Tiny Interventions Can Help Reverse Our Sky-High College Dropout Rate

For students who are people of color, the first to attend college in their families, and from low-income families, the likelihood of finishing a four-year college degree is 12 percent. Wallin Education Partners pairs scholars, most of whom fall into at least one of these categories, in Minnesota with families who offer funding and mentoring support throughout students' entire college experience. For the 4500 students who earn scholarships through Wallin, the four-year completion rate is 92 percent.

Adapting tactics that have helped persuade homeowners to use less electricity by comparing them to their neighbors, schools in Tacoma and other school districts across the nation are trying to boost student attendance with “nudge” letters. These nudges compare students’ attendance rates with school and district averages. Research has shown that the nudges reduces chronic absenteeism.

Small rural schools in New Hampshire achieved some of the state's highest reading scores by leveraging their size to create multi-grade classrooms, provide individualized support to all students, and build long-term student-teacher relationships. In result, these lower-income districts have outperformed expectations by the widest margins in the state.

Today, one in three college students is the first in their family to attend college; of these first-generation students, about a third drop out. A growing number of higher education institutions are reaching out to parents as one way to improve retention rates -- from offering online courses about life on campus to creating programming for parents during standard orientation schedules, colleges are increasing the chances that students make it through the challenging first year.

Community colleges are increasingly leveraging technology to engage students and keep them on track to graduation. Personalized messages about deadlines, information about class performance from professors, and texts about homework resources all contribute to a "fuller picture" of students and empower administrators with the information to intervene when necessary.

Schools in Los Angeles have strict consequences for truancy and tardiness but offer rewards and recognition for good attendance. Administrators use iPhones to record the ID numbers of tardy students, tracking them in order to engage the appropriate intervention.

Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

Individualized advice and counseling, boosted by software tools, is helping hundreds more students earn degrees and certificates each year at Walla Walla Community College in Washington.

Some colleges think students are overwhelmed by the number of options they have to choose from—countless classes and extracurriculars are available on many campuses. Schools across the United States are experimenting with new approaches, ranging from choosing courseloads for freshmen to assigning counselors to meet regularly with students.

Teachers in South Burlington High School in Vermont are taking a different approach to dealing with digital distractions in the classrooms. Through short 30-minute lessons getting at the root of cellphone addiction and the effects of apps on the brain, students and teachers approach the topic from a place of understanding as opposed to judgment or punishment.