For too long student retention has been considered just an enrollment-development issue. A new and better-informed perspective is that retention and good educational practices are synonymous. Therefore, it is far more accurate to view retention as being the result of satisfying and enriching experiences in the classroom and elsewhere throughout the campus. Accordingly, students persist when they are experiencing substantive learning and personal growth that is linked to their futures.

With this perspective it becomes clear that retention is a campuswide responsibility, meaning there are many pieces to the retention puzzle. Mobilizing the entire campus to put the pieces together is the answer to getting the best retention results.

Putting together the retention puzzle will:

1. Increase student learning and personal development.
2. Reduce the dropout rate.
3. Enhance institutional effectiveness.
4. Upgrade institutional image and reputation.

Focusing on individual pieces of the puzzle (institutional assessment, student assessment, institutional interventions and student interventions) will likely result in isolated, but limited, results. It’s only when the entire campus comes together that ultimate retention results are achieved.

Lee Noel, Ph.D.
Co-founder of Noel-Levitz