Academic Support

Academic Support Centers Can Aid Retention

1-12-99: Patrick Tompkins of JTCC in his recent Inquiry article, "Study of Academic Support Center Yields Mixed Results" (3.2 [Fall] 1998:27-34) notes several notions about retention efforts that may resonate with the experiences at your college:

	"For support centers to be effective . . . instructors should incorporate them into the required work of the class."
	Students who took advantage of the ASC routinely certainly did better in their writing courses. [My own experience bears this out--I tell my composition students that taking a draft of an essay or research paper to the ASC or to me usually improves the quality of that draft by at least a letter grade, sometimes two letter grades or more.]
	Students should use tutoring for specific projects in a course.
	Students at risk in a course should be accompanied to the ASC where the consultant can talk to the student and the teacher to determine the support needed.

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