Massachusetts
Massachusetts state universities get creative to keep student retention up – The Boston Globe
Laura Baker, a professor of economics, political science, and history at Fitchburg State University, said she has had similar experiences with her students, many of whom endured upheavals in their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic when they were still in high school.
“Students don’t just drift away,” she said in a phone interview last week. “There are a number of reasons why they find themselves unable to complete a term or enroll for consecutive terms.”
Professors, support staff, and higher education experts have cited financial stressors and emotional turmoil as reasons that students have left college before completion. State universities are scrambling to implement more forgiving academic policies and increase outreach to keep students at their institutions.
With enrollment on the decline at most public state universities, professors and academic staff are bolstering the support they offer to students in an effort to retain them. Though Massachusetts has a lower rate of dropouts than the national average, the rate of retention, also known as persistence, has stalled.
According to a 2022 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, achieving growth in graduation rates has been a struggle across the country.
The national completion rate for public four-year universities is 68 percent, down 1 percent from the previous cohort, and in Massachusetts, the college completion rate for those between 20 and 24 years old has decreased from 74.1 percent in the 2013 cohort to 68.4 percent in the 2016 cohort. Academics use the term cohort to describe a class or group of students who start together in a given year. For college completions, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center measures cohorts in a six-year period. The 2016 cohort, for example, will have graduated by 2022.
The average among Massachusetts’ four-year public institutions is 75.1 percent, down 1 percentage point from a decade ago. But many administrators and faculty at public universities in Massachusetts are implementing new strategies to keep students enrolled, despite rates remaining higher than the national average.
Sabrina Gentlewarrior, vice president of student success, equity, and diversity at Bridgewater State University, said students at her institution are often “at particular risk for non-persistence, often due to factors that are not at all their fault.”
Bridgewater State has one of the state’s highest rates of persistence, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Of the 1,335 full-time first-year students who began at the university in the fall of 2020, 1,053, or 79 percent, returned the following year.
Bridgewater State has created multiple programs in an effort to retain more students. In the spring of 2020, the university launched a “student navigator” program that gives students a mentor on their first day of school to “provide 360-degree support,” according to Gentlewarrior.
And if a student doesn’t register for classes the following semester, volunteers at the university check in with postcards, texts, and phone calls.
At Framingham State University, Donna Bridges, dean of student success and persistence, said the number of students there who have fallen beneath academic standards has “inched up a bit,” and the school has “taken a lot of steps” to try to improve on that. Those who are working above academic standards are less likely to leave the institution, she said.
Seventy-one percent of first-year students at Framingham State in fall 2020 returned the next year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
Framingham State has implemented more forgiving academic policies to encourage retention.
Faculty members can trigger a withdrawal policy if a student is disengaged with a course for 21 consecutive days, removing the class — and a possible failing grade — from the student’s records. Students can also opt to take classes pass/fail. If a student passes, the class remains on their record. If they fail, it is erased, with no failing grade reported.
“This is an existential moment for higher education,” Bridges said. “You have to dig deep and become student-ready campuses. We’re meeting them where they are while trying to maintain standards for academic performance. It’s tough.”
Finding ways to support students is key, said higher education expert Mike Kantrowitz.
“The key to dealing with retention issues is you have to be aware of what’s affecting the [students] and talk to them, intervene, and offer support,” he said. “It might not be financial support. It might be emotional or social support, academic support.”
Fitchburg State’s one-year return rate is lower than both state and nationwide averages. Just 63 percent of students starting in the fall of 2020 returned the following year, the state’s Department of Higher Education reported.
“We talk about strategies for doing more,” Baker said. “To reach out to students, to find ways to provide more support, to try to be more lenient. Maybe making shorter assignments, maybe assignments that are less frequent, certainly giving more time and being more generous with late assignments.”
Elizabeth Bidinger, an English professor at Worcester State University, said she has been “shocked” over the past few years by her students’ attitudes in classes. The difference between students before and after the pandemic, she said, is stark.
“The students would honestly sit in class with their arms folded, leaning back in their chairs kind of looking almost disgruntled with education in general,” she said in an interview. “They were sort of bracing themselves to be hostile or untrusting.”
Bidinger, like other professors who spoke to the Globe, said she has modified assignments. Even then, she said, students sometimes have requested alternative projects when assignments seemed too daunting. Only three students in her class of 20 completed an assigned oral presentation last year, she said.
Bidinger, who has taught at Worcester State for 16 years, said she has seen an increase in students taking time off or dropping out over the past few years.
And, she said, “I’ve never had so many students just stop showing up to class, just totally ghosting me.”
Despite this, she said it was hard to blame the students for their struggles in college classes after experiencing most of high school during the pandemic.
“It’s not that they’re weaker, and it’s not that they’re lazy,” Bidinger said. “It’s going to sound dramatic, but there’s a cohort coming back from a war in the sense. We have to understand that they have been through it.”
Worcester state has a 73 percent rate of return among first-year students, according to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
Thomas Kelley, Worcester State’s retention director, said the university is using strategies like those at Bridgewater State and Framingham State to retain students. School officials text, e-mail, and call those who seem to have fallen behind, and send surveys about the circumstances of the departure to those who opt to take a leave of absence or drop out.
“We’ve had a lot of great systems at our institution, things that identify at-risk students during the semester,” he said. “We do a great job being intentional, asking the students the right question.”
And Ryan Forsythe, vice president of enrollment management at the university, said he has seen a different situation at Worcester State than some other state schools.
Worcester State, “like other regional public universities, saw a decrease in the number of students attending college in the fall of 2020.” But despite that, he said, Worcester State has “rebounded since COVID-19.”
Morrison, the history professor at Salem State, said he has been working on being more understanding of his students and what they go through.
“Our population is not privileged,” he said. “Our population are working-class, lower-middle-class students who, for the most part, work a lot.”
Elllie Wolfe can be reached at ellie.wolfe@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @elliew0lfe.
Massachusetts
High School On SI 2024 All-State Massachusetts’ Football Award Winners
There were first-time state champions, repeat winners – and some of the craziest games you will ever seen played anywhere on a football field this fall.
And now it is time for High School On SI Massachusetts to release its individual award winners, including the player and coach of the year honorees.
The Boston College commitment played for Division 2’s top team, which Catholic Memorial defeated King Philip Regional 39-21 for the Super Bowl. Dodd was the workhorse for the team, rushing for 1,362 yards on 115 attempts and scoring 20 touchdowns. The senior also added seven catches for 139 yards through the air.
Whether it was through the air or on the ground, Attaway compiled over 1,000 yards either way. The senior led the way to the Hawks winning the Division 6 Super Bowl state title. Attaway finished completing 76-of-113 passes for 1,329 yards and 20 touchdowns. On the ground, Attaway rushed for 1,008 yards on 65 carries and 12 scores.
Frisch stood out on both sides of the ball, but especially on the defensive side at middle linebacker. The 6-foot, 210-pound linebacker racked up 59 tackles, eight going for a loss, 12 sacks, an interception and forced a fumble. On offense at tight end, Frisch caught 14 passes for 301 yards and five touchdowns.
Playing for the Division 7 Super Bowl state champions, the junior running back was phenomenal out of the backfield. The Spartans’ tailback carried the rock 201 times for 1,772 yards and scored 26 touchdowns. LaChapelle caught five passes for 100 yards and two scores.
Despite losing multiple games during the regular season and many throughout the state wondering if Xaverian Brothers could repeat as Division I state champions. The Hawks pulled it off under the guidance of Fornaro as he guided the team to the Division I Super Bowl, defeating Needham, 14-7.
Follow High School On SI throughout the 2024 high school football season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!
Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school football news.
High School On SI will serve as the premier destination for high school sports fans, delivering unparalleled coverage of high school athletics nationwide through in-depth stories, recruiting coverage, rankings, highlights and much more. The launch of a dedicated high school experience expands Sports Illustrated’s reach to even more local communities as fans can now truly follow athletes from “preps to the pros” on a single platform, bringing them closer to the action than ever before. For more information, visit si.com/high-school.
To get live updates on your phone – as well as follow your favorite teams and top games – you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App| Download Android App
— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi
Massachusetts
Lucas: Ayotte’s shots at Healey over immigration hit mark
Hardly had Kelly Ayotte, the new governor of New Hampshire unloaded on Massachusetts over its immigration policy, than another illegal immigrant was charged with rape in the Bay State.
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Massachusetts
Disciplinary hearing for suspended Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor continued to 2nd day
Suspended Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor’s Trial Board disciplinary proceedings will go on to a second day.
Proctor’s trouble publicly began when he testified during the murder trial of Karen Read last summer. During a tense examination by the prosecution and even more intense cross examination, Proctor admitted to inappropriate private texts that he made as the case officer investigating Read.
“She’s a whack job (expletive),” Proctor read from compilations of text messages he sent to friends as he looked at Read’s phone. The last word was a derogatory term for women that he at first tried to spell out before Judge Beverly Cannone told him to read it the way he wrote it.
“Yes she’s a babe. Weird Fall River accent, though. No (butt),” he continued under oath on June 10, 2024.
He also texted them “no nudes so far” as an update on the search through her phone. He also testified that he told his sister that he hoped that Read would kill herself.
On Wednesday, Proctor sat through a full day of trial board proceedings at MSP general headquarters in Framingham. When that concluded in the late afternoon, the board decided to continue for a second day on Feb. 10. Neither Wednesday’s proceeding nor the second day is open to the public.
Proctor was relieved of duty on July 1 of last year, which was the day the Read trial concluded in mistrial. He was suspended without pay a week later. The State Police finished its internal affairs investigation last week and convened the trial board to determine the next step in the disciplinary process.
The trial board makes disciplinary recommendations to the superintendent, who determines the final outcome.
“A State Police Trial Board shall hear cases regarding violations of Rules, Regulations, Policies, Procedures, Orders, or Directives,” states the Department’s Rules and Regulations.
“In the event that the Trial Board finds guilt by a preponderance of the evidence on one or more of the charges, the Trial Board shall consider the evidence presented by the Department prosecutor pertaining to the accused member’s prior offenses/disciplinary history, and shall make recommendations for administrative action,” the rules and regulations state.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at age 46 on Jan. 29, 2022. Read’s second trial is scheduled to begin April 16.
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