Increasing One-Year Retention Rates by Focusing on Academic Competence: An Empirical Odyssey

Abstract

This article chronicles the 5-year effort of a comprehensive student development and advising center to identify the most effective support programs for increasing one-year retention rates for first-time freshmen at an urban metropolitan university. An initial analysis of student satisfaction data suggested that the institution had neglected the potential role of learning skills in promoting the academic integration that leads to institutional conmitment and persistence in Tinto's (1993) student departure model. Focusing on students admitted in good academic standing, successive program development and evaluation efforts made it clear that the route to improving retention rates lay in increasing student learning skills and academic efficacy. The progression from intrusive advising programs to integrated and systematic learning skills instruction resulted in substantial gains in first-year retention rates for program participants. Such gains depended upon the development of a system of highly focused interventions and a commitment to the objective assessment of the retention impact of each intervention. In keeping with the injunctions of the Student Learning Imperative (Kuh et al., 1996), student affairs offices are urged to play a fundamental role in student retention by helping students acquire the active learning skills that facilitate academic integration and institutional commitment.