College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success

by Alan Seidman Walden University (Editor)

Overview

College student retention continues to be a top priority among colleges, universities, educators, federal and state legislatures, parents and students. While access to higher education is virtually universally available, many students who start in a higher education program do not complete the program or achieve their academic and personal goals. In spite of the programs and services colleges and universities have devoted to this issue, student retention and graduation rates have not improved considerably over time.

College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success, Third Edition offers a solution to this vexing problem. It provides background information about college student retention issues and offers the educational community pertinent information to help all types of students succeed. The book lays out the financial implications and trends of retention. Current theories of retention, retention of online students, and retention in community colleges are also thoroughly discussed. Completely new to this edition are chapters that examine retention of minority and international students. Additionally, a formula for student success is provided which if colleges and universities implement student academic and personal goals may be attained.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475872354
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/09/2024
Series:	The ACE Series on Higher Education
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Alan Seidman is Professor Emeritus at Walden University and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of College Student Retention (www.cscsr.org). He is the founding editor of the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, a scholarly, refereed Sage publication.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Past to Present: A Historical Look at Retention

Joseph B. Berger, Geraldo Blanco Ramirez, Susan Lyons, and Alan Seidman

Chapter 2: Measurements of Persistence

Nicole Brunt, Thomas G. Mortenson

Chapter 3: Retention Theories, Models and Concepts

Loretta Silverman

Chapter 4: How to Define Retention: A New Look at an Old Problem

Linda Serra Hagedorn

Chapter 5: Finances and Retention: Trends and Inplications

Ann Gansemer-Topf, John H. Schuh

Chapter 6: Pre-College and Institutional Influences on Degree Attainment

Leticia 'seguera, Tong Li

Chapter 7: Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Degree Completion among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students

Hector Ramos

Chapter 8: Retaining the Online Student

Leilani Gjellstad, Jenny Sherer

Chapter 9: Student Success in and through Community Colleges

Gloria Crisp & Charlie Potter

Chapter 10: Supporting Black HBCU Students and Serving Latinx Students at HSIs

Tryan L. McMickens, Robert Palmer, Larry J. Walker

Chapter 11: International Students: Retention Trends and Issues

Noel Bynum

Chapter 12: Student Persistence and Degree Attainment beyond the First Year in College

Alan Seidman

Chapter 13: Moving From Theory to Action: A Framework for Institutional Action

Vincent Tinto

Chapter 14: Taking Action: It is Easier Than You Think

Alan Seidman

Editorial Reviews

Thoughtful attention to detail is Alan Seidman's hallmark. The third edition is a primer for persistence and retention research in higher education for campus administrators in a way that makes the steps involved at once both plausible to carry out and understandable to explain the results to audiences at many levels of sophistication. His goal is to make every student feel mattered and a citizen contributing to modern culture.

Charles Eberly

For college and university administrators and faculty to successfully address their student retention challenges, they need to place their efforts in contexts beyond their specific institution. Seidman and colleagues, in a single text, provide a valuable historical, definitional, theoretical, empirical, financial, and practical context for framing retention strategy.

David Kalsbeek

The ever-more challenging economics and politics of higher education have elevated the complex issues of college retention and persistence, making this second edition of Seidman’s 2005 classic volume especially timely. The chapter authors are first-rate scholars, with most of the chapters thoroughly updated and with important additions, such as the special circumstances of community colleges and the effect of technology and on-line learning on retention and persistence. This is a must-read reference for students, scholars, and (one can only hope)policy-makers contending with the immensely difficult challenge of improving institutional retention and student persistence for the sake both of our economy and of those students we are currently losing.

D. Bruce Johnstone

As a college president for forty-five years, I agonize over the issues of admission and retention since both impact so directly on finances and upon the ability of our higher education institutions to function effectively. This group of diverse specialists, under the lead editorship of Alan Seidman, has put together a master work on the subject of retention — from defining and measuring it, to determining its past history and future promise. It goes beyond the theories, so well-worn, to projected actions in policies, programs, and practices that institutions can adopt and which help students — and therefore colleges — succeed.

Joseph N. Hankin

This books makes a significant contribution to research on student retention. It provides a formula to strengthen institutional student retention practices. Despite a myriad of academic support programs, only 50 percent of U.S. students entering higher education actually earn a bachelor's degree. Seidman describes a formula for helping students to successfully complete their education that is based upon early, intensive, and continuous intervention.

Journal Of College Student Development