ULM programs aim to retain students
Originally published August 5, 2007 in The (Monroe, La.) News-Star
In a few weeks, we will welcome our students, some for the first time, to the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
We are attracting more academically prepared students than ever before, and just as importantly, we are focusing on the successful journey of each student from the day they arrive at ULM until they day they graduate.
In higher education, we refer to those journeys as retention, persistence and student success, terms which we use interchangeably in both literature and everyday conversations. Generally, these terms can describe the progress a student is making toward a degree, or, in some cases, can describe the progress toward the student's educational goal.
Colleges and universities use persistence rates or retention rates to illustrate a student's progression from year to year. A 75 percent retention rate means that 75 percent of the students stayed in college from one year to the next, usually measured from one fall to the next. The ultimate goal of all retention programs is, of course, graduation.
Many of us recognize the American College Testing program, or ACT, as the organization that administers the test used for college admissions. ACT also provides a wide array of research and policy studies on topics such as high school redesign, teacher education, work force readiness and college student success.
A 2004 study titled "What Works in Student Retention?" investigated the prevalence and impact of particular retention practices at colleges and universities. In the 2004 report, ACT reported the most effective retention practices for four-year public colleges fell into three major categories:
- Academic advising such as intervention with selected student populations, increased advising staff, academic advising center and integration of academic advising with first-year transition programs
- First-year programs such as freshman seminar and learning communities
- Learning support such as supplemental instruction, learning assistance center/lab, reading center/lab, tutoring program and pre-enrollment orientation
ACT further stated three retention practices had the greatest impact at four-year public colleges:
- Freshman seminar
- Learning communities
- Advising interventions for selected student populations
Research on student behavior informs higher education officials about why students leave college before graduating and what works best to keep students in college.
ULM is actively working to assist students by working to understand which practices most effectively keep students enrolled.
ULM has established retention programs that not only mirror those identified by the 2004 ACT study, but exceed them. The ULM Success Center staff provides tutoring, testing and academic advising, as well as coordinates our freshman year seminar program.
The staff of the Success Center, assisted by our faculty, provides intervention to academically stressed students through our "Early Alert" program.
We have recorded substantial improvement in the retention rates of those students engaged our many Learning Communities, which foster success by engaging students of the same major. The efforts of the retention staff and many of our retention programs will be upgraded with this fall's construction of the new state-of-the-art Clarke M. Williams Student Success Center, located near the library.
Students at ULM also benefit from our continuous evaluation and improvement of our advising system. This spring we introduced "Flight Path," an online advising system developed by ULM computing center staff. This new program allows students to plan interactively and receive immediate feedback on questions such as, "What happens if I change majors?"
However, even integrating the latest technology does not lessen how we value human interaction.
In the latest ACT Student Satisfaction Survey, students at ULM rated their faculty significantly above the national average in both the availability of their adviser and the value of the information provided by faculty.
In addition, students who do not have a major are given special assistance by the Success Center staff.
We hear of many colleges that give special tutoring assistance to athletes, but at ULM we provide tutoring and supplemental assistance to all of our students.
The Writing Center and math laboratories are in constant use. Because technological enhancements such as those as I explained in my last two columns, we are significantly expanding both of those labs.
In addition to these "best practices" implemented at ULM, our faculty and staff designed and implemented the Emerging Scholars program, where senior faculty work in teams with freshman and sophomore students on live research. This research does not count for credit and faculty members do not get paid; it exists for the sheer joy of learning.
Designing and implementing retention strategies does not have a clear beginning, middle or end. It is complex and continuous, and it involves analysis, implementation, assessment and further analysis. Coupled with the fact that what motivates a group of freshman may work one year and not the next, retention strategies are ever changing, and we are always researching efforts for improvement.