This piece of the retention puzzle will help you accurately portray the students who enroll at your institution. A review and analysis of student data can provide your institution with concrete solutions for the retention puzzle.

The goals of student assessment include:

• Identifying variables associated with students who are retained at your institution, as well as the variables associated with early departures from your institution.
• Informing your student-retention strategies to improve the opportunities for success for all enrolled students.

The retention model below provides a conceptual framework for analyzing multiple variables clustered by important decision points for your students.

Entering-Student Variables

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Student-Motivation Variables

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Student-Integration Variables

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Student’s Likelihood to Persist

Entering-student variables include all individualized student data available prior to official matriculation. These data often reside in the admissions and financial-aid areas.

Student-motivation variables measure the internal processes that guide student behavior, especially during the first term. These are the most challenging of the three sets of variables to quantify. These data often are housed in academic-support services or student affairs.

Student-integration variables include all individualized student data collected after the student enrolls. These data reside in academic affairs, student affairs, financial aid, student-support services, athletics and any other area that collects individualized student data.