Toomey, Jones design projects to improve retention

The two designed separate but related projects while attending the Institute for Developmental Educators and Learning Skills Specialists at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, co-sponsored by the Kellogg Institute, Cengage, and the National Center for Developmental Education.

Jones, assistant professor of English, focused his project on increasing retention, completion, and graduation rates. He designed specific hours for writing students to spend one-on-one sessions with tutors in the King Library during the 2018-19 academic year. He said the time together was incredibly helpful and resulted in most of the students earning As in their writing courses.

Toomey aimed to embed more support services, specifically tutors, for students into writing courses such as Transitional Writing (ENG 111) and First Year Writing (ENG 135). Toomey conducted training sessions for the tutors, including role playing and information about boundaries and power dynamics.

“It’s important that tutors break assignments into manageable chunks. It’s also important that they model good student behavior, and understand what the faculty member wants,” Toomey said.

Toomey set up small group advising in Fall 2018 where the group members helped one another prepare for mid-terms and finals and explored the reasons why they were attending college. Toomey’s surveys of the students revealed they wanted to meet more often.

“It was a safe space for them. They learned more about campus resources, forged connections and enrolled the following semester. The response was resoundingly positive. They want community, connections and it doesn’t have to be with a professor. They want to feel supported,” Toomey said.

The importance of relationship-building was also evident in Jones’ project.

Dr. Jim Margetts, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, said Jones’ project yielded several important findings, specifically about a correlation between his relationship-building strategies and student success that will inform the college’s efforts toward continuous improvement of first-year retention.

“We plan to utilize Markus’ expertise in faculty/student relationship development as we roll out a new phase in our Advising Model; armed with supporting data, we will seek his input in developing a faculty advisor training program that emphasizes skill development in this critical area,” Margetts said.

Jones plans to continue collecting data through surveys, and host focus groups until many of the Fall 2018 freshmen graduate.

“While many support systems, from academic support services to singular classes set up to focus on a small set of perceived student needs may be helpful, they are possibly not as important as the core effect of relationship building,” Jones said.

Margetts said Toomey provided ample anecdotal evidence that the embedded writing fellows and small-group advising had a positive effect on Transitional Studies students.

“The small group advising was particularly impactful toward retention. Tamara’s project contributed to an overall increase in the retention rate of both Transitional Studies and non-Transitional Studies students,” Margetts said.

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