University of Washington | Tacoma
Office of Academic Affairs
Date: May 30, 2014
From: Ginger MacDonald, Chair Academic Assessment Committee
To: JW Harrington, and others working on retention/student success efforts
What Academic and Academic Support Units Need to Create Retention Plans
In January 22, 2014, the Academic Assessment Committee was asked by Ginger
MacDonald and Cyndy Snyder to think about data needed for improvement of student
success. We asked:
“We thought it might be helpful to structure your thinking and responding
about retention planning. As you do so, think broadly about data and
information, including Institutional Research-based data, surveys, ethnographic,
etc. Based upon our discussion in our meeting and the sample tables and
thought questions we provided… please answer the following questions:”
The following represent the breadth of their responses (repetitions are not included):
Academic Programs/School:
If you currently track retention for your students, at what point do you begin tracking?
From academic units
o When they indicate major preference
o During admissions
o When pre-req’s are complete
o At entry if we see they express interest
o When they declare a major and have minimum credits and prerequisites
complete
o At first enrollment of class in major
o We compare the number of students admitted to the [unit] to the
number of students that graduate.
o We reach out to them in the Core
Other: (from AAC)
o Using and not using My Plan
o Meeting with an advisor or not
o The effect of timing (1st quarter 1st year/2nd quarter 2nd year, etc) on
student completion of DWIF courses
o Students soon to receive a 105 credit hold (as predictive, then we
contact)
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How do you currently obtain retention data/information?
o Reports from EDW
o Advisors
o Field coordinators
o Faculty members
o students who either learn of a student leaving or the student tells us
directly
How do you categorize students who leave your program to attend another UWT
program?
o Advisors put notes into the Electronic Advising Records System (EARS)
o Only happened once. Categorized the student a “enrolling another
major”
o Some student stay oblivious of need to declare a major
o Students may add or drop a major without us being informed,
sometimes courtesy notices from advising, but rarely happens
For Academic Programs/Schools and Academic Support Units (Faculty/staff
discussion):
What data/information would help you create a retention plan for your
Program/School/Unit:
o An exit survey for students who leave. Why do they leave?
o It would be very helpful to get retention information for by majors.
o Statistics giving us the number who have left our program on a
quarterly or annual basis would be great.
o We don't have a good sense of how big a problem retention is for us or
how we compare to other majors at UWT.
o It would also be good to get some demographic statistics tied to
retention data so we could see whether there is a particular type of
student we tend to lose (first generation, students of color,
veterans/military, etc.).
o It would also be helpful to know why they left, but this might be beyond
our data gathering capabilities since they don't always tell us when they
leave, let alone why.
o We work hard to retain students by being responsive to their concerns;
working with them within limits when they have difficulty; working with
them to understand their options such as taking a leave, slowing down
their progress, etc., but we don't have an actual retention plan.
o WHO is not being retained? (freshmen, transfer, seniors, populations
such as 1st generation or multilingual)
o DWIF courses
o UWT barrier courses-do we know what they are?
o Academic program information including curriculum
growth/curriculum/course difficulties
o Any relevant data re. STEM or writing success
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We would like a plan
We would like to see examples of a plan
We are discussing this as a faculty this year, then we’ll know.
What role does personal finance have on student retention? Possibly
determined via data collected such as the following:
o Are students who get Grants and other forms of aide like
tuition reimbursement staying longer?
o Do students report financial duress as a primary factor in their
decision?
What role does the quality of the education have on student’s
decisions to leave
Possibly determined via data collected such as
the following:
o To what extent do students leave or switch programs because
of concerns with the quality of instruction?
o To what extent are students leaving do to a lack of electives or
choice in the courses that they take (this should be examined at
all levels – freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)?
o To what extent do students leave to go to other 4 year schools
that are within commuting distance?
o Determination of on-line vs. traditional class room education as
an indicator of quality and retention as a separate variable to be
factored in to the mix.
What role does student involvement play in student’s decision to stay?
o To what extent does student involvement in an Internship
contribute to retention
o To what extent does student club membership contribute to
student retention
NOTE: This may be a skewed sample as these students may
already be inclined to stay as they are likely “joiners” that have
a social need that is also being fulfilled in the educational
environment.
To what extent can “brand loyalty” be attributed to student retention e.g.)identification with the “Huskies” or seeing oneself as a “UW”
loyalist?
What is the relationship of student retention to entrance criteria?
Possibly determined via data collected such as the following:
o
correlation with GPA
o
Correlation with Entrance Exams
o
Correlation with SAT and ACT scores
o
Correlation with TOEFL scores
Related to prior point, to what extent are students leaving because of a
lack of preparation or an inability to perform adequately at the college
level?
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What is the relationship of GPA at time of departure to leaving the
program?
What resources are needed to help students overcome potential
barriers in preparation?
What are the factors that we cannot control, e.g.) Worker relocation,
trailing spouse, military commitments, job opportunities out of the
area etc.
NOTE: These factors are important to determine as we can then be
more focused on the retention factors that we CAN control.
In addition to creating your own retention plan, what data/information would help
you create a plan for your unit to support retention efforts for UWT?
o How do we compare to other units at UWT?
o Where do our ex-students go when they leave UWT?
o We would like to know how our retention plan integrates with the rest
of UWT, as we believe that we have only a small number of students
who leave. However, based on our analysis, we may be better able to
determine how to support the UWT retention efforts. For example, if
we find that our … students are leaving due to financial reasons, we
might need to work with the appropriate UWT staff about new sources
of funding with this information being used by others at UWT.
o student surveys
o TLC student surveys
Additional comments:
Limitations of present data collection techniques:
Demographic Data is not useful for Inferences.
Presently retention data exists that reflects census type / demographic factors
including such information as Gender, age, and ethnicity. Although possible to find a
correlation between said variables and attrition, this type of data analysis does not go
far enough to make any degree of determination as to how these factors play a role in
the correlation, or if in fact the relationship is more of an anomaly that simply appears
to matter.
Two possible areas of exception to the usefulness of currently collected data are as
follow:
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What is the relationship with retention for different points of entry into the
program?
o Direct admits into [degree]
o Direct admits to UWT
o Transfer from TCC vs. Pierce, etc. (2 year programs in local area)
o Transfer from other 4 year colleges
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o Military Veterans
What is the relationship with retention for First Generation College Students?
What is the relationship with retention for International Students on Visa or
otherwise
ESL students? * (ESL is likely not specifically measured).
So, as you can see from the above list, there are many variables at work here that
would potentially aide us in determining how to address the “problem” of retention
such that we can then in the future adjust and accommodate the areas which are found
to be significant in predicting the likelihood that a student will not finish the program.
A better understanding of why students are leaving UWT should help us improve
retention.
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