Beginnings — and the power of ‘New’

“Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.” ― Wallace Stegner

A beginning implies adventure — yet as much as we like to consider ourselves empowered by bravery and foresight, most of us don’t wish to head into an unknown forest without a map (or GPS?).

Our school year begins in the fall. Students, new to an institution, may experience a mixture of anxiety, hope, confusion and relief. Their means of navigation could be a sibling’s advice, a guidance counsellor’s wisdom, a college calendar, or their own sense of direction. For returning students, the beginning is a kind of rebirth, a chance to alter their destination.

There is always an underlying tone of excitement — which in turn inspires an effort to persevere and succeed. That’s human nature. It seems a major challenge of educators is to sustain, or at least somehow access, this excitement and expectation — a challenge that gains prominence when students abandon programs.

Any discussion of student attrition rates, sooner or later, circles the more ephemeral notions of why some students stay on the bus while others skip the trip.

The Theories

In comparison to universities, community colleges have lower rates of retention. One explanatory model posits that background variables, particularly a student’s high school educational experiences, educational goals, and family support, influence the way he or she interacts with the college: there are as many theories as there are educational consultants.

A recent UK study indicated that students left PSE due to “growing hardships” and “the reduced amount of time available for staff to provide academic and social support to students.”

A Syracuse University study collected five conditions as supportive of student retention:

  • Expectation (students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that expect them to succeed)
  • Advice (students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that provide clear and consistent information about institutional requirements and effective advising about the choices)
  • Support (students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that provide academic, social, and personal support)
  • Involvement (students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that involve them as valued members of the institution)
  • Learning (students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that foster learning)

Immeasurable but Real

When we discuss a solution for attrition, let’s not discount the power of ‘new’, that positive buzz, perhaps immeasurable but nonetheless real, that comes from a beginning (a course, a semester, a project, a team, a friendship…). If a PS institution could somehow harness and reinvent that buzz, that curiosity and eagerness, that sense of possibility, and extend it to moments when attrition is most apparent (first year) — well, students wouldn’t stop leaving, but certainly the exit stream would slow.




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