But what will it mean for learning as colleges, too, increasingly mine data to shape the student experience? What does educational personalization look like? How finely should technologists try to parse it—down to individual learning styles? How will personalization conflict with existing regulations? And what are the risks?” [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

Read the article.

Insider Higher Ed wrote “A long-held wish of many community colleges is on the verge of becoming reality: the Education Department has announced its plans to change how student success is measured in higher education, taking into account students who transfer, part-time students and students who are not attending college for the first time.

The department outlined its plans Wednesday to carry out the recommendations of the Committee on Measures of Student Success, a federal panel that called for changing how data on completion rates and other measures at community colleges is reported in the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System, or IPEDS.”

Read the complete article.

Read the full article.

Read the full article.

First-generation students are also likelier to take classes part-time while working full-time, contributing to lower retention rates for this cohort. In fact, the chance for a first-generation student dropping out is four times higher than for a non-first-generation student.

According to a National Center for Education Statistics study, approximately 22% of all higher-education enrollments are first-generation students, and this percentage is expected to increase over the next decade.

The body of research and statistics on first-generation students is growing, as are college and university programs across the country aimed at improving enrollment and retention rates for this group. The following are examples of programs designed specifically to address first-generation students:

- Summer Orientation Camps

- First-Generation Student Mentor Programs

- Dedicated On-Campus Student Housing for First-Generation Students

- First-Generation Student Clubs and Organizations

Vantage Point is currently reaching out to colleges and universities that have implemented these types of initiatives and will be posting our research findings on this blog.

Has your institution implemented any programs designed specifically for first-generation students? What obstacles have you had to overcome in implementing these programs? Which ones have had the greatest impact on raising retention rates for this cohort?

References

*NCES (2005) First-Generation Students in Postsecondary Education 

* Tym, Carmen (2004) First-Generation College Students: A Literature Review

Vantage Point has long advocated that colleges and universities expand student engagement well beyond the recruiting and admissions areas, which are often focal points for institutional management and budget. This requires administrative departments to adopt an increasingly coordinated and systematically unified approach to managing relationships with students — from prospects to alumni.

I encourage any college or university wanting to move away from the traditional, siloed approach to take a look at what IU is doing in the area of relationship management. If your institution is just starting to think about comprehensive student lifecycle engagement or has found it difficult to gain traction, Vantage Point can help you with our strategic planning, project leadership, and organizational change management services.

Call or e-mail Jeffrey Carpenter for more information on how Vantage Point can assist in student engagement.

The key driver of success that he emphasizes is the centralization of the student retention function. A successful student retention office must have a budget and must report directly to executive leadership (money and authority to act) and all risk alerts and risk interventions should flow through the retention office to ensure there is clear ownership.

Mr. Schiess’ retention office co-locates advisors and tutoring services and is the end of the funnel for early classroom alerts (Managed through the Hobsons Retain product), financial alerts, failing grade alerts, student surveys, and parent/spouse concerns, which enables his office to ensure risks to student success are proactively follow-up up on through resolution. His office also has its own emergancy grant budget that can be used to help students with small, spot grants to help bridge financial emergencies.

Mandatory Faculty Advising – A Key Component

One area Mr. Schiess and I discussed as an opportunity to better uncover barriers to student success is during the mandatory faculty advising sessions that students must conduct each semester with their advisor. Students with undeclared majors are assigned an advisor from Mr. Schiess’ retention office (since being undeclared is itself a risk factor). These undeclared students are advised wholistically by the retention office and there is more discussion about financial, motivational, academic, and health well-being during this advising, which can uncover hidden issues.

However, students who have a declared major meet with their academic advisor outside of the retention office. Their advising is more narrowly focused on which class prerequisites have been met and which which classes the student should take next. We believe this semi-annual adivsing session is an ideal time to also proactively review a student’s overall risk profile – Are they involved socially at the college? Are they seeing the connection between courses and career goals? Are there any familty or financial issues that are causing them concerns? These risks could prompt further outreach from the retention center.

As Vantage Point conducts similar site visits and interviews with schools that have successful retention programs, we will continue to highlight them in this Blog. If you have examples successful retention programs you would be willing to share with us, please post them to this blog, we’d love to learn about them! ”

When review in aggregate the most commonly cited portfolio of programs these institutions offer, we first notice that many of their retention practices are, at core, a smart repackaging of more traditional student services: tutoring, financial advising, career services, and academic advising.

At institutions with a mature retention-support model, delivery of these services is integrated under a single retention office. This allows administrators to proactively identify and support students who are at risk of stopping out, coordinating both the delivery of services and tracking of associated outcomes.

From our Vantage Point (pun intended…), the key programs a retention office should manage include:

• Orientation course that generates a success plan and risk profile for each new student
• Mandatory advising/mentoring tied to the success plan and used to manage the student’s risk profile
• Automated and personalized outbound communications
• Constituent relationship management system to track each student’s risk profile and coordinate all interactions and services
• Remotely available tutoring offered during off-peak hours for nontraditional students
• Early-alert programs for faculty identification of changes to students’ risk profiles
• Proactive career mentoring to keep students motivated and ensure they are connecting course progress to employment goals
• Proactive and regular financial advising
• On-demand remedial course labs that can be attached to any class to provide students with avenues for building academic skills as weaknesses are identified
• Lifelong engagement strategies to remain connected with graduates and enlist them as career mentors for current students

Let us know if you have implemented any of these programs within a retention office or if there are others you feel constitute essential components of a mature (and successful) retention portfolio.