Posted by k on April 07, 2008 at 11:40:29:
In Reply to: Retention posted by Michael L. Janowitz on April 07, 2008 at 10:08:21:
In addition to WHERE you're losing the kids TO (are there other class offerings that open up later that they would be compelled to take?), I would be interested in looking at what the student expectations are upon signing up. Do you recruit hardcore and really try to sell your program? A lot of recruitment programs try to sell the "fun" parts of band (trips, rewards, etc.) without informing students that band does require hard work. Of course we have fun, but in the context of working hard toward a common goal. If you have students signing up simply to have fun, then once they find out that band is not just an "easy A," then of course they're going to quit. Students signing up for the wrong reasons can contribute to a high attrition rate. I would consider giving your students some informal surveys to figure out where they are mentally...during the year, you could ask them to write a few sentences on topics like "why I joined band" "the best/worst thing about band is..." "why I chose my instrument" and at the end of the year, you could do some sort of survey (I do this with my elective exploratory class) that asks questions like "what did you like best about this class?" "what did you like least about this class?" "list some things you learned in band" and you can have a spot for additional comments. If you don't care about masking the reason for the survey, you can also have them answer at the end "are you going to take band again next year, why or why not." Sometimes the best way to find out why they're quitting is to just ask them. If it's because of something like "I don't like having to practice so much" then that may not be a kid you want in your program. If the answer is something you can do something about like choice of music or specific activities that can be swapped out for something else, then you may be able to keep some good kids. My guess is that after that first year, you end up with a better quality group...this is under the assumption that many kids are signing up that don't really know what they're in for and aren't putting forth a whole lot of effort. If you're losing the slackers, I wouldn't worry TOO much about it, but if you're losing good kids, then you might want to find out WHY.
Hope this helps!!
: I know there was an earlier thread on this, but there wasn't enough there to help me.
: I am trying to determine what an average attrition rate is for Band students. We are currently losing over 50% of the students that start in 5th grade by the time they get to 7th grade. This years 7th grade band is 27 students, but when they were in 5th grade there were 64, for a 58% attrition rate. This years 8th graders are 36, but started with 76 in 5th grade for a 53% attrition rate.
: I know that ES programs have large dropout rates, but ours seem to be very high. We are trying to figure out ways to increase our numbers, but I first want to see if our current data is way out of line or what.
: I know it varies from area to area, but I need to see how similar we are to other schools.
: Thanks in advance for any feedback!
: Mike