Universities share retention successes

Two new reports from the Education Trust shed light on the issue of retention by putting four-year college graduation rates into institutional context and showing what universities can do to improve them. The idea is to share best practices and improve persistence across a broad spectrum, for low-income as well as middle-class students, for small campuses as well as large, for selective universities as well as institutions with more open admissions.

Six-year graduation rates, tallied annually by the federal government, average around 60 percent among full-time students at four-year colleges. For minority students, that rate is much lower: At one in four American colleges, the African  American-white graduation gap is 20 percentage points or higher.

Acknowledging that these rates rely on such variables as median SAT scores, selectivity, size, percentage of Pell Grant recipients, nontraditional students and part-time undergrads, the report, One Step from the Finish Line: Higher College Graduation Rates are Within Our Reach, nevertheless finds institutions accountable for serving their students regardless of the challenges inherent in their populations. The Trust’s new tracking tool, College Results Online, compares grad rates at similar institutions and finds that, even with variables considered, some universities are more successful than others at keeping students on campus.

“Even when you compare roughly similar institutions that serve similar populations, you’ll find institutions that do a lot better,” says Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust. “Some, in fact, may have as much as twice the rate of graduation.” Institutions in the report are grouped together by 11 factors, including size, number of part-time, low-income and nontraditional students, financial resources, whether they are commuter campuses and whether they’re private or public. Users can key into the Web site, www.collegeresults.org, to compare any university’s graduation rates with 15, 25 or 50 of its peers. Rates also are broken down by race and gender.

Among those singled out for their success are institutions where AFT members serve students: the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and SUNY at Oswego, for example. The report also considers institutions that have improved dramatically, listing among them the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Illinois-Chicago, City University of New York City College, and CUNY Queens College.

The report, along with its companion, Choosing to Improve: Voices from Colleges and Universities with Better Graduation Rates, pays particular attention to the gap between African-American and white students, which averages 11 or 12 percent. Looking at schools that have successfully closed that gap and using their methods elsewhere, the Education Trust suggests, could increase the number of African-American graduates dramatically. The report singles out Florida State University for closing the racial gap. Just 2.6 percentage points remained between white and African-American grad rates in 2003; Florida International University is an even better 1 percent.

The Ed Trust report suggests that three factors contribute most to better graduation rates: focus on freshmen; emphasis on undergraduate teaching; and monitoring institutional systems for needed adjustments. At FSU, professional full-time advisers contact each student at least three times a semester, often during off-hours when they are most available, and a seven-week summer program prepares freshmen for the transition to college, an orientation especially useful for low-income and first-generation students.

Other successful initiatives include:

• assigning two freshman advisors—one academic and one general—at Alcorn State, a historically black institution in Mississippi;
• developing an alternative, team-oriented chemistry class at Notre Dame, when tracking showed many less-prepared freshmen flunked the class;
• creating a “critical path analysis” to alert students to required courses and make room to enroll them so they could graduate on time;
• emphasizing successful teaching as a requirement for tenure at Syracuse University; and
• in a unique program at New Mexico University, tracking down students who dropped out just short of graduation and luring them back to complete their degrees by facilitating registration and following up with support.

With these sorts of innovations, universities can and should improve their grad rates, contends the Education Trust.

Sallie Mae threatens nonprofit lender

Students in Pennsylvania are worried about their financial aid as Sallie Mae, the gargantuan lender, presses to take over the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), a much smaller public nonprofit company. Sallie Mae offered to pay the state $1 billion to operate PHEAA. The board vociferously declined.

“PHEAA is not now and never will be for sale, especially to a profit-driven corporation with a track record of overcharging borrowers, laying off workers and gobbling up any organization that stands between students and a quest for bigger profits,” says state Rep. Elinor Z. Taylor, chair of PHEAA’s board of directors. Others worry that an acquisition like PHEAA, the 14th largest lender of guaranteed loans, will shrink the competitive loan market and stick students with fewer options—giving companies like Sallie Mae free rein to overcharge and underserve.

The governor’s office supported PHEAA’s stand, yet indications that the governor is considering the merits of privatization show how tempting $1 billion might be to a state budget strapped for cash. Long-term interests, however, are at stake.

“When Sallie Mae’s CEO was paid $41.8 million in compensation during 2004,” Taylor says, “it stretches the imagination to understand how anyone can honestly believe that they have the best interests of Pennsylvania’s students in their hearts and minds.” Another report puts CEO Albert L. Lord’s salary at $8.6 million, still a hefty chunk of change. And, adds Keith New, PHEAA’s vice president of communications, Sallie Mae’s reputation is “very, very well known ... they’re often referred to as the 800-pound gorilla because they’re very close to having a lock hold on the country.”

“Our schools know what we do for them,” New adds. “They know the extra miles we go through for the students. They’re very alarmed.”

So are other lenders. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that if a takeover appears imminent, commercial banks may ask the Justice Department to block it. That would be a tough move to follow through, however, as Sallie Mae is known as a major contributor to the Bush family, having contributed the maximum amount allowed—$250,000—to recent inaugural festivities.