9.26.17

Past to Present: A Historical Look at Retention by Berger, Blanco Ramírez, and Lyons (2012)

• the vocab on page 12 is very helpful
• retention wasn’t always an issue because there weren’t always thousands of students
• around 1970 is when retention was a “thing”
• Tinto’s interactionalist theory of student departure
• “Astin (1977; 1985) suggested that the amount of physical and psychological energy a student invests in the collegiate experience (both social and academic) directly influenced departure decisions.” (pg. 23–24)

Increasing Persistence: Research-Based Strategies for College Student Success by Habley, Bloom, and Robbins (2012)

Chapter 1: Defining, Refining Perspectives on Student Success

• What is a persister? To me, someone who eventually gets a college degree (no matter where or when they started).
• Astin introduced that institutions played a LARGE role in retention, specifically in the ways it allows its students to get involved. Taking it a step further, integration allows students to be a part of the CULTURE. Kuh brings the word engagement in to play, taking Tinto’s work further.
• If comparison between institutions is bad, why do we place so much value on it? (Top XX Schools Lists, Forbes, etc.)
• Good overall summary of what retention is and what scholars have shaped this view.

Chapter 2: Overview of Theoretical Perspectives on Student Success

Theories and Perspectives that will be helpful for the research matrix!!!

How to Define Retention: A New Look at an Old Problem by Linda Serra Hagedorn (2012)

• 1975 Tinto’s Integration Model — “suggests the need for a match between the institutional environment and student commitment.” (pg. 86)
• Interesting to see how retention is measured and what student groups are excluded from the data and why
• types of retention (institutional, system, within a discipline, course)
• retention is important for the same reason college is important (benefits to individual, family, economy, society, etc.)

Chapter 8: Diversity-And-Inclusion Toward Persistence: Crossing to the Other Side by R. Winkle-Wagner and Locks (2014)

• People to know: Tinto, Astin, & Bean
• “students’ background influences persistence in college” (pg. 146)
• everything influences persistence (ex: involvement, campus climate, institution type, advisors, programs)
• Persistence and retention theories have focused on the majority (white, straight men who don’t have to finance their own education through working through college).

Who Gets to Graduate by Paul Tough (2014)

As I began reading the story of Vanessa, my heart broke. She had the tools to succeed, but her doubt got in the way. I loved these two sentences: “If you want to help low-income students succeed, it’s not enough to deal with their academic and financial obstacles. You also need to address their doubts and misconceptions and fears.”

David Laude understands that putting (low-income) students in remedial classes isn’t effective. It makes them feel like “outsiders from the beginning.” I think that what makes the U.L.N. program effective for students is that Laude actually cares. This program is intentional and specific to the students at U.T. Austin. More initiative like this one (but not a cookie cutter copy) need to exist.

College Completion website

The first thing you notice when you look at the map is that it’s mostly a reddish-brown color. There a pockets of green, but not a whole lot. So that’s a bad sign.

I selected 4-year public institutions and clicked on Indiana. Only 3 institutions are graduating more than 50% of their students in 6 years. That’s terrible. (Does this include students who transfer out though?) Ball State only graduates 35% of students in 4 years. I’m dumbstruck.

Next, I selected 4-year private institutions and clicked on Illinois. The percentages on this page are more comforting. Millikin graduates 48% of students in 4 years and almost 60% in 6. However, these private colleges are all much more expensive. Does the small increase in graduation rates warrant the price increase?

(3/4 of) American Hookup by Lisa Wade

Chapter 6:

• everything has to be “hot”
• “In this topsy-turvy world, you have sex with people you don’t like and don’t have sex with people you do.” (pg. 137 [Kindle edition]) — this is like playing hard to get (only when you actually like someone)
• I LOVE THIS: “‘aloof rather than desirous,’ ‘blasé rather than passionate,’ and ‘self-contained rather than needy.’ The power of cool is in needing no one. Cool people are detached and invulnerable, indifferent toward you, everything you stand for, and what you think of them.” (pg. 138 [Kindle edition])
• It is feminine (undesirable) to like someone (catch feelings)

Chapter 7:

• Men’s desires are the more important ones in hookup culture.
• Interesting that so many men don’t/won’t perform oral sex on their female partners
• ORGASM GAP

Chapter 8:

• hooking up to earn respect among a peer group… or the opposite: being ridiculed for hooking up with someone “not hot”
• hookup culture is a competition!