Improving Student Retention

By Sue Hodges

The sheer number of students who drop out of adult education programs before attaining essential workforce skills and personal goals is a tremendous challenge for educators across America. State and federal statistics report attrition rates (the number of students leaving a program before completion) as high as 60 to 70 percent. They range from the teenager who forfeits his education for minimum wages, to the welfare mom overwhelmed with too many demands on her life, to the more mature learner whose academic progress is not commensurate with his/her personal timeline.

In order to combat this problem, Brevard Public Schools, through an adult education grant, has developed a Web-based program for the Florida Department of Education. This self-paced program, for which in-service points may be received, provides teachers with tools and techniques to improve student retention in adult education. It is designed to be completed in approximately ten hours, with part of the course completed on the Web and part in the classroom.

Located at www.aceofflorida.org/inservice, this program consists of a pre-test, a post-test, articles discussing attrition, and a capstone, or final project. This final project consists of a retention study of the teacher’s class, three strategies for success to implement in that classroom, a retention success story, and the posting of class results to the bulletin board to be shared with others.

The retention study guides teachers, step-by-step, through the calculation of total class retention, plus the retention of males, females, age groups, and racial and ethnic groups. Analyzing class retention rates and attendance patterns can offer valuable insight into the class make-up. Based upon this data, the teacher can arrive at a “Data-Driven Decision” that can help him/her cope more effectively with a high absentee/retention rate.

One of the most outstanding features of this program is research from well-known authors in the field of adult education who agree that students are continually assessing the disadvantages of a program versus the benefits. If the adult education program they are attending is not living up to their expectations (no matter how unrealistic these may be), education ceases to be a priority in their lives. If this happens and they drop out of the program before completion, we not only have program failure but a staggering loss of human potential that ripples out into every area of our students’ lives, including the educational, social, and economic levels of their children.I highly recommend this Web-based program to every adult educator. Although there is no magic formula to ensure student success, this program will help you create a more student-friendly environment and enrich your quality of instruction that should, in turn, improve your student retention.