Finish in Four offers consulting services that helps your college improve student retention and on-time graduation rates. 

Our team provides consultation utilizing a quality improvement philosophy that emphasizes measurable performance and assigned accountability for outcomes.

Whether it’s a “tune-up” or a major overhaul our building block approach will be customized to meet your specific needs.

Level 1 - College Assessment Survey

  • College stakeholder’s self-assessment of ten high-impact retention functions.
  • Survey can be completed online, conducted in person, or self-administered.
  • If self-administered, survey and evaluation tools are available in Finish in Four – Challenging College Norms to Improve Graduation Rates.
  • If completed on online (available to all colleges at no cost), or on campus the Finish in Four team will evaluate the results and prepare a written assessment including an overview of the relevance of student support programs offered, level of proactive interaction with students, and commitment towards proactive intervention.

Level 2 - Stakeholder's Workshop

  • Facilitated on-campus or virtually.
  • Focus on the evaluation of the high impact area results from Level 1.
  • Consensus building regarding the campus’ current level of student support.
  • Identification of areas the would benefit from being strengthened. 
  • Recognition of institutional barriers that are interfering with student’s success.
  • Outcome – written report that summarizes the workshop’s findings and provides suggested next steps for improving campus policies and practices.

Level 3 - Facilitating Institutional Research

  • Based on findings generated during Level 2, Finish in Four Consulting will work with college personnel to identify process flows and institutional practices that are not supporting students’ efforts to graduate on time.
  • This activity, sometimes referred to as process re-engineering, is a macro to micro building block approach that examines the campus activities and procedures that may be inadvertently having a negative impact on students’ persistence rates. This is the first of six steps outlined in the Control Point Accountability Measurement (CPAM) model.
  • The objective is to identify and benchmark current campus practices for the purpose of establishing data driven strategic planning.

Level 4: Developing Predictive Models

  • Finish in Four Consulting will work with campus personnel to establish data driven “if-then” models  that impact student retention and graduation rates.
  • Identifying reasonable objectives based on available resources and expected outcomes for each identified effort.
  • This level is intended to provide institutional stakeholders measurable objectives that will drive the development of action plans during the strategic planning process.
  • Level 4 also includes a budget development component and a follow-up review process that assures accountability and quantifiable results.

Level 5: On-going Review

  • Update and performance assessment will be provided as each cycle of planning is completed.
  • This step is intended to provide an external evaluation of whether the action plans are being executed and the targeted objectives are being met.
  • The review process provides an objective assessment of how well resources and personnel are being utilized by the college, and in some situations, helps to identify the need to change staff or commit additional resources.

Self-Directed

  • Finish in Four Consulting applies the proven techniques and model presented in the book,  Finish in Four – Challenging College Norms to Improve Graduation Rates, Austin Macauley Publishing, New York, 2020, Marsee.
  • A college administration team might consider utilizing the publication as a guideline or workbook and have their team complete all of the outlined levels.