Lane College is one of 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. What patterns are recognized in dropout behavior specific and unique to Lane College students. What are the characteristics of students leaving Lane College at the highest rates and when does departure most often occur.
How do the departure patterns and characteristics of students leaving Lane College compare with those at other historically black colleges and. How the departure patterns and characteristics of students leaving Lane College compare with those at other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Review of Literature
Additional reviews of collected data elements to determine what is missing are important. According to Baker et al. 2018), it is critical for HBCUs to collect and analyze data elements that measure student social integration in order to improve student retention. To compare performance, higher education institutions should identify a set of comparable institutions that are most similar to them.
The goal of the nearest neighbor method (McLaughlin, Howard & McLaughlin, 2011) is to compare the performance of one institution to a group of institutions in order to make a judgment about the institution and inform institutional planning and decision-making (Trainer, 2008). in McLaughlin et al., 2011). The Nearest Neighbor Method has seven steps to follow to create a peer group that is well-defined and relevant to the work you are doing.
Contextual Analysis
Regarding the data available to perform an in-depth analysis of students on Lane. Many departments worked hard to collect and review data for their work, but there was no cohesive system where the data could be shared with others. Second, it was hypothesized that the student body's level of success was influenced by the elements of trauma the students faced.
In fall 2019, Lane College began implementing two key strategies in its work to increase student retention. As this study progressed, key data elements and key student characteristics were identified to assist Lane in her already well-defined plans to increase student success.
Data and Methods
These data and other fields were included in the Lane College Office of Institutional Research data file. The variables identified for analysis were selected to identify patterns in dropout behavior that are specific and unique to Lane College students. A variable was then defined for this analysis to identify students who leave Lane College.
These variables were used along with the analytic variables to determine which students left Lane College at the highest rates, and the semester in which departures occur most frequently. As this report continues, students no longer enrolled at Lane College will be considered to have left. The initial list of thirty peer institutions (see Table 5) was created by Lane College in its annual 2018 IPEDS data feedback report.
IPEDS Fall 2018 data points for 30 peer institutions and Lane College (Student data includes for full-time, first-time degree-seeking undergraduates). This data was collected and downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet, sorted and then filters were used to determine a peer comparison group with similar characteristics to Lane College. First, the characteristics of each institution included in the peer group identified by Lane College for its 2018 IPEDS data feedback report were reviewed and, based on current literature, the peer comparison group was refined and narrowed.
Lane College has open admission, just like a community college, and therefore should be compared. Saint Augustine's University has a smaller student population of 767 and an admission rate of 63%, different from the others, but has a majority of male students, as does Lane College. Finally, IPEDS tools were used to create a custom data feedback report (see Appendix 1), which compared Lane College to the median data points of the six new institutions identified.
Findings
However, those who had ever lived in on-campus housing had higher departure rates for cohorts in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, and Fall 2019. This table also shows what percentage of graduating students lived on campus by gender . . For the fall 2015 cohort, 75 of the 441 enrolled students earned a bachelor's degree, and of those, 65 lived on campus some or all of the time at Lane.
History and PE lost 20% of their students after the first two semesters, Fall Year 1 and Spring Year 1. Business major shows the highest number of attrition with 82 students, and a rate of 81%, while the rate of the highest dropout rate, 83%, is in the field of interdisciplinary studies. For example, of the Mathematics students who dropped out, 100%, both male and female, lived off campus.
This is a key finding, all the more so because the analysis of on-campus/off-campus variables was inconclusive. It is important to note that the average attendance rate for "graduates and still enrolled" includes only graduates for the Fall 2015 cohort only, as other cohorts have not yet completed four years at Lane College to have the opportunity to graduate. Augustine University was included because it has a majority of students (51%) who are male, similar to Lane College.
Talladega College boasts an impressive 70% retention rate, and Texas College 65% for first-time, full-time freshmen from fall 2017, while Lane's retention rate for that cohort was 50%. As mentioned earlier, IPEDS tools were used to create a Custom Data Feedback Report (Appendix 1), comparing Lane College to the median data points of the six identified new institutions. The peer group average fall-to-fall retention for full-time students is 61%, ranging from 45% to 70%.
In contrast, the fall-to-fall retention rate for full-time students at Lane College is 11 percentage points lower than the peer group. It should be noted that 96% of the student population at Lane College is full-time, and when it comes to part-time students, Lane College has a much lower retention rate (25%) than its peer group (55%).
Limitations
Discussion and Conclusion
Or, family income will allow students to pay the higher tuition at an out-of-state school. These data were not analyzed for students at Lane College, but are possible reasons for the finding. Although students leave in all semesters, the majority leave in the first two semesters at Lane College.
Lane College stakeholders may identify students by major and semester in order to collect more data. Courses or instructors identified during these semesters may play a role in working more closely with students to retain them. Class attendance rate is the number of times a student attended class meetings registered compared to the total number of class meetings registered to attend.
Graduates from the Fall 2015 cohort led the way with an average participation rate of 73%, while those from the leaving cohort participated at a rate of 45%. Participation is an element of success, as Fowler notes in his 2007 study, where students signed a contract requiring them to attend their developmental classes 90% of the time. No two institutions are the same, and even when it comes to the definition of a similar peer group, there emerge some that excel and some that do not in terms of retention and graduation.
Recommendations
Although this study identified a smaller peer group for its analysis, it is recommended that Lane College use statistical methodologies in conjunction with other policy and field knowledge to identify a peer group that could be targeted specifically in efforts to increase retention and completion. For example, one might conclude from this study that students who leave Lane College tend to be in-state (Tennessee) males who live off campus, have low attendance, and are in business or interdisciplinary majors. It is recommended that Lane College conduct a case study and document review to determine the causes of success at Philander Smith College due to somewhat similar student demographics and location.
Data used for this study provided an opportunity to gain some insight into the students at Lane. College, and additionally, to determine other ways to improve the data collection system by noting data needs throughout the analysis. Two ways the data collection system at Lane could be improved are to collect more data points and connect systems across campus.
Anecdotal conversations with agents from Lane College make it clear that data collection aimed at improving student retention is being refined. Collection of data related to this which may include data points related to student engagement, mentoring relationships and the approach to student behavior/care at Lane. Additional data elements that are also important to analyze are those related to student engagement, Greek life participation, and workforce participation.
High levels of coordination among the entities that collect and analyze student data, with individual capacity across those entities to interpret data/results, will lead to multiple institutional agents using the data to inform decisions related to interventions for student success. The Lane College early warning system identifies at-risk students and if this could be linked to student engagement. By analyzing institutional data, reviewing current literature related to key data elements and HBCUs, and identifying a peer comparison group focused on retention, the three.
Undergraduate Retention and Graduation Rates, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/Indicator_CTR/coe_ctr_2018_05.pdf. It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”: The role of social capital in promoting academic success for African American males at a Black college. Towards a model of retention and persistence for black males at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Exploring retention student characteristics leading to higher education graduation using data mining models. Completion of the 2019 national college report (Signature Report 18), Herndon, VA: Independent Student Housing National Research Center, from https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Completions_Report_2019.pdf. United States Department of Labor (n.d.) White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, from https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/HBCUIinitiative/WhiteHouse.html West, D., Huijser, H. , Heath, D. , Lizzio, A. , Toohey, D. , Miles, C. , Searle, B. , & Bronnimann, J .
Appendices
