Understanding Persistence to Graduation: Data Trends and Applications for Student Retention

1. Persistence to Graduation:Current data trends and potential applications. First Year Experiences Conference February 1, 2011 Presented by: Mike Sauer and Linda Shepard

2. Retention Resources • Persistence Reporting - The Registrar's office provides enrollment trends on all 42,000 students (undergraduate, graduate, professional and nondegree) from one term to the following spring (or fall). • Externally Released Retention information- University Institutional Research and Reporting provides retention data for (approximately 7,000) new students. • Special studies – • National Student Clearinghouse • Business Intelligence Retention Project

5. Cohort Retention (~7000 beginners)

14. Where do the non-returning students go? • NATIONAL STUDENT CLEARINGHOUSE Student Tracker Report • We provided NSC with a list of the 1,003 students from the Fall 2008 beginner cohort that did not enroll in Fall 2009. • For every student on our list, they provide a record of each enrollment at NSC participating institutions (Over 3,300 colleges/92% of college students) • For each enrollment record, they provide the following information: Student name, enrollment status (F,H,L,W, Blank), college name and state code, whether 2-year or 4-year, public or private, and the begin date associated with each record.

15. Where do the non-returning students go? NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE DATA – WHAT WE FOUND: Of the 1,003 Fall 2008 beginner students who were NOT retained at IU in Fall 2009: • NSC had some kind of enrollment record for 80% of these students, but... • Some had enrollment status of ‘W’ or Blank • Some of the records were associated with term begin dates in 2008 and 2010 (not of interest for this) • After removing all cases in previous point, 45% (454 students) had an enrollment record in 2009 that was not a ‘W’ or Blank

16. Where do the non-returning students go? NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE DATA – WHAT WE FOUND (Cont.): • Of those 454 that reenrolled at another university in 2009… • 72% of nonresidents enrolled at an institution in their home state • 81% of residents enrolled at an institution in Indiana. • 80% of nonresidents enrolled at a 4 year institution, compared to 56% of resident students • 20% of nonresidents enrolled at a 2 year institution, compared to 44% of resident students • 90% of all students enrolled full time

17. Where do the non-returning students go? NATIONAL CLEARING HOUSE DATA – WHAT WE FOUND (Cont.): • Of the 177 students from Indiana who enrolled at another college or university in Indiana… • 50% went to an Ivy Tech campus (20% to Ivy Tech Bloomington) • 15% went to Purdue • 15% went to Ball State • 10% went to University of Southern  Indiana • Other schools in Indiana include Anderson, Franklin, Huntington, another IU campus, St Josephs, U of Evansville, U of Indianapolis.

18. BI Retention Project • Student Tracking Query - General • Can define population either by a standard set of parameters or by the provision of a pre-defined list of UID’s • Can track students as far back as 1998 • Can track fall only, or both fall and spring terms • Can track multiple ‘cohorts’ in one query • Looks for information for up to 3 degrees received • Based on official census snapshot file (end of first week of classes), but for certain data it uses other snapshot time periods (corrected grades, e.g.)

19. BI Retention Project • Student Tracking Query – Data Output • Academic Objective (career, program, plan) • Academic Preparation (SAT/ACT, HS rank, HS name/city/state, HS GPA • Bio/Demo (name, gender, ethnicity, birth date) • Admissions Info (application number/center/date, admit type/term, home city/state/zip) • Degree Info for 3 degrees (institution, plan, education level, gpa, completion term, ‘terms to degree’) • Tracking Data for every fall/spring semester from start term (residency, institution, career, class/level, ft/pt, academic group/program/plan, cumulative GPA at first week and end of term, term gpa, term and cumulative grade points and units)

20. BI Retention Project • Student Tracking Query – Reports • “Persistence tracking report”: For each cohort/population, it shows… • the initial population size at start term, • Number and percent of population enrolled in each consecutive term following start term • Number and percent of population that received a degree on or before each consecutive term following start term • Number and percent of population that were not enrolled and did not receive a degree on or before each consecutive term following start term

22. BI Retention Project • Student Tracking Query - Beneficiaries • Intensive Freshmen Seminar (IFS) • Residential Programs and Services (RPS) • Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) • 21st Century Scholars • Early Warning System • Schools (Education, e.g.) • Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) • Transfers • International Students • Students from particular recruitment regions (Seattle analysis) • Ivy Tech – Hoosier Link

23. Retention Resources • Persistence Reporting - The Registrar's office provides enrollment trends on all 42,000 students (undergraduate, graduate, professional and nondegree) from one term to the following spring (or fall). • Externally Released Retention information- University Institutional Research and Reporting provides retention data for (approximately 7,000) new students. • Special studies – email