Conference Participants Welcome to the College Assessment Survey This tool provides a high-level empirical assessment of your college’s culture as it relates to supporting on-time graduation and is an excellent gateway for discussions on future student success goals. College/University Name* Title/First/Last Name Position/Relationship to College* Email Phone# I would like to receive monthly updates on student success initiatives and best practices. Please select the statement(s) that best represent your college in the following ten student success impact areas. Note: If you are not familiar with a specific area no selection is required. INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH [Select the statement that best describes your college] Research and data are not used to analyze student’s progress or institutional effectiveness. When students drop out there is no follow-up to determine what factors impacted their decision. Major milestone indicators such as freshmen persistence and graduation rates provide the primary benchmarks for assessing institutional effectiveness. At-risk profiles are developed to determine what and how many services and advising initiatives will be needed to assist students if they seek institutional help. Data is used to analyze/measure each retention program’s effectiveness by benchmarking beginning and targeted expectations annually. Our strategic planning process includes identifying quantifiable goals. Our college believes that data mining to predict students’ needs, to monitor behavior for potential intervention (in and outside the classroom), and to assess institutional performance is critical to students’ success. PREDICTIVE MODELING [Select the statement that best describes your college] Our college primarily uses historical data to facilitate scheduling of classrooms, faculty, and courses. The college assesses itself by using macro indicators such as graduation rates, freshmen persistence rates, and average freshmen SAT/ACT scores. We do not identify potential at-risk students before they enroll, because all students are supported equally, and we provide assistance to anyone who asks. Data modeling, or tracking trending rates, is used to identify weak operational programs or characteristic behavior of students who dropped out. Data mining to monitor students’ behavior, creating predictive models for early warning, and assessing what is working to help students succeed is a fundamental cornerstone of our college’s retention efforts. RECRUITMENT & ADMISSION [Select the statement that best describes your college] The college’s primary focus is to handle an overwhelming number of enrollments each year. The college’s recruitment is relatively easy because of a loyal high school feeder population, a strong academic reputation, and/or returning alumnus family members. We do not target certain categories of students for special help or intervention programs. The college recruits first-generation and at-risk students but is careful not to label or treat them differently than our traditional freshmen—they come to us when they need assistance. This college has a strong strategic recruitment plan that links retention programs to specific targeted prospects. The definition of an acceptable at-risk prospect pool is adjusted annually based on program successes in dealing with former students’ difficulties. FINANCIAL PLANNING [Select the statement that best describes your college] The college provides cost-of-education information on the website and at general recruiting sessions. There is no institutional sign-off before classes begin to confirm that a student’s four-year academic/personal budget will last until graduation. One-on-one financial counseling with prospects is rare unless a student loan or other federal assistance (e.g., Pell Grant, college work study) is requested. Staff is accessible to provide assistance when enrolled students requests federal aid or additional student loans, but the college is not proactive in anticipating financial problems or intervening unless a student asks for help. Every student, with their family, completes an enrollment-to-graduation budget, either on-line or in person, under the guidance of qualified staff. We monitor and cross-reference each student’s budget plan to their degree plan at least annually to confirm that financial resources are adequate for completion. ACADEMIC ADVISING [Select the statement that best describes your college] Standard advising services and programs are available to help students when they ask for assistance. However, there aren’t enough staff or resources to monitor every student or pre-determine that a student is in academic trouble. Counselors/advisors typically focus on helping students select a major, transfer to another college, or qualify for graduate school. They rarely deal with student’s academic or personal issues. Once a student declares a major, department faculty become the academic advisors until graduation. Advisors review and sign-off on proposed two-year class schedules for all freshmen which include general education requirement options and electives, while the computerized registration systems blocks students from deviating from their plan. Efforts are targeted at high return-on-investment students (focused advising) by using data to anticipate, identify, and quickly respond before issues become unresolvable. Faculty-advisors/mentors monitor freshmen-to-graduation (personal and academic) student behaviors that might indicate proactive intervention is needed. We know what our students are doing! Using apps or card swiping at campus events, students are tracked to confirm that they are engaged academically and socially, and we intervene if they are not. CURRICULUM SCHEDULING [Select the statement that best describes your college] Advisors are available, but students are responsible for making their own class schedule decisions. Some students are unable to obtain required classes because they are not offered every semester or fill to capacity quickly. To maintain financial aid until required classes are availale, students may enroll in classes not required for their degree. Taking more than 120 semester credits and longer than four years to graduate is considered typical. Freshmen and sophomores are required to take a general education curriculum before choosing a major—using electives to explore different subjects and degree options. The college believes that cohort registration (providing prescribed courses to clusters of students), especially for freshmen, creates an environment that helps students graduate on time. The college has replaced remedial courses that don’t meet degree objectives with college credit supplemental courses (i.e., extra lab time or two-semester stretch classes) . FACULTY CONNECTIONS [Select the statement that best describes your college] The faculty are not expected to interact with students other than in the classroom and during office hours. A large percentage of freshmen/sophomore classes are taught by part-time/adjunct faculty or teacher assistants who typically do not have scheduled office hours nor mentor students. Students enroll at this college because of its academic reputation or convenient location, but with no expectation that they will personally get to know the faculty. Students don’t have many opportunities to work with the faculty outside the classroom unless they find a faculty sponsored research internship, which are typically reserved for upper level and graduate students. There are mandatory first-year experience (FYE) classes that help all (part-time and full-time) freshmen transition to the college. A faculty mentor is assigned to each class and acts as a coach/confidant to the students. Freshmen, full-time and part-time, are clustered into faculty-mentored community learning (cohort) groups—no exceptions permitted. Full-time faculty are expected to mentor at least one freshman class a year and participate in at least two group social events during each term. Faculty mentors work with students to develop their study skills and incorporate college funded off-campus activities such as museums visits or cultural events for academic and personal enrichment. Every student is expected to participate in a lower and an upper division high-impact practices activity (internship; research, international travel, clinical practitioner, directed research, etc.) that is supervised by a full-time instructor. STUDENT LIFE [Select the statement that bests describes your college] There is a large commuter population with some students living in a few dorms or nearby apartments. The college rarely offers academic and campus life activities to accommodate nontraditional students—e.g., older, single-parent, working, part-time. Freshmen are expected to choose and connect with the social opportunities of college life after exposing them to the many alternative options during orientation. However, little or inconsistent effort is made to see how each student is doing, either during orientation or after classes have begun. Students are required to be involved in a first-year experience program which provides a structured platform for making personal and academic connections along with gaining college/life survival skills. Students are organized into groups that are sponsored/mentored by a faculty person or skilled professional. Campus life programs are organized by and relevant to full-time traditional and part-time nontraditional students. There is high participation rates at collage events—including families with children. The college uses data mining/tracking techniques (id cards/phone apps) to track student’s participation in campus life events. Intervention is instigated when involvement falls on either side of established norms. NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS: Any student who did not enter college as a full-time freshman directly from high school [Select the statement that best describes your college] We do not distinguish between our “traditional” full-time students that entered as freshman directly from high school with any other students. Some degrees require students to take classes or clinical assignments which are only offered during the day and meeting full-time faculty is difficult since night classes are typically taught by adjunct faculty. The college provides full curriculum, social and community service activities on weekends to give nontraditional students, and their families, an opportunity to interact with staff, faculty and full-time traditional students. Nontraditional students are clustered during their first term into learning/study groups to help develop supportive networks of peers. Transfer and nontraditional students are required to participate in an orientation program that includes one-on-one counseling sessions where each student’s degree plan, financial budget, and personal interests were discussed, documented and reviewed periodically. CAREER GUIDANCE/PLACEMENT [Select the statement that best describes your college] The Career Placement Center is the place where students get assistance in finding on-campus part-time jobs and meeting corporate recruiters when they come to campus. Few believe that the center is helpful in finding a career related job. There are several workshops available annually to help students prepare resumes and conduct mock interviews. Most of our students get their summer internships through personal searches and family contacts. To reduce wasted credits caused by changing degrees, students cannot declare a degree major until they have completed a series of job market-oriented seminars that provide information about career options and course requirements. The career center actively promotes career guidance to all students from freshmen to graduation; the programs may include developing career option profiles, personality profiles, freshman-to-degree success plans, workplace dress and interviewing skills and placement into summer internships. Historical data is used to profile whether a student, based on high school and college grades, is likely to graduate in the chosen degree field and is guided by the career center to an alternate degree when appropriate. The career center has a virtual interviewing services that connects graduates with small business employers. Thank you for completing the College Assessment Survey. This tool is an excellent gateway for discussions on future student success goals. Jeff Marsee, Ph.D.Finish in Four Consluting Time is Up! Time's up
