Learn how to use the Postsecondary Data Partnership Retention and Persistence Institution-Level dashboard to explore the retention rates of our institution’s high-academically performing female students.
Transcript
In this tutorial we demonstrate how to use the PDP retention and persistence institution level dashboard to explore the retention rates of our institution's high academically performing female students.
As a quick reminder, the retention and persistence institution level dashboard reports the first to second year retention and persistence rates for students who attended your institution. There are three possible outcomes. In their second year after after enrolling at your institution the student could have remained at your institution or completed a credential, they could have transferred to another institution or they could have left college before completing a credential at any institution. A student's first and second years are determined based on when they enrolled in college for the first time or transferred to your institution.
What is the difference between retention and persistence? Retention describes how many students are still enrolled at or have earned a credential from our institution before the end of their second academic year. This is a measure of how well our institution retains students. Persistence describes how many students are enrolled in their second academic year or have completed a credential at another institution. This definition may differ from how your institution defines persistence. Check with your institution's PDP administrator if you have questions about how your institution defines persistence.
Let's use this dashboard to answer this research question: What percentage of our high achieving female students are retained at our institution for their second year of college? Navigate to the retention and persistence dashboard.
To answer this question, we need to set two filters. First click the edit button in the chart settings area and select female from the gender dropdown. In the GPA range filter, deselect all and select GPA 3.0 to 3.5 3.5 to 4.0 and 4.0 to 4.5 then click apply settings.
Now the students represented in this dashboard are high achieving female students. Let's focus on the stacked bar chart. Here, we find the percentages of this cohort who retained at our institution for their second academic year, transferred to another institution and persisted for their second academic year or did not enroll in college for a second academic year.
Now let's look at the most recent cohort. Here we find that 46.4% of our high achieving female students retained at our Institution for their second academic year. We also see that 21.7% of this cohort transferred to another institution and persisted into their second academic year. While 31.9% of this cohort left college before completing a credential. Our highest retention rate was 47.1% which occurred in 2016-17 and our lowest retention rate occurred in 2018-19, but it has steadily improved over the past several cohorts.
What else can we learn about this population of high achieving female students? Are there any large gaps in achievement or equity? Let's do a little exploring.
Before we begin, let's change the retention/persistence dashboard setting in the line chart to retention since we are interested in those high achieving female students who retained. Remember that retained includes both students who are still enrolled and students who have completed a credential at our institution.
Next, to understand achievement or equity gaps, we need to apply a dimension. First, let's look to see if there is a gap between first-time and transfer-in female students who are high achieving. To do that, click the edit button, which opens the chart settings. Then select enrollment type from the dimension dropdown and click apply settings.
Now we see two lines in our line chart. Hovering over the 2021-2022 blue line data point, which represents the retention rate of first-time high achievement female students. We find that 59% of that population retained into their second year at our institution. Hovering over the orange line data point shows us that 46% of high achieving female students who transferred into our institution retained for their second academic year. That's a 13 percentage point difference.
Let's explore if age has an impact. Are younger or older high achieving female students more likely to be retained at our institution for their second academic year?
Click the edit button, which opens the chart settings. Select age group from the dimension dropdown and click apply settings.
Now we see three lines appear in our line chart, one for each category in the age group variable. Hovering over the 2021-22 blue line data point we find that 60% of high achieving female students who are 20 years old or younger retained at our institution for their second academic year. Hovering over the redline data point, we find that 56% of high achieving female students who are over 24 years old retained and hovering over the orange line we find that 34% of high achieving female students who are between 20 to 24 years old retained. Overall, this is a 26 percentage point gap.
Let's summarize what we learned through this exploration. Among our high achieving female student cohort we found that our retention rates are steadily improving. First-time students retain at higher rates than transfer-in students and students between 20 and 24 years old retain at much lower rates compared to younger and older students. Sharing this data with our institution's transfer student coordinator might help them understand student achievement and equity gaps. This can help them develop effective student outreach strategies. We encourage you to take the time to explore your institution's PDP dashboards to identify retention and persistence rates of your students. This will help in your institution's retention efforts thank you for joining us.