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(Buffalo, NY) – The Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE) at the University of Oklahoma (OU) presented the Director’s Award to authors from the University of Texas at Brownsville & Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC) and North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) at the National Symposium on Student Retention held in Buffalo, NY.

This award is given to the paper that best addresses an issue of current interest and need in the field of student retention and success. This year, the Consortium was particularly interested in research that modeled best practices in building bridging relationships between high schools, community colleges and baccalaureate institutions. The two winning papers addressed dual enrollment strategies. Although these initiatives were developed separately, they demonstrated surprisingly similar results with two very different populations of students. 

Dr. Michael Morrison, NIACC president emeritus, and Dr. Karen Pierson, NIACC vice president for student development and success, submitted a paper titled, “The Benefits of Dual Enrollment: Graduation Advantages.”  Also sharing the Director’s Award were Linda Fossen, formerly from UTB/TSC and now at Eastern Kentucky University along with Blanca Trevino Bauer and Matthew Johnson from (UTB/TSC), who submitted a paper entitled, “Dual Enrollment: On Ramp to College Success.” 

The Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange at OU has a diverse membership of more than 650 two-year and four-year colleges and universities – both public and private – with a common interest of achieving the highest levels of student success through sharing data, knowledge and innovation. CSRDE hosts the annual National Symposium on Student Retention in order to provide a forum for administrators, faculty and staff from institutions of higher learning to share the most currently available research on student retention. Since 1994, the CSRDE has led efforts to benchmark student retention and graduation rates and develop a knowledge base for best practices in student retention. CSRDE is run by the Center for Institutional Data Exchange and Analysis at OU Outreach.

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