2011 STEAMBOAT RETENTION RETREAT AGENDA

DAY ONE: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

8:30am to 9:00am

Continental Breakfast

9:00am to 10:15am

Understanding and Defining Retention Statistics At Your College

A college reports a 50 percent retention rate, but what does that really mean? Learn to define retention in your institution so that retention strategies become meaningful. This session will explore using your internal data to define your student groups psychographically and demographically and understand their attendance patterns – or lack thereof. This session will provide the baselines against which retention should be measured for your college.

10:15am to 10:30am

Break

10:30am to Noon

Best Retention Practices – What’s Working

What is really working in retention? This session will focus on the latest research studies that define best practices in student retention for community colleges. The common threads of what is working will be explored and discussed. This session will provide the basis for application of programming at the participants colleges.

Noon to 1:00pm

Lunch By The Pool!

1:00pm to 2:30pm

One Year And Gone – How To Retain Recent High School Graduates

Are the recent high school graduates attending your college one year and then leaving? If they are, the question is why and whether you can really retain them to completion of an associate degree. This session will explore best practices on retaining recent high school graduates through to completion, and explore the impact of dual and concurrent enrollment in high school.

2:30pm to 2:45pm

Break

2:45pm to 4:00pm

Stopping Stop-In and Stop-Outs – Retaining Working Adults

Working adults are likely to stop in and out of a college over a period of years. Can working adults be retained from semester to semester, or quarter to quarter? Explore ways that retention of working adults can be improved. Also covered in this session will be a look at retaining online students since so many working adults are preferring that modality of delivery.

DAY TWO: Wednesday, June 15, 2011

8:30am to 9:00am

Continental Breakfast

9:00am to 10:15am

Retaining Our Neediest – Remedial and Developmental Students

Students who enter your college with remedial and developmental needs are at the greatest risk for not being retained and not achieving success – everything is stacked against them from the start. Learn how one community college completely revamped the delivery of their academic and student support services and saw a double digit increase in the number of students who started in remedial and developmental courses and were retained through completion of an associate degree.

10:15am to 10:30am

Break

10:30am to 11:30am

Minority Retention – Understanding Cultural Influences

Cultural differences can impact retention of students at our community colleges. Explore how to bridge that cultural divide at your college with your minority students. Best case practices for retaining minority students will be examined so they can be applied to your college’s recruitment plan.

11:30am to Noon

Wrap Up, Questions And Answers, Evaluation