ACCESS, OPPORTUNITY & SUCCESS
Inventory of Underrepresented Student Support Programs
And Best Practices for Underrepresented Student Retention
Beginning in 2004, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Office of the Chancellor provided funding to colleges and universities for the development of programs aimed at recruiting and retaining underrepresented students. At first the level of funding was relatively small, not more than $50,000 for each project and only $250,000 across the system, for the initiation of pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility of innovative new approaches. As the level of interest grew, and legislative appropriations were made available, funding increased to $100,000 per project and $1 million annually across the system. Finally, in 2007 the Minnesota Legislature included a significant appropriation for underrepresented student programming. The Board of Trustees allocated $11 million annually for the development of programs to recruit and retain underrepresented students, $7.4 million of which was distributed to the colleges and universities on a formula basis.
Best Practices for Underrepresented Student Retention
The experience of our underrepresented student retention pilot projects over the past years points to five "best practices" for underrepresented student retention. It should be noted that these are not new interventions, or interventions that have been "invented" within our system. However, we have found that in the diverse institutions within our system, and with students of varying backgrounds and levels of preparation and in programs with varying structures, implementation of these practices has been effective in increasing the academic performance and retention rates of students. These five best practices are:
- Summer Bridge or Transition Programs
- First Year Experience or Extended Orientation Programs
- Learning Communities
- Intrusive Advising
- Supplemental Instruction
Given the demonstrated effectiveness of these five best practices for student retention, a policy-maker or administrator might be tempted to ask which of these is the "best" or the most efficient, or the most cost-effective, in order to design a retention program built around that one practice. Responding to this possibility, Hearn (2006) urges caution: "There are unlikely to be any magic bullets awaiting those seeking to raise students chances of success." The fact is that, even though several of the best practices appear to work with most students in most situations, there is no academic intervention that works with all students all of the time. Focusing on only one best practice to the exclusion of others may mean that some students who could have been helped by the excluded practices will be left to drop out of college. Clearly, the answer is to incorporate as many of the best practices as possible into a coordinated institutional approach to retention.
TRiO Programs
The web site also has a section dedicated to TRiO programs within Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, specifically the Talent Search, Upward Bound, and Student Support Services at our colleges and universities. These programs have a long history of success in recruiting and retaining underrepresented students. Upward Bound has a Summer Bridge component as an integral part of the program, and Student Support Services often incorporate intrusive advising and extended orientation programs as part of their activities. But they also incorporate other programming aspects that are important to the success of their students.
It is our hope that visitors to this web site will find the information useful and will be motivated to develop programs similar to the ones at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
