Halfway through the semester, most students are lost in the routine of academic anguish, hoping for weekends and holidays to free them from their agony. But there is one funny observation: half the class is gone, and they are not coming back.

If you walk through the halls in the first month of class and glance in each classroom, what is there to notice but a room full of potential, not to mention a room full of students, and a teacher in hope that his/her class would be the one that would be full by semester’s end. Walk through that very same hall one month later, and there are more empty desks than full ones, and a contented teacher trying to keep up with the attendance game. And you can’t help but laugh and ask yourself why.

Success and Retention can be attributed to the Office of Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness. “The retention rate is based on the fourth week, and is the official census day.” Cathy Hasson of the District Planning and Institutional Effectiveness said. This day signifies the success and retention rate by term. Retention is the number of students with A through F, Credit, No-Credit, and Incomplete grades. The retention rate for the last five years stands at 84%. Success is the number of students with A, B, C, and Credit grades, and this five-year percentage stands at 70%.

These figures have been dropping slightly over the years as well as the total number of students. As the retention rate slowly rises, the success rate is slowly falling.

Various factors make this possible. Many students today are faced with increasing amount of stress due to personal and/or job related issues that may very well affect the well-being of their education. Some other reasons are purely based on accountability issues.

“Ï have only dropped a few classes in my life,” said Rose Tachis, both a Skyline and College of San Mateo student. “Some were scheduling conflicts; some were too early in the morning, and some I just couldn’t stand the teacher.”

Over the years, the success and retention rate has been significantly higher among evening classes compared to day classes. The 2005/2006-day class success rate is 67%, compared to 70% for night classes. The retention rate for day classes is 83%, compared to that of 85% for evening classes. Perhaps this is a cause for concern due to the lack of maturity among day class attendees.

The plan to increase retention is a forefront issue.

“Success and Retention improvement is not an isolated thing,” said Regina Straud, Vice President Office of Instruction. “There are different learning communities such as Puente and Mesa as well as the student equity plan.”

This department in which Regina Straud is connected with is looking deep into the issue of student success. They look at various factors such as instruction, various services, campus demographics, and campus life to help further the advancement on student success.