Holding on to what they've got - analysis of programs implemented by six institutions to keep college students in school

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 20, 1997 by Nina Reyes

A generation ago, when there were more college-age

students than there were desks in America's public

and private colleges and universities, making sure

that students stayed in school was hardly a

priority. Even less exclusive institutions could be

selective about which students they admitted and

cavalier about those they lost.

Two things combined to change that

situation. The first is the smaller cohort of college-age

students. The second is the growing recognition that

educational achievement can ameliorate the effects of past

and present discrimination.

By the 1980s, programs designed to not just recruit

students but to keep them through graduation had become

common at colleges and universities throughout the United

States. Today, programs in colleges and universities run the

gamut from unadorned pre-college orientations to intensive

coursework that doesn't pause until students have diplomas.

Although many modern retention programs

evolved from efforts that were originally designed to

keep Black students in college, African American

students are still behind in the struggle to stay in

school.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association,

which researchers say is the only organization that

routinely monitors the graduation rates of individual

institutions, reports that only 36 percent of Black

students at public Division I colleges and universities

had graduated after six years, compared with 56

percent of white students. At Division I independent

schools, the graduation rates were at least 15

percentage points higher. However, the spread

between the chances of graduation for Black and

white students was still the same, at approximately 21

percent. (NCAA divisions are athletics-oriented groupings

based on institutional populations. Division I schools, by

and large, are the most-populated colleges and universities in

the country.)

Data which show high numbers of students of color who

are poorly prepared for college do not fully explain the

comparatively higher rates of dropouts in

many minority student groups. Randi Levitz,

executive vice president of USA Group

Noel-Levitz, said that her firm conducted a

study which showed that attitude and

motivation are more important than grades in

determining which students drop out.

According to the study, more than 37 percent

of the students who left school had

grade-point averages higher than 2.5.

"I don't think there's any single thing

that's more effective than something else. I

think what's more important is what is

effective for that institution according to

its resources," said Clinita Ford, the founder

and director of the National Higher Education

Conference on Black Student Retention. "In

general, extended orientation and academic

advisement are important. And we know that

you need to give attention to non-academic

factors such as faculty effectiveness and

behavior, interpersonal relationships, the

involvement of the students in the institution,

and so on."

But school officials and retention

specialists point out that these programs

weren't created simply because colleges and

universities suddenly developed a conscience

about the high numbers of their students who

were dropping out. Money was an important

motivator.

The number of high school seniors began

to steadily decline in the late 1970s. Fewer

incoming freshman meant fewer tuition dollars

and less per-student matching funds from

state and federal governments. As a result,

colleges and universities began trying to hold

onto the students they had rather than going

out to recruit replacements--from a dwindling

supply--for the ones they have lost through

attrition.

"If you can prevent, a student from

dropping out, it's much more cost effective

than going out and recruiting another one,"

explained Levitz. "Institutions are spending a

lot of money recruiting and they view

[retention programs] as protection of their

investment."

In the last few years, however, the

number of students graduating from high

school has begun increasing once again, and

demographics show that the trend will

continue for at least the next three decades.

This fact has some advocates of retention

efforts worried that interest in holding onto

students will correspondingly wane at

post-secondary institutions.

"If once again we are faced with more

students than we can really accommodate, is

anyone going to be committed to retention?"

said Betsy Barefoot, a co-director for research

and publication at the University of South

Carolina's National Resource Center for the

Freshman Year Experience and Students in

Transition. "None of us really know the

answer to that."

Still, the gap in educational

achievement persists--a fact

widely acknowledged by higher

education officials.

"It's very important that

we do not delude ourselves that

the issues that face poor people

and people of color have been

solved," said Morris Head, who

runs an academic support

program that focuses on

retention at San Francisco State

University. "Because they have

not."

"Institutions are making a

more concerted effort to

identify an academic profile for

success," said Dr. James

Anderson, a retention