College Students in the United States: characteristics, experiences, and outcomes by
College Students in the United States accounts for contemporary and anticipated student demographics and enrollment patterns, a wide variety of campus environments and a range of outcomes including learning, development, and achievement. Throughout the book, the differing experiences, needs, and outcome of students across the range of "traditional" (18-24 years old, full-time students) and non-traditional (for example, adult and returning learners, veterans, recent immigrants) are highlighted. The book is organized, for use as a stand-alone resource, around Alexander Astin's Inputs-Environment-Outputs (I-E-O) framework.
Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management by
Improve student enrollment outcomes and meet institutional goals through the effective management of student enrollments. Published with the American Association for Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), the Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management is the comprehensive text on the policies, strategies, practices that shape postsecondary enrollments. This volume combines relevant theories and research, with applied chapters on the management of offices such as admissions, financial aid, and the registrar to provide a comprehensive guide to the complex world of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM). SEM focuses on achieving enrollment goals, and sustaining institutional revenue and serving the needs of students. It provides insights into the ways SEM is practiced across four-year institutions, community colleges, and professional schools. More than just an enhanced approach to admissions and financial aid, SEM examines the student's entire educational cycle. From entry through graduation, this volume helps SEM professionals and graduate students interested in enrollment management to anticipate change and balancing the goals of revenue, access, diversity, and prestige. The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management: Provides an overview of the thinking of leading practitioners that comprise SEM organizations, including marketing, recruitment, and admissions; tuition pricing; financial aid; the registrar's role, academic advising; and, retention Includes up-to-date research on current issues in SEM including college choice, financial aid, student persistence, and the effective use of technology Guides readers creating strategic enrollment organizations that fit the unique history, culture, and policy context of your campus Strategic enrollment management has become one of the most important administrative areas in postsecondary education, and it is being adopted in countries around the globe. The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management is for anyone in enrollment management, admissions, financial aid, registration and records, orientation, marketing, and institutional research who wish to enhance the health and vitality of his or her institution. It is also an excellent text for graduate programs in higher education and student affairs.
Increasing Persistence: Research-based Strategies for College Student Success by
Praise for Increasing Persistence "What a gem! This is a requisite text for enrollment practitioners, higher education scholars, and progressive public policy makers dedicated to understanding the processes involved in increasing student retention and success rates. The authors' data-focused approach identifies many of the best practices and fundamental efforts that can make a positive impact at most colleges and universities. Increasing Persistence provides an ideal organizational framework for developing student retention plans. --Jay W. Goff, vice president of enrollment and retention management, Saint Louis University "Because community colleges have made student persistence to graduation or career certification a national priority, they will find this book an invaluable resource for identifying and implementing practices that have a documented impact on student success." --James Hudgins, president emeritus, South Carolina Technical/Community College System; director, Community College leadership Alliance, University of South Carolina "The authors have crafted a highly-readable and much-needed synthesis of the complex literature on college student persistence and completion, and present a fresh model for student success that will be of interest to applied practitioners. This book is not only critical reading for all stakeholders in higher education, but also an easily accessible required text for graduate students of the discipline." --Toni Strollo Holbrook, associate dean of the college, Rollins College "The authors provide a focused and contextualized view of college student success that tells us not only what matters but also reminds us why it matters to individual students, educators, and society as whole." --Margot Saltonstall, associate director for assessment enrollment management and student affairs, Northern Arizona University
Retention and Resistance: writing instruction and students who leave by
Retention and Resistance combines personal student narratives with a critical analysis of the current approach to retention in colleges and universities, and explores how retention can inform a revision of goals for first-year writing teachers. Retention is a vital issue for institutions, but as these students' stories show, leaving college is often the result of complex and idiosyncratic individual situations that make institutional efforts difficult and ultimately ineffective. An adjustment of institutional and pedagogical objectives is needed to refocus on educating as many students as possible, including those who might leave before graduation. Much of the pedagogy, curricula, and methodologies of composition studies assume students are preparing for further academic study. Retention and Resistance argues for a new kairotic pedagogy that moves toward an emphasis on the present classroom experience and takes students' varied experiences into account. Infusing the discourse of retention with three individual student voices, Powell explores the obligation of faculty to participate in designing an institution that educates all students, no matter where they are in their educational journey or how far that journey will go.
Retention and Student Success in Higher Education by
This book draws upon international experience, particularly from the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and the United States to discuss student retention and success from a public policy perspective and concentrates on theory and research evidence, and on how these can inform institutional practices designed to enhance retention and success (particularly where students are enrolled from disadvantaged backgrounds).
Rethinking College Student Retention by
Drawing on studies funded by the Lumina Foundation, the nation's largest private foundation focused solely on increasing Americans' success in higher education, the authors revise current theories of college student departure, including Tinto's, making the important distinction between residential and commuter colleges and universities, and thereby taking into account the role of the external environment and the characteristics of social communities in student departure and retention. A unique feature of the authors' approach is that they also consider the role that the various characteristics of different states play in degree completion and first-year persistence. First-year college student retention and degree completion is a multi-layered, multi-dimensional problem, and the book's recommendations for state- and institutional-level policy and practice will help policy-makers and planners at all levels as well as anyone concerned with institutional retention rates--and helping students reach their maximum potential for success--understand the complexities of the issue and develop policies and initiatives to increase student persistence.
Student Success in College: creating conditions that matter by
Student Success in College describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.
Survey of Best Practices in Student Retention, 2017 Edition by
The study presents detailed data and commentary on student-retention issues from a survey of 38 different institutions, including 15 public and 23 private colleges and universities. Among the subjects discussed: spending on retention consulting services and information sources, staff dimensions of the retention effort, the role of faculty in retention, the role of student services such as tutoring, academic advising, facilities management and financial aid, among others. The report also looks at the kinds of retention software in use, the use of exit interviews, retention committees, predictive modeling for early alert warnings, and much more. Just a few of the report's many findings are that: * Only about 29% of survey participants maintain records enabling them to pinpoint students who are not engaged in any or very few extra-curricular activities; close to 35% of private colleges have such records vs. 20% of public colleges.* Research universities were much more likely than others to feel that the quality of student housing was a significant factor in student retention.* More than 30% of private colleges noted an increase in their financial aid to students over the past two years and far fewer of them than their public college counterparts noted a decrease in financial aid.* 26.7% of public schools see better retention rates in their future vs. 47.8% of private colleges.
Thriving in transitions: a research-based approach to college student success by
Thriving in Transitions: A Research-Based Approach to College Student Success represents a paradigm shift in the student success literature. Grounded in positive psychology, the thriving concept reframes the student success conversation by focusing on the characteristics amenable to change and that promote high levels of academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal performance in the college environment. The authors contend that a focus on remediating student characteristics or merely encouraging specific behaviors is inadequate to promote success in college and beyond. The collection presents six research studies describing the characteristics that predict thriving in different groups of college students, including first-year students, transfer students, high-risk students, students of color, sophomores, and seniors, and offers recommendations for helping students thrive in college and life.
Why Aren't We There Yet?: taking personal responsibility for creating an inclusive campus by
Despite seeming endless debate and public attention given to the issue for several decades, those committed to creating welcoming and engaging campus environments for all students recognize that there is considerably more work to be done, and ask "Why aren't we there yet, and when will we be done?" While our campuses have evolved from being exclusionary and intolerant, and publicly espouse the objectives of being welcoming, accepting, affirming, and engaging, the data on admissions, retention, and graduation clearly indicate that these goals have not been achieved. The contributors to this book seek to offer new insights to improve student affairs, emphasizing action that recognizes this is a complex and multi-faceted process, and beginning with the assertion that, without recognizing the influences of privilege and inequality, we educators cannot promote truly welcoming environments. This book focuses on guiding individuals and groups through learning how to have difficult conversations that lead us to act to create more just campuses, and provides illustrations of multiple ways to respond to difficult situations. It advocates for engaging in fruitful dialogues regarding differing social identities including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, to lead readers through a process that advocates for justice, and for taking personal responsibility for contributing to the solution. The book is framed around the five elements of the process of engaging in difficult conversations that not only advocate for change but also create change: self knowledge, knowledge of and experiences with others, understanding historical and institutional contexts, understanding how to change the status quo, and transformative action.