IDEAS - Iniciativas de desarrollo educativo y sociocomunitario

The report begins with a brief review of evidence regarding changes in student persistence over time. It does so as a way of establishing the argument that research and theory on student persistence has yet to influence, on a national scale, student persistence in higher education. We then turn, in section 2, to existing research and theories on student persistence and argue that it has yet to provide institutional leaders the sorts of information they need to frame effective programs and policies for the persistence of their students. That discussion leads, in Sections 3 and 4, to the laying out of the outlines of a general model of institutional action and to an elaboration of the ways in which specific types of actions can enhance student persistence. Section 5 follows with a discussion of federal and state policy. Though it touches upon actions that directly shape student persistence, it emphasizes the ways in which those actions, in particular of the state, shape institutional actions and in turn student persistence. We conclude, in Section 6, with suggestions for further research and policy analysis.