College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success (review)
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The massification of higher education in the United States, now standing at 14 million students and counting, has also magnified the issue of student retention and persistence in our nation's colleges and universities. Over one third of beginning postsecondary students leave without a degree after six years, and only half of those with a goal of a bachelor's degree reach their goal (Berkner, He, & Cataldi, 2002, p. 10).
Because students receive a public subsidy to attend these institutions and because higher education is a big government-sponsored industry, retention is at the heart of the college-cost dialogue on Capitol Hill and in state capitals. Even with the knowledge that higher education—especially open-door institutions—performs a public service, politicians are keenly aware of the inefficiency and expense of our system and are beginning to ask for greater accountability from college administrators.
College Student Retention, a new ACE/Praeger book edited by Alan Seidman, provides a perspective on issues important to the study of student retention. In doing so, he has assembled an excellent cadre of authors, including Vincent Tinto, John Bean, Alberto Cabrera, and John Braxton. The book covers important ground in many respects but also has its share of academic "filler." Because it is an academic publication, my guess is that most readers will enjoy the academic discussion. Others looking for more pragmatic, practical information won't find it here.
Some of the best chapters include those by Linda Hagedorn, Thomas Mortenson, Bean, and Tinto. Mortenson, editor of Postsecondary Opportunity and senior scholar at the Pell Institute, writes about the various measures and definitions of retention and persistence. In fact, the title of his chapter, "Measurements of Persistence," brings to light the dissonance in our addressing the issue as either "retention" or "persistence." Albeit similar concepts, they are not the same thing, but no one seems to mind. Retention typically focuses on passing from one period of time to another, as in semester-to-semester or year-to-year. Persistence is reserved for a student's ability to achieve the end goal, usually a certificate or degree. This issue is described in Chapter 4 by Linda Hagedorn, although she uses an National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) definition of the two terms that I find unsatisfying.
Mortenson does an excellent job of defining the types of measurements and the data sources available. He also provides information on the strengths and limitations of each measure. Typical of his analytical work, Mortenson stresses ACT and U.S. Census data, even though the latter are very limited in telling us much about retention or persistence. Census data do tell us about participation but are limited by self-reporting and weak samples. ACT data are generally very good.
What I found astonishing was the absence of NCES data, especially the longitudinal datasets and IPEDS. Longitudinal sets, such as National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS), and Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) are staples of retention research and should be included in Mortenson's chapter. Cabrera et al. appropriately use the High School & Beyond (HSB) database in Chapter 7.
An excellent follow-up to Mortenson's chapter is Linda Hagedorn's chapter, "How to Define Retention." Since the two cover similar ground, it may have been better to have placed them back-to-back. Hagedorn showcases the complexity of calculating "retention" statistics and warns that graduation rates are not retention. If anything, this chapter is an argument for unit-record data collection and analysis. Those of us who work with data understand the need to go that route, even if a few association and college heads do not.
John Braxton and Amy Hirschy's "Theoretical Developments in the Study of College Student Departure" provides a historical background on the development of retention theory, for those that find this information useful. Tinto's work is always at the core of these discussions, and Braxton has spent considerable career time trying...
