Breaking the Attrition Cycle: The Effects of Supplemental Instruction on Undergraduate Performance and Attrition.

Numerous factors appear to influence retention rates. Among these are student perception of progress toward an academic career goal [18], a high level of faculty-student interaction [2, 19], and personal counseling and academic advising programs [5, 7]. General upgrading of educational services has been suggested as an additional strategy for increasing retention [14]. In their efforts to reduce attrition, many colleges and universities now provide some form of academic support services. A well-designed learning assistance program can influence retention [9, 12]. Typical programs, however, tend to serve small numbers of students at a high per student cost. Moreover, little empirical data exists concerning the effectiveness of such programs. The purpose of this article is to describe an academic support program found to be effective in addressing the problems of student performance and attrition at an urban institution of eleven thousand students. The