Student attrition is costly.
- One Student Lost 1st Semester = $1200 (12 credit hour per semester...12 x $100.00)
- One Student Lost Over Next Three Years = $7200 (6 semesters @12 credits/semester)
- One Cohort Lost Over Next 4 - 6 Years = $7, 200,000 (Attrition rate for your school 20%; total loss of students 1,000 x $7,200)
Additional losses:
- parking permits, unattended parent visits, sporting events
- alumni who never become alumni
- financial cost to student who never completed the degree
CONTEXT:
Postsecondary institutions have experienced a broader and more diverse student body with shifts reported in the ethnoracial and socioeconomic distributions of students. Since 1976 there has been a decrease of 20% in White student enrollments and since 1998 a 4% decrease in upper income groups with more enrollments found in historically underserved groups. However, there are significantly lower degree attainment rates reported for Hispanic (18.6%), Native American (22.5%), Black 26.2% and low-income (26%) students than there are for White (42.2%) and Asian (59.2%) students.1 Unfortunately, our postsecondary education system in its present state is not yet equipped to foster underserved groups who must become a priority if our nation is to improve these attainment rates.
In recent years, many postsecondary institutions have created developmental programs attempting to support the academic performance of students. More than purely charitable in aim, these programs, by providing such support, aid the students in persisting more effectively, resulting in higher rates of degree attainment. On the other hand, there are additional reasons for low persistence and degree attainment that are not currently being addressed. Social and psychological factors like chronic life stress, personal, family and cultural values of education have not yet been introduced nor examined in association to the impact on success indicators such as engagement, persistence and attainment. In spite of adversities like poverty, exposure to violence, racism, and oppression, many of our underserved students also bring a collection of life skills that when identified can be tapped into and shifted in order to meet the demands of their studies.
APPROACH & RESULTS:
This presentation examines the first two phases of five within an ADDIE model, designed to address the institutional performance measures and practices of a national postsecondary institution. During the first phase, a screening survey was used with a national sample of online and blended learning students to clarify the project's goals and objectives related to the prevalence of adverse life events. These results suggested that adverse life events do in fact appear to be associated with negative degree attainment outcomes, especially in underserved groups and additional evidence suggests further investigation is warranted with military student veterans.
Remarkably, in a follow up to the initial results from the student sample, a review of the literature on traumatic experiences and college populations returned very little, in fact only three articles were retrieved in total but of these three studies found all indicated that traumatic events are pervasive amongst college students.
The following prevalence rates for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptoms are as follows:
- 20% of traditional age female undergraduate students2
- No rates were reported amongst various ethnoracial groups of students but Black and Hispanic students were found to have significantly higher rates of traumatic exposure associated with violence than White or Asian student groups3
- 100% of a sample of low-income urban women without a college degree3
- 14.1% in female student veterans and 9.1% in male student veterans
Guided by these findings, an interactive prototype of a secure online portal was designed. This prototype will be demonstrated for participants of this presentation, including the surveys and supplemental materials that were developed.
The Organizational and Student Self-Assessment Surveys are intended for all members in a postsecondary system: 1) Administrators, 2) Faculty, 3) Support Staff, 4) Students and 5) Community Partners, assessed on two levels of the system (services and operations) across five domains: Personal & Professional Development, Stable & Supportive Environment, Assessment & Planning, Empowerment & Choices, and Adapting Policy. User's Guide provide important definitions, clear roadmaps for Self-Assessment Survey use including an overview of each of the domains for all members of the system.
Given the noted problems in degree attainment for historically underserved student groups, the noted limitations of the academic support alone, the lack of research found in this area and the prevalence of PTSD and trauma related symptoms, the objective of this project and presentation is to increase the understanding of all members within the postsecondary system of how life adversities, or trauma, impact each individual student's ability to engage, to persist and to complete college.
Participants will be exposed to a conceptual framework that is rooted in the trauma-informed model for human services programs spearheaded by the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care.
Participants will discover the impact of trauma on standard performance measures (i.e., engagement, persistence and attainment)
Participants will explore how the interactive prototype, Global Transitions, will track statistical analyses based on web trends of user engagement across the entire system as a cost-effective solution to a complex and costly problem.
Participants will have the opportunity to incorporate this innovative perspective into their postsecondary education system as an enhancement to existing practices for student success, especially with underserved groups and military student populations.
Global Transitions will shift the effects of adverse life events or traumatic experiences into the skills needed for students to attain their degrees in a 21st century knowledge-based world.
References:
1. National Center for Education Statistics (2009). Digest of Education Statistics: 2009 (Table 201). DC: Department of Education. Mortenson, Tom. 2009. "College Completion Rates 1947-2007," Postsecondary Education Opportunity. March 2009, Issue 201.
2. Smyth, JM, Hockemeyer, JR, Heron, KE, Wonderlich, SA, Pennebaker, JW. (2008) Prevalence, type, disclosure, and severity of adverse life events in college students. J Am Coll Health. 2008 Jul-Aug;57(1):69-76.
3. Ford, J. (2011). Ethnoracial and Educational Differences in Victimization History, Trauma-Related Symptoms, and Coping Style. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. APA
