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Retention: At-Risk Students

Achieving the Dream: North Carolina Retention = Success
A panel discussion with Dr. Phyllis Broughton, Martin Community College; Dr. Kathy Baker-Smith, Guilford Technical Community College; and Sylvia LaPugh, Durham Technical Community College. Presented at the Student Engagement and Retention Workshop on June 17, 2008.

Early Warning Systems
Presented by Carolyn L. Stuart, Director of Counseling, Halifax Community College, at the Student Engagement and Retention Workshop on June 17, 2008.

Retaining Students in Developmental Education
Presented by Dr. Edith T. Lang, Brunswick Community College, at the Student Engagement and Retention Workshop on June 17, 2008.

Future Seekers: Career Awareness Project for At-Risk 8th-Graders
Presented at the Student Engagement and Retention Workshop on June 17, 2008, this PowerPoint provides an overview of the recruitment and retention project implemented by Fayetteville Technical and Community College.

The BUTTERFLIE Program: Building Unity Through Teamwork, Empowerment, Respect, Friendship, and Leadership to Inspire Excellence
A Best Practice of Edgecombe Community College, BUTTERFLIE is a mentoring program geared toward minority females. The program’s vision is to reflect the changing needs of minority females and to help them expand their educational, social and cultural experiences.

EMPAC: Empowering Males with a Purpose to Achieve and Celebrate
Another Best Practice from Edgecombe Community College, the EMPAC project seeks to assist minority males by facilitating personal development; raising social and civic awareness; promoting leadership development and cultural awareness; providing access to resources to meet life challenges; and, ultimately, increasing retention and graduation rates.

Improving Academic and Student Support Services for High Risk Students (Title III)
A Best Practice from Central Piedmont Community College, this program is designed to improve the three elements that relate directly to the success of developmental students: student services, faculty skills, and student tracking technology. The result integrates student services with classroom teaching.

Support Options for Achievement and Retention (SOAR)
The SOAR Program at Mayland Community College is designed to assist first-generation college students, students with disabilities, and limited-income students attain their educational goals. A list of services, program application, handbook and program contacts are available online.

The Minority Male Mentoring Project: Best Practices Portfolio (Adobe Acrobat File)
Durham Technical Community College, Johnston Community College, Mitchell Community College, Piedmont Community College, Southeastern Community College, and Wayne Community College participated in a project designed to improve retention, increase graduation by concentrating resources on improving educational programs, raise academic performance, and provide substance abuse education for minority male students. This report documents the programs' implementation, student outcomes, and potential sustainability.

Using Data to Act: Practitioner-Based Change of Students in Developmental Programs (PowerPoint)
A presentation by Bill Durham, Senior Vice President and Chair of Durham Technical Community College's Achieving the Dream Core Team
The college’s Achieving the Dream initiative intends to enhance opportunities for student engagement in the learning process. Toward this end the ATD team has undertaken a comprehensive collection and assessment of quantitative and qualitative student data. This PowerPoint file includes a brief description of the Achieving the Dream initiative and greater detail on Durham Tech's focus on students' First Year Experiences (Orientation, Early Alert, Advising, and Academic Skills courses) and on their focus on data-driven decision-making.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count
A multi-year initiative aimed at fostering success for minority and low-income students in community colleges, Achieving the Dream emphasizes the collection and use of data to drive change. Four collegs in North Carolina have been funded to participate: Durham Technical Community College, Guilford Technical Community College, Martin Community College, and Wayne Community College.

Paying for Persistence: Early Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents for Attending Community College (Adobe Acrobat File)
This report by Thomas Brock and Lashawn Richberg-Hayes presents the early results of the Opening Doors program which was designed to help low-income parents attending Louisiana community colleges cover more of their expenses. and also provide a financial incentive to make good progress. Participating colleges offered students a $1,000 scholarship for each of two semesters if they maintained at least half-time enrollment and a C average.

Changing Courses: Instructional Innovations That Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College (Adobe Acrobat File)
One of the many obstacles working adults face when attempting to earn a certificate or degree is time. This paper by Richard Kazis and Marty Liebowitz examines innovative program and curricular changes designed to better meet the needs of working adult students.

Support Success: Services That May Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College (Adobe Acrobat File)
This paper by Rogéair Purnell, Susan Blank, Susan Scrivener and Reishma Seupersad examines the roles of academic advising;instruction and tutoring; personal counseling; career counseling; and additional student support like child care, transportation, and book vouchers. The authors discuss strategies for providing student services that cut across these categories through the use of full-service programs targeted ar reaching low-income and nontraditional students.

Theoretical Considerations in the Study of Minority Student Retention in Higher Education (Adobe Acrobat File)
This paper by Laura Rendón, Romero E. Jalomo and Amaury Nora provides a nice theoretical counterpoint to Tinto's social-academic integration theory of student retention.

Engaging Students, Challenging the Odds (Adobe Acrobat File)
This report of the findings from the 2005 Community College Student Survey of Engagement takes a closer look at students at high risk for dropping out of college: academically underprepared students; students of color; first-generation students; students over age 25; and part-time students.

Transfer Access to Elite Colleges and Universities in the United States: Threading the Needle of the American Dream (Adobe Acrobat File)
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Community College Transfer Initiative funded this study which collected promising practices designed to to support low-income, academically qualified transfers from community colleges to highly selective four-year institutions.

CCSSE Highlights: Best Practices in Student Retention—Gainsville College (Adobe Acrobat File)
The MetLife Foundation, through its sponsorship of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement's Retention Initiative, honor community and technical colleges that demonstrate exemplary performance in student retention. This document provides a brief overview of the programs implemented by 2006 award-winner, Gainsville College (GA).

First-Generation Students in Postsecondary Education: A Look at Their College Transcripts (Adobe Acrobat File)
In this report Xianglei Chen analyzes data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (through the National Center for Education Statistics). The results indicate that first-generation students are at a disadvantage in terms of their access to, persistence through, and completion of postsecondary education.