Quote:
Originally Posted by mesamb1
I am a little confused, your 2009 and 2010 graphs have an orange bar after the 11 year drop out teams that does not seem to be on the access. 12th year drop out?
The years that make me sad are the 11 year plus drop out team. I always wonder what was the straw that broke the camels back for them.
Making up a causation here: The fact the last large drop out group is the four year group, cause me to wonder if a large hump for teams is recruitment that dries up after the initial freshman graduate?
[I realize that alot of these teams have issues with the other big humps(mentor retention, finances, school support, parent support, ect.), but what fun is data if you don't come to some wild conclusions]
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I'd guess it's a combination of student recruitment and money. Our 3rd year was by far our toughest year - since the 2-year NASA grants expired, and we hadn't yet created many strong community partnerships, it was very touch-and-go. Combined with the stresses of being expected to compete at a high level with rather limited experience, I could see a lot of burnout in the 3-4 year range. Once we got over that hump, I woudn't call it "smooth sailing" but we did gain a lot of perspective as a team.
FIRST's culture has historically been to celebrate rookies and seasoned veterans. Although this is starting to change, I can see a lot of 3-4 year teams falling through the cracks, when perhaps they may need the most help of all. (Yes, I realize this has been thoroughly discussed before, but that doesn't make it any less important.)