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Examining education:
Finding ways to fix retention rate
By Kimberly Pasquis
Daily Forty Niner
The retention rates
of a university are of great concern to administrators because
without students a university cannot be successful or have
notable status.
According to the CSULB Institutional Research Web site, Cal
State Long Beach first-time freshmen have had an average retention
rate of 80.58 percent in the last five years. The retention
rate, or persistence rate, translates as the number of freshmen
who return for their second year, according to the Web site.
"These numbers come from enrollment records and census
files taken after four weeks of instruction," said Van
Novack, director of Institutional Research.
The Graduation Rates and Retention Committee has distributed
questionnaires to each college to decide what the factors
are for students to continue with their education and graduate.
"We want to be able to decide what is effective,"
Novack said. "Workshops and retreats will be offered
to promote graduation and retention rates."
Graduation rates are also linked to retention. Since a very
small percentage of students are full time, the number of
years it takes to graduate is still high. Although the rate
has been steadily decreasing in past years, the 2000-2001
class averaged 5.96 years to graduate, according to the Institutional
Research Web site.
There is a demand in enrollment as universities are trying
to educate more people. This demand is one reason why the
California State University system has decided to go to a
year-round operation, according to Novack. The hope is that
students will take advantage of taking classes at the normal
rate and be able to graduate sooner.
Currently in the works, the University of California and the
CSU system will collaborate to trace what happens to students
who do not persist with their education, Novack said. As it
stands now, students who leave a university are recorded into
university records as those who dropped out. By this new strategy,
the universities will be able to see if a student changed
schools because they changed majors rather than forgetting
about their education altogether.
"The campus cares about this issue," Novack said.
"This is what we are here for, to get students to come
here, keep them here and have them graduate here."
Student Transition and Retention Services is working with
students on a much closer level on this issue. It is a relatively
new department on campus that has been conducting research
with students, which will lead to programs and policies on
campus to increase the retention rate at CSULB.
"We have been involved in data collection which includes
focus groups where we find out what frustrates students,"
said John Karras, director of Student Transition and Retention
Services. "We conduct phone interviews with students
that have left the university without a degree."
Through initial findings, main reasons for not continuing
have been that students do not utilize their academic advisors
on campus. Many seem to not have a mentor on campus. The lack
of availability of classes is another main issue for leaving.
Additional problems in juggling work, family and financial
issues were another reason students dropped out.
This semester, the group just compiles the information. The
problems will be addressed later.
"We want to find a definition of factors that we can
control," Karras said. "It has become more
of a concern as the university moves to be more of a freshman-based
population rather than transfer based."
The department has an emphasis of advising students as freshmen
to help them get off to a good start. The importance is to
keep students and see them through to graduation.
"Retention has become a field of study at a national
level as more students attend college than ever before,"
Karras said. "The issue is still mid-stream, but hopefully
we will be able to develop programs that will combat this
problem."
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