I believe one of the big issues that we deal with in our courses is the generation of students, I believ we are on generation Z now. A lot of younger people have not had the opportunities to be held accountable or possibly never had responsibilities. This plays heavily into attrition, not used to dealing with problems or stress, some students are willing to take the easy road and leave. This is were the importance of keeping an open ear or knowing who to direct the student to if the problem gets persists

At our school, we believe that retention is driven in the classroom. Our faculty is "on board" with the idea that students must see the relevance in their education and the validity of the outcomes to their success. Adult learners are a very different being than secondary school students. Respect is a premium. Faculty can be trained to perceive the difference between treating an adult the way they deserve, and "coddling" a student. With a concentration on alternative methodologies and an understanding of multiple inmtelligences, faculty can design and impliment an engaging lesson on a daily basis. We want our students to feel like they can't wait to get into class, not that they can't wait to get out.

It's all about choices! So, making the course interesting enough to prove that their choice was or is the right one, keeps them coming back for more. Once hooked the student quickly realizes that they must be there to satisfy their desire to learn.

It is very important to have this within your facility. One person can bring negativity to quite a few people. Some of these students listen because in some cases, this is their norm. They are used to it and listen and believe it. To turn the negativity around will take effort from the whole staff.

Have a big smile on your face, make them feel welcome and that you are here for them, and explain any future possible obstacles in the future that you are available for them for anything

We only have, on an average, three weeks with our students since we have a fast pace program, however I feel that if we are observant we can see the early signs of lost feelings in our students, this is the time to open the monolog and show there are options for assistance besides dropping out.

It was mentioned elsewhere in these threads that it would be great to have and instructor assigned as a mentor to each student when they enter school to help them throughout their time with us. Although this would definitely put more of a burden periodically on the instructor, it would also help get things done. A facilitator assigned would be nice, but it is my experience that when people from two departments (education and financial aid for example) interact on a daily basis, they become familiar with each other, and we know what that breeds. This would just add another layer of frustration for the student to wade through. An instructor, on the other hand, would not interact daily with these other departments and may be taken more seriously.

When a student's attitude toward learning diminishes, early detection is important in heading off the student's reactive decisions which may be hap-hazzard under the mounting realization that things are deteriorating.

We are an adult learning school, and as such need to recognize that there are no "Kids" at our campuses. The use of the term, even when students aren't present, sets up the wrong attitude. Respect is different than becomming a student's buddy, it is the act of respecting and treating each student as an equal adult.

Stay consistant with whatever you do.If you start out hard stay hard.If your loose stay loose.

I think with any situation, you have to have boundaries. I have noticed with some of my students this is the first time for this. I always tell them that even though they are in school, the professionalism starts here.

if you show that u care about the student, he/she will want to show up for class. remember , your actions effect other people. if u have the i don't care attitude, then the studnts don't care.

I try to connect with the students that need me most. The guy or girl that stands out, or is in a shell are the ones I target most. I wish I could spend more quality time with each and every student, but the time frame is to short. This leaves me with the question, could I have done more to save the student? I wish I could save the world, but I'm only human

we have an instructor who has worked here for thirty years and "has already tried everything and He knows what works" he is intimidating and everyone we put with him comes away with his ignorant attitude and experienced teachers refuse to be near him or use him as an excuse saying "At least I am not as bad as him ". To make it worse a management person new to our school has put him in charge of giving seminars to our new instructors . He tells them things like "No student can acheive a perfect score because they would have to know more than me ". I find this situation hard to deal with because the new manager has placed him on a pedistal without even asking anyone or interviewing this grumpy old teacher.

In class on a regular basis I ask the students, WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR, I see what the response is and tell them your here for a reason and not to give up on their dreams.

I am not a recruiter, but I understand the economics of retention. It certainly does affect our school and what goes on here. In our society it has become common place for a product to be sold and yet not fulfill its' promise as described on the "package" than come away feeling as though you got your monies worth. I can only see things like a horse with blinders sometimes and the way I see our educational process is that for the $XX,XXX.XX that a student pays for tuition they should get more knowledge made available to them than they ever dreamed of when they enrolled. If the curriculum is designed with skill and true educational value, then a student won't consider withdrawing, but look forward each day to learning more.

Sometimes we send a student to get help and the help is not there. There can be many reasons for this including the students own demeanor (attitude). The point here is that the student may come back to class and complain quietly to his friends or not say anything at all. We need to follow up with every student that we send for help to make sure they did indeed get the help they asked for. By following up, we show the students that did get help that we give a hoot and the students that did not get help we can escort to the person they need to see and get the ball rolling.

if a student feels ignored they are less likley to push thru hard times, giving just a little attention to each student keeps them engauged and more likley to press on.

I beleive that tthe first step is to ask ourselfs;Are we really doing what is needed to help the students? be honest with yourself and identify where you can improve. second:Put your game plan together so that you can monitor your results.Ask your students to be honest with you and see from there prospective if you did everything you could possibly do to help them succeed and want to stay in school? Third:review your reults and once again identify where you can improve and take the neccessary steps to continue progressing.

Something that I have seen increasing alot is students seem to skip days or even stress about little problems to where it creates problems with their school work. Any advice on how to deal with these problems would be nice.