Student Coaching Can Improve Retention and Graduation Rates
March 10, 2011
A new study has found that individualized coaching to college students can help keep them in school and ultimately help them earn their degrees.
The study was conducted by Eric P. Bettinger, an associate professor of education at Stanford University, and doctoral student Rachel Baker, and was based on the student coaching services provided by the company InsideTrack. The researchers reviewed academic records of close to 14,000 students from eight institutions, and compared groups of coached and non-coached students.
The findings, which are being published today by the National Bureau of Economic Research, clearly indicated that coaching helped with retention and graduation rates: After six months, the coached student group led the non-coached group in retention by about 10 percent, and by almost 12 percent after 12 months. At 18 months, the coached group led by 15 percent. Moreover, the results were consistent even when the researchers controlled for age, gender, SAT and ACT scores, GPA, and scholarships and grants.
"The results are clear: Coaching had a clear impact on retention and completion rates," Bettinger said in a statement. "And not only does coaching improve the likelihood students will remain in college, but expenditures on coaching are much smaller than the costs of other methods to encourage persistence in college."
Inside Higher Ed agrees that the study noted that coaching may be one of the most cost effective ways to increase student retention. The price of the coaching was about $500 per semester per student.
One of the study's more interesting findings was that coaching tended to impact men more than women. That conclusion is particularly significant, since men tend to have lower enrollment and graduation rates.
"If we look in broad literature, we struggle to help males stay enrolled and engaged in school," noted Bettinger in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. "The effects here were clear. Active outreach towards male students, happening on a one-on-one basis, in the privacy of their e-mail account or cell phone, was really effective for these kids in this study."
Compiled by Yaffa Klugerman
Sources:
"A Close-Up Look at Student Coaching," The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9, 2011, Eric Hoover
"Stanford Study Shows College Student Coaching Improves Retention and Graduation Rates," Stanford University School of Education press release, March 10, 2011
"The Power of the Nudge," Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2011, Scott Jaschik
