Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning

Your State Adult Education Office:
Committing to Student Success
The Latest News from the Texas Education Agency

by Sheila Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Division of Adult and Community Education

To achieve success, students must stay in programs long enough to accomplish their goals.  Effective retention strategies encourage student persistence and raise retention rates. A commitment to student success means being flexible enough to accommodate students with changing life situations and goals and assisting them in overcoming obstacles.

A Checklist of Retention Strategies for Programs to Use

Support: Student Attendance and Persistence Improve when Support Services Meet Students Affective and Other Nonacademic Needs.

* Let students know that a support network is available, and help them establish links/rapport with the staff and other students.
* Provide educational and career planning counseling (transitioning). During intake, help students clarify realistic expectations; compatibility between student abilities and expectations and program requirements and expectations leads to student satisfaction and success.
* Establish caring, trusting relationships.  Demonstrating respect and concern and expressing confidence and encouragement help students overcome self-doubts and become more confident and motivated.
* Provide an intervention program that teaches problem-solving skills and coping strategies and helps students manage personal as well as educational transitions.
* Refer students with other nonacademic needs (transportation, child care, employability skills, job placement, health care, etc.) to appropriate agencies/services.
* Encourage or build on family support.

Instruction: High Quality Instruction is the Foundation of Effective Student Retention.

* Conduct a successful first class; "reach" every student.
* Build an adult-learner centered, rather than a program centered, program; apply adult learning principles, which include self-directed learning.
* Practice joint planning; regularly review students learning goals for possible changes and assess progress' toward meeting these goals.
* Help students convert their gains in self-confidence and higher expectations of self into expanded learning plans and new educational goals.
* Offer instruction that meets the purposes of students. Ensure that sessions are meaningful and productive so that students recognize their value and want to attend regularly.
* Provide clear, thorough explanations of content in a patient manner.
* Offer opportunities for students to apply learning as soon as possible so that they can perceive benefits.
* Provide feedback as soon as possible after performance. Regular feedback with checklists or graphs provides tangible evidence of progress and helps sustain motivation.
* Employ strategies that emphasize cooperation, maximize cooperation and maximize learner involvement in order to accelerate learning and foster self-direction.
* Plan strategies for periods when student progress is slow and students are at a high risk for withdrawal; focus on the importance of the small steps students make and the effort needed to succeed.
* Obtain student feedback about progress in relation to goals. Student participation fosters a sense of empowerment.

Consider Developing a Student Retention Team (SRT). With full staff representation, strong administrative support, and student-centered efforts, an SRT can help keep programs on target. The team can:

* coordinate the programs student-retention efforts;
* solve organizational problems that contribute to dropouts;
* foster the implementation of more effective instructional strategies;
* handle intervention;
* establish criteria and determine measures for student-retention accountability information; and
* collect, analyze, and report data on whether student's goals have been identified (in ACES), goals are' being met, and attendance is being maintained, and student retention rates are at an acceptable level - data that can help program administrators determine where change is needed (turning data into performance improvement).