#CSAM18 Day 28: Retention, Persistence, and You: Partners in College Student Success*

This is a long one, folks. The tl;dr is that retention and graduation are byproducts of success, and that our work should be driven by theory to implement programs and services that we know improve student success. If you’re in for a longer read than that sentence, read on, dear reader.

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We bandy the terms retention and persistence around all the time, and often use them as the driving force behind the initiatives we create and implement. And, quite frankly, we should, at least to some extent.

But here’s the thing.

First, terminology. Students persist, colleges retain. The act of persisting is done by the one actually moving through a situation, while colleges work to retain students at a given institution. They are not the same term, and should not be used interchangeably.

Second, focus. Retention and persistence (and, ultimately, graduation) are byproducts of student success. Kuh and Pascarella (and Astin, and Levine, and Padilla, among others) touch on this in their writings. Tinto gets to it directly, and as Chelsea wrote on Day 25, Tinto’s theory notes that we have to attune to the entire student. It is not enough, nor prudent, for us to focus on our goal for a student (retention/graduation); rather, we need to focus on what the student needs at a given moment in time, to help them be successful - be that successful in class, in their personal lives, financially, spiritually, health-wise… you name it. This is where we get to engage directly with a student (see Day 23) to positively affect them.

Third, purpose. The work we do should be purposeful, with that purpose being something other than “help students persist” or “retain students.” The purpose, as I noted above, should be about improving students’ overall chances of success. Tinto calls this integration. Kuh’s work puts this not only on the shoulders of faculty, whose job it is to help students learn and succeed in the classroom, but also on our shoulders as student affairs professionals. Pascarella, to me, is a direct application of Tinto’s theory, with particular emphasis on purposefully creating opportunities for students and faculty to interact. We can do that (and many of us *do* do that), but I suspect that on many campuses, academic affairs and student affairs occupy two separate areas of campus, and nary the two shall meet.

And that’s the thing. The theories tell us what we need to know - as does the research. In a paper written for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Tinto notes that the challenge is not in figuring out what to do that will work to enhance student success, and, as a result, retention and graduation. He says the challenge is scaling what we know works from the pilot project to a university-wide effort. In this essay, he’s talking specifically about the classroom, but I think we can look more broadly than that. We don’t need to reinvent an implementation of learning communities, for example. There’s plenty of research, books, etc., that point both to the outcomes a fidelitous implementation of learning communities can bring an institution, as well as the concrete steps that need to be done to implement such a program. Institutions don’t need to keep trying things out until they land on something that works; chances are, something like whatever it is that’s been conceived is already in existence.

So how can we use these theories to guide our work to increase student success?

First, as I said on day 23, go back and read them. They’re each chock full of ideas that could be put to use on any given campus in some way, shape, or form.

Second, take a look around your own campus and ask some pertinent questions. What efforts are underway at present? Are any of them duplications? Is the end goal to help students be successful or help retain them (the difference may seem subtle, even pedantic, but what you’re trying to do in the immediate sense will color the implementation of a program)? Do they adhere to a specific theory? If not, can you (gently) work with those overseeing the program and try to apply theory? If so, can you figure out how to insert yourself/your area/student affairs in general into the effort?

Third, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Pascarella’s theory, for example, states (in short) that to increase student success, increase the quality of the interactions between students and faculty. You don’t need a committee to figure out that this needs to happen. You may need one (that includes faculty) to determine how best to do this and to implement it, but you don’t need to come up with the idea on your own.

Fourth, do assessment. See what is actually working on your campus (I’d start with the initiatives under your purview) and what isn’t achieving the goals they purport to. Once you’ve done the assessment, see if it’s time to sundown any efforts in favor of other things that might be better uses of time, resources, and people.

Five, tie the work to theory and publish it. Find a venue and write up a thought paper. Give a presentation at a national/regional/local conference. Drop something in a faculty newsletter. However you choose to talk about this work, talk about it. Theories only stay relevant if a) they’re referenced, b) they’re used, and c) they’re updated to fit the time in which we’re trying to apply them (assuming they don’t already directly apply). Your application of a theory, and potential rigorous assessment/research of an effort employing said theory, should be put into the universe so others can learn from you (see two paragraphs ago about not reinventing wheels).

If you’re still reading this, thanks for sticking with it. If you get nothing else out of this e-book of a blog post, remember this: retention, persistence, and graduation are byproducts of success, and our work should be driven by theory to increase student success. Thanks for reading.

*Title shamelessly adapted from the film in this Simpsons episode (S7Ep05)

Matthew D. Pistilli, PhD, directs this office in this area on this campus and is really appreciative that Chelsea allowed him to play on her blog for a couple of days during this important month of posts.

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