Retention Strategies
Contributors: Rochel Abrams, Fran Riotte, Karen Shipman,
Susan Pittman, Marianne Kearsley, Phil Jones
There are three essential elements to student retention in Adult Education Programs. They
are: make each student feel welcome and valued; make each class worthwhile; make each student
believe in a positive personal future. Following are some suggestions for keeping your students
once you have them. Many of the suggestions are simple, common sense and common courtesy
suggestions; others are more involved suggestions that take some planning. All of the suggestions
offered are possible for any teacher in any setting, and reading through them should help us re
member that, mostly, our students come to us to learn to believe that they matter.
- Know your students. Know and call them by their names. Know and ask about their
interests outside of class, their problems, their jobs, and their families.
- Call after several absences. Encourage classmates to call friends who are out. Check
with an employer or family member about an absent student. Find some way to get the
message to them that they are missed and are missing important work in your class.
After a teacher has tried calling numerous times, have someone else from Adult Educa
tion call students who have poor attendance. Sometimes it is a conflict with the teacher
that is keeping a student out of class and contact from someone other than the teacher
allows the student a forum for working through this.
- Encourage students to become friends with each other. Build new friendships by pairing
students together who could benefit from each other's personalities or skills. Encourage
students to bring old friends to class with them. Allow friends to work together who can
do so effectively.
- Invite graduates back to class to encourage others and to serve as mentors.
- Interview students about current work and family situation. Express understanding of
current responsibilities and work out a variety of study plans to accommodate for the
student's work or family schedule.
- Interview students about career goals. Help students set realistic short and long-term
goals. Consider working on a literacy contract with your student.
- Remember birthdays of students.
- Make work relevant. Teach students one new skill everyday that they can use at
home or work.
- Give students a choice in selecting materials.
- Vary classroom activities. Do group and individual work everyday. Use "brain breaks"
such as brainteasers, crossword puzzles, etc. to break up the class time.