Running head: CONSTRUCTING YOUR OWN IEO MODEL 1

Jordan Glover

Hi Ed 846: College Students & Success

Penn State World Campus

Inputs and Environments to Support Retention as an Outcome

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As a professional in enrollment services and visitation on campus, an important part of

knowing that I am successful at my job is the retention rate of my institution. Recruitment is a

key piece of the work that I do in admissions and enrolling a thriving and successful first year

class that continues to come back to Penn State is key in recruiting the appropriate students. My

primary focus in my day to day role is planning and executing on-campus recruitment programs.

I am uniquely positioned to have almost full creative control over the way that students and

families interact with campus and understand the opportunities at our school. There are many

important aspects of the campus visit ranging from campus tours, to student panels, academic

department interaction, and parental support, as well as many more to consider when planning.

It’s hard to know what is most important for various types of students, and diving into retention

data is a great way to begin understanding this concept. Because of this interest - I have decided

to dive into retention rate for traditional-aged, first-year college students and their overall

retention rate into the second year at their institution.

To find students who are appropriate to recruit to your university, there are many

different factors to consider: eligibility, proximity, and legacy status are some of the most

important to think about. But, if one of the goals of the institution’s recruitment effort is to

ensure that the students committing will stick around at the institution, then understanding the

factors involved in recruitment are immensely important. I think one of the most important

factors in recruiting a class that will stick around is ensuring that the students that begin as first

year students are academically prepared. Overall, students that have a higher grade point average

are typically more successful in the college classroom regardless of other circumstances that are

taking place in their life. Obviously, doing well academically in college stems from doing well

academically in high school, but typically students that do well in high school can do reasonably
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well in college even when other things occur that distract them from their education or attempt to

derail their academic success (Bean, 1980). When considering recruiting in a successful and

persistent first-year class, ensure that recruitment efforts are targeting students who are

academically prepared to their fullest potential and will be able to be successful in an academic

environment with even more rigor.

In terms of other inputs as we are considering who to recruit into our institutions, we

definitely consider proximity to the university. While published research on these niche

considerations is challenging to find, common sense allows us to infer that students who live

close to a university are more likely to be retained than students who may be out of state or

international and far from home during their time at college. A crisis in the home life or

homesickness is more likely to plague someone that needs to travel back to their home than it is

to plague a student who might be within a few hours of their family and home. I imagine that

annually, there are drops in retention for students who simply cannot be as far away from home

as they thought would be possible. In terms of recruitment, it is important to focus your efforts

on students who are close to the institution, build a relationship with the students and work with

local high schools to become a great place for local students and students around the state to

continue their education. By recruiting those students close by, institutions can ensure that they

are bringing a number of students in who will not have problems related to distance like their out

of state and international counterparts.

An additional way to look at recruitment is to invite those students who are the children

of alumni and already have a connection to the institution. Students who have a connection in

some capacity to the institution they are attending, are more likely to persist through negative

experiences and graduate from that institution. If students who already relate to the school can be
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recruited, then their retention may be higher (Prasad, Showler, Ryan, Schmitt & Nye, 2017). We

do utilize legacy status as a recruitment method as it allows parents and students to have an

often-positive experience together discussing the institution as an option.

Recruitment into colleges and universities exists in two ways – the ways discussed in this

paper up until this point, on-campus recruitment, and then the recruitment methods utilized by

institutions off-campus, to begin introducing the university to students as they start to consider

their options. Casually, this is referred to as “high school visits”. Recruiters can attend college

fairs, do meet and greets with students, and begin to build relationships with families,

communities, and guidance counselors to assist the institution in enrolling students. If retention

is a goal of recruitment, as we are discussing visiting specific high schools, it makes sense to

consider which high schools might be most beneficial to visit and recruit students from. Which

high schools will provide students that have the best chance of persisting to graduation when

they leave that environment and move into the new environment at the institution? A 2006

student on effects of high school on college retention shows that typical measures of a school’s

success and ability to education students well, like funding, class size, etc. do not indicate a

successful student that will be retainable to an institution. Instead, schools should consider

curricular experience and activities focused around transitioning to a higher education as more

important (Herzog, 2006). When focusing on recruiting students that should be successful,

institutions should consider high school curriculum and program as an input.

So, as it relates to the IEO model for retention, some inputs that have proven to be helpful

to recruit students specifically based upon are academic ability, proximity, legacy status, and

high school characteristics. Institutions and admissions offices can use this information to help
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shape their recruitment plans and efforts to provide the institution the best chance at securing a

first-year class that will continue on past their first year and persist to graduation.

Once the students are at the institution, most things about their lives will change. Their

schedule, friend groups, and expectations of the world around them will adjust to accommodate

for all the new things in their lives. What students do not often realize is that their environments

have changed so much, that it is affecting what they do and how they live their lives. For

institutions, getting in front of changing environments to provide support in navigating those

environments can allow students to stick around longer as they will likely do better in handling

these things coming at them.

A big part of ensuring that students have a smooth transition is hosting orientation for

first-year students to get acclimated to their new institution and understand how life will work

for them. In the same way that legacy students have an existing connection to the institution,

orientation programs allow students to feel connected to the institution even without that

additional factor of legacy status. It allows them to feel more comfortable, and in control of the

environment that they will be moving their lives into once they start college (Prasad, Showler,

Ryan, Schmitt & Nye, 2017). These days, orientation programs are pretty standard and follow a

few tried and true methods to ensure students are getting the information they need prior to

beginning classes. Because of this standardization, they are not necessarily setting institutions

apart from each other when it comes to retention, as any school that has a well-designed

orientation is likely reaping the benefits.

In the IEO model, environment can do what input cannot do – get the students who are

not ideal inputs up to speed to continue increasing retention, in this case. For example, take first-

generation college students. These students do not typically have the qualities that would be
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considered “ideal” for retention purposes. They do not have alumni parents; they are not always

the highest academic achievers and they do not always come from the best high schools. They

could obviously live close to the institution. Many institutions have introduced summer programs

or “bridge” programs specifically to ensure that first-generation students are getting the prep and

support they need to take on college, and these programs increase retention of populations of

students that are typically harder to retain, such as first-generation students (Russell, 2015; "90%

of low-income, first-generation college students don't graduate on time", 2019).

An additional programming option to consider that allows students to adjust to their

environment once they are living and working in it is the first-year seminar experience. Students

from across the board in terms of preparedness for college benefit from first year seminar,

including students who are struggling or might not be the ideal fit for the institution or higher ed.

By having a great seminar for first-year students, institutions can assist their retention rates to

grow.

Overall, retention is heavily tied into inputs and environments. Whether or not a student

who enrolls in an institution can persist to graduation depends on so many different factors

throughout the previous parts of life, into high school, and into college. Institutions looking to

raise their retention rate and become better at retention can do so by strategically recruiting

students who fit the ideal inputs of the IEO model. Students who are academically prepared for

college, have connections to the institution, are close by, and attended high schools with

adequate preparation for college are all more likely to be retained from their first year into their

second year. But even students who are not the ideal input for an institution can still be

successful as there are many measures in place at institutions to assist those students with the
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transition and ensure that they can still have that successful outcome of continuing on into their

second year.
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References

Bean, J. (1980). Dropouts and Turnover: The Synthesis and Test of a Causal Model of Student

Attrition. Research in Higher Education, 12(2), 155-187. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40195329

Herzog, S. (2006). The Effect of High School Attended on Academic Preparation and Retention

of College Freshmen (Ph.D). University of Nevada, Reno.

Prasad, J., Showler, M., Ryan, A., Schmitt, N., & Nye, C. (2017). When belief precedes being:

How attitudes and motivation before matriculation lead to fit and academic performance.

Journal Of Vocational Behavior, 100, 27-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2017.02.003

Russell, K. (2015). Bridge Programs Help First Generation Students Adap To College Life.

Retrieved 8 August 2019, from

https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2015/04/24/bridge-programs-help-first-

generation-students-adapt-to-college-life/37402375/

90% of low-income, first-generation college students don't graduate on time. (2019). Retrieved 8

August 2019, from https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2016/03/16/90-percent-of-low-

income-first-gen-students-dont-graduate-on-time-but-colleges-can-change-that