Agreed and Rewarding

Being in an institution where retention is a concern I have detailed discussions with faculty and staff pertaining to the issue. One point I have been able to convey was that making it easy isn't going to help retention and that there needs to be a degree of self-responsibility that goes hand in hand with helping the students. Retention is the key to recruiting not the other way around. WHy work twice to keep the same student. I do believe that incoming students need an honest assessment of the curriculum they wish to pursue so they take it knowing its challenges not just because its something they think they might want to do.

Sometimes retention is out of our control.  We cannot control life, however helping the student with solutions to the issues that arrise in our lives can be challenging.  This is why it is so important to the student that from the moment they enter our building we discuss life issues with them.  These issues can be anything from transportation, childcare, job schedules, vacation, and any other family occasions that may happen while in school.  This for our school, seems to be a concern from the start.

I think retention is everyone's job.

Retention is everones job.  I think sometimes teachers get so busy with their classes and what they have to do that the can fail to see that we are all on the same team and that we need to support on anotherr.