Historically, retention, persistence, and graduation rates have been used as indicators of a college's success. While these measures may shed light on what is happening among an institution's students, they are not always as meaningful as they appear. This community college believed that these performance indicators were not accurately reflecting the success of its students. As an offshoot of the college's Retention Committee, the Student Intention Survey was created and administered to the college's credit students as a means to identify student goals, accomplishment of these goals, and how they relate to retention. The results of this study helped explain student retention in terms of student goals and intentions, and identified factors related to positive and negative attrition.
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