From Data to Action: Unpacking Persistence and Retention Insights
Higher education is at a crossroads; institutions that embrace clarity through AI and data will lead the way in closing persistence gaps and boosting student success.
Key Takeaways
National retention and persistence are inching upward, but first-year students—especially part-timers—still face significant challenges.
Data dashboards unveil critical disparities by enrollment intensity, state, and student demographics, guiding equitable support strategies.
Analytics tools like Liaison Othot empower institutions to predict at-risk students and prescribe timely, personalized interventions.
Integrating predictive analytics into enrollment and advising transforms complex data into clear, actionable steps that boost retention and persistence.
Each year, the Persistence and Retention Report published by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) offers a deep dive into early college enrollment outcomes—tracking retention rates (how many students stay enrolled in their starting institution) and persistence rates (how many students continued at any institution). The 2023 cohort results give us reason for cautious optimism: Second-fall persistence rose to 77.6%, and second-fall retention climbed to 69.5%. First-spring persistence reached 86.4%, and first-spring retention hit an all-time high of 83.7%.
But headlines don’t tell the whole story: Part-time students, for example, persisted at a rate of just 67.4% in their first spring and only 53.2% by their second fall—far below their full-time peers. State-level persistence data also reveals drops in Maryland and New Mexico, while Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont lead the nation in second-fall persistence.
The NSCRC’s report offers more than just numbers; it also provides inspiration for institutions to create an integrated approach that delivers more meaningful support and engagement.
Building on AI-Driven Success
Consider the example of Daytona State College, which collaborated with Liaison to leverage AI-powered analytics that make it possible to identify and assist at-risk students in real time. By tracking behavioral indicators and engagement patterns, Daytona State’s advisors could intervene proactively, resulting in:
- Leadership buy-in | Data-driven results empowered directors to champion targeted support initiatives.
- Smoother student experience | Personalized outreach ensured each student received the right information at the right time.
- Early alert system | Timely notifications triggered interventions before issues escalated.
As Liaison AVP for Enrollment Management Solutions Jeremy Schaeffer noted, “Predictive analytics allow you to identify actions before a student even steps into class—they can drive impactful support at every stage of the student lifecycle.” And as the Persistence and Retention report makes clear, better outcomes hinge on well-informed, proactive efforts, especially for part-time and non-traditional learners.
Othot: Your Partner for Persistence & Retention
How do you transform the report’s complexity into clearly focused strategies on your campus? That’s where Liaison Othot comes into the picture. Othot’s AI-powered analytics platform and Student Success models are custom-built to maximize the power of each institution’s data, surfacing the most critical variables that influence persistence and retention.
- Custom modeling | Harness your existing data—academic, behavioral, socioeconomic, etc.—to enable real-time predictions and prescriptive recommendations.
- Real-time predictive dashboard | Simulate scenarios and visualize how different interventions could shift your persistence and retention rates before you implement them.
- Individual student views | Drill down to see exactly why a student might be at risk and which targeted support will help them stay on track.
Campuses using Othot retain 3% more students, underscoring that data-driven, personalized engagement isn’t just theory—it’s a proven catalyst for student success.
Turning Insights into Impact
While the Persistence and Retention report gives us the “what” and the “where,” you need to tackle the “how.” By combining in-depth data exploration with AI-powered tools, you can:
- Identify the most vulnerable cohorts, such as part-time or first-generation students, and tailor support accordingly.
- Engage stakeholders—from advisors to academic leadership—with clear narratives built around your own retention data.
- Deploy targeted interventions at the optimal time, backed by predictive signals that reveal who needs help and when.
Higher education is at a crossroads; institutions that embrace clarity through AI and data will lead the way in closing persistence gaps and boosting student success.
With Othot’s data insights and AI-driven capabilities, you can turn today’s retention challenges into tomorrow’s success stories, one student at a time.