By Jennifer Brooks - THE TENNESSEAN -

April 21, 2010 -

Students who enter Tennessee's public colleges and universities this fall will get the first taste of new policies designed to ensure they stay there until graduation.

This past winter, the legislature ordered the higher education system to do something to improve graduation rates that are among the lowest in the nation. Only 45 percent of the students who start high school in Tennessee earn a college degree within six years of starting college.

Legislation passed this year ties college funding in part to graduation rates. And beginning in the fall semester, students who enroll in community college could be simultaneously enrolled in the four-year university they would eventually attend.

The idea is to ensure that all the classes students take at a community college will transfer with them, said Richard Rhoda, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

"If a student knows (he or she) will be going on to a four-year school, they'll be admitted to both at the same time. Then there will be no question of what courses they should be taking" or whether those hard-earned credits will count toward their bachelor's degree, Rhoda said.

In fall 2011, colleges and universities will roll out a new core curriculum of classes accepted at every public institution in the state, allowing students to transfer more easily from one school to another.

Michael Brown, 24, an unemployed builder from Nashville, said he wants to start college and get a more stable career, but friends' troubles navigating the system have discouraged him.

"I want better for myself, but it's hard getting started. And it's worse thinking I might never finish," Brown said.

Some of his buddies switched majors in their junior year and had to start over from scratch. Others dropped out altogether.

"I don't want to waste my time or my money," said Brown, who has a 2-year-old.

Schools improve rates

Tennessee ranks 42nd in the nation in its percentage of residents with college degrees and its college graduation rate. Graduation rates around the state range from 58 percent at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to 27 percent at Austin Peay State University.

A recent survey by the Southern Regional Education Board highlighted 15 universities with large populations of at-risk students that have managed to improve graduation rates significantly. None of the schools were in Tennessee, and all of them have invested large amounts of money and time in their outreach program — something Tennessee's budget crisis will not allow for years to come.

Among the schools highlighted were Murray State University in Kentucky, which organized its student dormitories into European-style "learning communities" several years ago. Students pursuing the same majors live together, take classes together and take advantage of intensive tutoring and block scheduling the university offers.

Murray State's graduation rate was 56 percent in 2006, the most recent data available for the report.

At Western Kentucky University, the school's Best Expectations Programs target academically at-risk students with what it calls "intrusive advising" — the school steps in, whether the student likes it or not, to arrange free tutoring, monitored study halls and review course schedules. As of fall 2008, 62 percent of the students in the program had pulled their GPAs up to 2.0 or higher.

The school will jump in as early as the fifth week of freshman year, when an early alert system flags students who are struggling. Faculty submit reports on student academic progress, and at-risk students are required to meet with counselors to learn about resources available to them. Students also attend "Majors and Minors Fairs" to encourage them to choose their majors as early as possible.

WKU, where almost half the students have taken remedial classes and more than a third are Pell grant recipients, had a 49 percent graduation rate in 2006.

Tennessee's six-year graduation rate trails that of most of the rest of the country, but it has been creeping up slowly on its own. Statewide, 43 percent of the students who started college in 2003 had diplomas by 2009. The six-year graduation rate was 42 percent for the freshman class of 1999, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Help arrives for students

In the Tennessee Board of Regents system, schools are already implementing programs to catch students who are struggling before they get frustrated enough to drop out. Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning said Middle Tennessee-area schools are ramping up peer tutoring programs and classes that blend regular lessons with intensive tutoring sessions for students who are struggling.

The intention is to stop students from becoming frustrated, or failing a class, or spending university tuition on a remedial class that won't get them closer to graduation.

A decade ago, Manning said, most universities had massive remedial programs — entire departments of remedial education dedicated to serving students who couldn't make the grade in college-level courses.

"University departments of remedial education have shrunk, shrunk, shrunk" over the years, Manning said. Eventually, the state plan calls for all remedial education to be shifted to community colleges.

The community colleges, Manning said, are preparing for the influx with computer tutoring classes that allow students to catch up at their own speed.

Some students can zip through two semesters of remedial work in a single semester. Others thrive in peer tutoring groups.