let the students know that we are there for them.make them feel wanted here,and help them realize that they are the future.give them confidents in everything they do..retention is always going to be a problem,financially,economically,and socially-p.s. do you like my spelling? we are here for the students.we do what we can.
1- housing these students do not make a lot of money and most goes for rent 2- try to remember that these students are working 8 hr a day and comming to class 6.5 hr a day .
attendance has to be addressed more, the students in some cases are not accountable as much as they need to be. we have seen a noticeable difference in phase 2 since we made it part of the phase to have their attendance effect their buying power in the next phase[ 29 ]so they put more value to the attendance.
another thought is to have more monotering of them during each class- councelers/managers/ more involved.
i also think how a instructor teachs has an effect on retention ,if a student wants to be in their class or come back for more info and to finish the class.alot can be said for motovational skills.
To really show students we care I think we should call them up if they don,t make it to class. If they are sick they should appreciate the concern we are showing. IF some other issue is the cause we may be able to offer some assistance to solve their problem.
The second thing I think may help is to make it mandatory that students show up the first day of a new class. This is when the instructor lays out all his expectations to the class and policies and procedures. Students that miss this information usually feel somewhat disconnected from the rest of the class and seem to be more at risk of quitting.
What sort of music options are available to you? Would this be in a lab? Are you familiar with copyright practices? When do you have to pay royalties?
What do you mean by "streamlining the time that ... students spend in support services department"? How will this improve retention?
To better inform the students about what will be expected of them before they start and to lighten up the environment by having some music options in the classroom that do not create copyright issues...available thru the network etc.
We can improve retention by steamlining the time that our students spend in support services department (studnet serives, accounting and ect.); secondly we can imporve the students experience in the classroom enviroment by using class time to give them multiple styles of learning and partnering stronger students with students that have challeges. Building this into our educational process can improve the students desire to attend class thus improving retention.
The most important process would be to streamline the recuiting process and give the realistic time frames for classtime and lab time. Setting guidelines for student interventions and understanding the students expectations would also prevent or improve student attrition. If the students are shown they are cared about by the school their committment to school will stay constant and student retention number will be very good.
I mean by real world we will start having student that work in shops bring in compressors & related parts & we will see why they failed. Ithink this might help students to see how stuff works
student retention could improved if we as instructors would run interferance for students . try to remove road blocks that might be incountered. we need think out side the box so to speak for solutions to there problems
How would you go about delivering more real world lab time? Do you mean having students actually working off site?
What type of activities do you have in mind, Daniel? How would these be worked into the schedule? During regularly scheduled time or after classes? Required or voluntary?
More real world lab time & treat all students the some. Some can wear big ear plugs & long hair & some are not allowed to. this retention is being carried a bit far with student that are here to cause problems for other students that are here to learn.
I think that more student activities are needed and a bit more student/staff functions so that the students don't feel like grade school students. we should treat them as the individuals that they are. I beleave that more assistance in the houseing area and job placement would further help us retain them. also as far as bringing back former students whom have graduated and are in the feild working for talks with our student body would realy help.
Please share why you think music in the classroom would improve retention, Brad.
Improved retention is the by-product of doing the right things the right way, of having the right people in the right place at the right time. It is entirely dependent on the people who are meeting and working with students every day. They must be dedicated to student success while holding the student accountable to fine solutions they will confront. A little music in the class room would improve retention. A positive attitude also would go a long way.
B Iverson
Regardless of the state of the economy, students frequently don't have much extra cash. Does your school have any programs that focus on supporting or fund raising for local non-profits?
I think that there needs to be more, informal activities outside of the school environment. Recently, with the downturn in student population and the stress of the economy, these types of activities have all but ceased. Movies, school sanctioned trips, drag races, all help the students to decompress. The students need to see us outside the walls of the school, and see us as people, not just uniforms.
We also should foster a student mentoring program, where senior students can go into beginning classes and talk openly about challenges that they experienced and how they overcame them. It is one thing for information to come from us, but when it comes from the student body it often has more meaning.
