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DLIFLC Attrition Reduction Initiative Evaluation Plan
Dr. Shannon SalyerSenior Research Scientist, Office of the Provost
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Agenda
•Evaluation Overview–Data Collection Methods
–Evaluation Questions and Projects
•Questions/Reactions
Evaluation Overview
• Evaluation spans 18 months• 5 Persian/Farsi Classes • Capitalizing on existing Student
Learning Center (SLC), School House (SH), and Military Unit (MU) structures and processes
• Several Methods utilized to triangulate findings
Data Collection Methods
• Military Unit Interviews• Student Questionnaires (SLC)• Sensing Sessions (SH)• Video Diaries• Academic Review and MLI meetings (SH and
MU)• Classroom Observations• Military Unit Observations• Student interviews
Evaluation Projects
• Policies and Practices Interviews
• Cohort Study (Mr. Jaramillo)
• Early Identification of “Students at Risk” (Ms. Wagner)
• Classroom Effectiveness (Dr. Berman)
• Intervention Effectiveness (Dr. Lim)
Policies and Processes
What are the characteristics of student attrition at DLIFLC and how is it handled?
What strategies employed by students, schools, garrison, military units and support services are effective at reducing attrition?
What is the impact of our current policy of assigning responsibility for each instance of attrition to either the school (teaching team) or the military unit?
Is there a way of accounting for attrition that would be more productive and engender a more collaborative environment than the current method of categorizing each instance of attrition as academic or administrative and assigning responsibility for that instance of attrition to the school (teaching team) or the military unit?
• MU Interviews• Interviews with SH personnel• Interview with Dean of Students
Cohort Study
What innate differences between students can help predict who will complete their language program as opposed to who will not?
How many hours outside of class (day/week) spent studying the target language will facilitate the greatest success? Is there a threshold number of hours outside of class spent studying the target language upon which the student enters a point of diminishing returns?
• Sample Quantitative Factors: DLAB Scores, Unit Test scores, Number of days on SA
• Sample Qualitative Factors: Motivation for joining military, Motivation for learning Farsi, video diary entries, interview responses
Video Diary
How do you balance school, life and military duties?
Early Identification of “Students at Risk”
What strategies employed by students, schools, garrison, military units and support services are effective at reducing attrition?
What are the potential consequences for retaining a student as it pertains to affecting the performance of other students in the class and the performance of the retained student?
• Attendance of all academic review meetings in the SH (Dean meetings, MLI meetings)
• Contact with MU to record administrative and disciplinary issues
• Video diary questions to document effects of students falling behind on classroom morale
Video Diary
Are you pleased with your academic progress?
Classroom Effectiveness
What are the potential consequences for retaining a student as it pertains to affecting the performance of other students in the class and the performance of the retained student?
• Classroom Observations (Student performance, classroom behaviors)
• Sensing Sessions (teachers, students)
Video Diary
Is your class competitive or cooperative?
Intervention Effectiveness
What are the costs associated with student attrition compared to the costs of implementing student retention strategies?
What are the characteristics of successful academic interventions? What types of interventions would help reduce student attrition?
• One class receiving specialized instruction from the SLC
• Data Collection: strategy survey, student portfolios, language learning plans, SLC academic advising reports, unit tests, & DLPT scores
Preliminary Results
• Hawthorne Effect• Service Differences• Quick response to data• Cooperation between School House, Military,
DLIFLC Leadership
