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Diversity encompasses a variety of social, political, and demographic attributes of individuals, including such social identities as gender, sexual orientation, class, religious affiliation, and geographic origin. Typically, research focused on diversity defines it in racial or ethnic terms. Similarly, while several groups are considered minorities for factors other than race, racial and ethnic minorities are typically the primary targets of minority student retention programs and thus the focus of this entry.

Minority student retention is any effort at the institutional or organizational level, including student organizations, that aims to ensure that minority students continue their matriculation through college. Both 2- and 4-year institutions engage in efforts to retain minority students. Of the ethnic minorities who attend U.S. colleges and universities, African American and Hispanic students receive the most attention from such programs, followed by Native American, Pacific Islander, and certain Southeast Asian American groups.

Importance of Minority Student Retention

Minority student retention has implications beyond the individual student and beyond that student's particular racial/ethnic group. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the racial/ethnic composition of the nation is changing rapidly. The bureau projects that minorities will represent nearly 39% of the U.S. population by 2020 and nearly 50% by 2050. Those numbers represent dramatic increases from 2000, when the Census Bureau found that minorities were 31% of the U.S. population.

The American Council on Education (ACE) reports that approximately 33% of African Americans, 27% of Hispanics, and 25% of Native Americans between the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in some form of higher education in 2007. These rates present a dismal outlook that is exacerbated by the 6-year completion rates for these racial/ethnic groups. The College Board Advocacy and Policy Center states that just 39% of Native Americans, 41% of African Americans, and 47% of Hispanics complete college within 6 years of initial enrollment as compared to 59% of White students.

The United States has fallen from first to 12th in college completion rates among developed nations, according to the College Board. If minority retention rates remain stagnant between now and the coming decades, the United States' standing in college completion rates will likely worsen along with its international standing. In an age of increasing global competition for natural and economic resources that is largely being driven by technological advances, the United States could find itself relatively undereducated at what may be the precise moment that it most needs an educated population.

Defining Student Retention

Student retention, stop out, dismissal, drop out, withdrawal, departure, and persistence are all terms used to articulate and problematize a student's inability to complete a degree program. The difference between these terms lies in the onus of responsibility for the departure behavior. For example, a dismissal refers to a student who is not permitted by the institution to continue enrollment at the institution, and a stop out to a student who voluntarily withdraws temporarily from an institution. The focus of this entry, student retention, is broadly defined as an institution's ability to retain a student from admission to graduation.

Theory and Research in Student Retention

Tinto's Interactionalist Theory

Vincent Tinto proposed what is perhaps the most influential theory for student retention. He posited that students bring certain characteristics to college upon entry that influence their initial goal and institutional commitments and that those characteristics influence how students interpret their interactions with the university (hence the name “interactionalist”). The students' initial traits also affect how well they integrate socially and academically at their particular institutions, which then affect later goals and institutional commitments and ultimately the decision to depart or persist. Increasing levels of social and academic integration lead to greater likelihood of students persisting. Social and academic integration refer to the ways students navigate and engage the academic and social cultures of their specific campuses.

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