet need than was covered by the
  financial aid.

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Persistence in Two-Year Colleges

• For two-year colleges, the best predictor of
  persistence is an interaction between
• Whether the student is committed to the goal of
  attaining a degree, and
• High school GPA.

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Putting the pieces together

• Who is likely to drop out?
• Students who are not committed to the goal of a
  college degree
• Students with lower high school GPAs
• Low income students, particularly those living
  independently and having dependents themselves
• Students who work full time
• Part-time students

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Freshman Year Experience

• The most important fact to come from the
  literature on the Freshman Year Experience is
  that there must be a carefully coordinated,
  organized, integrated freshman program.

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Start with Demographic Data

• Gather demographic data on characteristics of
  students who are at risk at MECC.
• Then, develop processes for identifying
  individual students at risk.
• Then, develop specific strategies for working
  with students who have been identified as being
  at risk.

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Draw data and intervene at three times in the
semester

• First, do an admissions survey prior to
  registration.
• The results of the survey should set in motion a
  series of steps designed to help at-risk students
  make a successful transition to college.

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Second intervention point

• After the last day for drop/add, identify
  students who have registered who are at greatest
  risk.
• Do intrusive advising or counseling with those
  students.

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Third intervention point

• At the end of the semester, identify students
  whose grades put them at risk for returning.
• Develop interventions to work with those students.

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Freshman Orientation Class

• Another key factor in a coordinated Freshman Year
  Experience is a strong, semester-long,
  project-based Freshman Orientation class.

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Key aspects of Freshman Orientation

• It should offer opportunities for the students to
  work together and share ideas, discussing campus
  issues.
• It should give students access to several caring
  faculty, staff members, and sophomore student
  mentors--not just the class instructor.
• It should have a strong career development aspect.

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Other key aspects of the Freshman Year Experience

• Effective advising
• Instructional strategies for involving the
  students, such as Learning Communities
• Targeted learning support for classes that
  register a high number of freshmen students

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Preliminary data on MECC students

• Initial data was collected related to four
  factors
• of successful and unsuccessful students in
  these categories
• Age
• Income
• Gender
• Level of Preparedness

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• Level of preparedness is defined as how far
  removed the developmental course is from a
  standard college-level math or English course in
  his/her program.
• In the following charts, one below, two
  below, or three below indicates the gap
  between the developmental placement and the
  required college-level course.

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How did we define success?

• Successful students received grades of A, B, C,
  D, S, or R.
• Unsuccessful students received grades of F, U, or
  W.

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MECC age data closely matches national data.

• Students who delay their entry into MECC tend to
  be less successful than students who enroll
  directly out of high school.
• This is particularly true in math.

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There is less age effect in English.
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MECC income data in developmental classes matches
national data.

• Developmental students with lower incomes are
  less successful than students with higher
  incomes.
• The chart at left is a typical example. The
  effect is true for all developmental math and
  English courses.

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There is little or no income effect if students
test directly into college math or English.

• This is a key finding
• If a student is well prepared for college, income
  has little effect.
• It is the poorly-prepared, low-income student who
  is at greatest risk.

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Males tended to be more successful in higher
level developmental math courses, such as Algebra
I and II.
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Females are more successful at the lowest levels
in English and math.
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• If you would like more information on this
  presentation, please contact any of the strategy
  team members
• Conley Winebarger
• Bill Harris
• Rhoda Bliese