2016 report on student success and retention · 2020. 1. 13. · success & retention exists to...

student successand retention

2016 report on

Texas Tech University

2016 Report on Student Success and Retentionpage 1

January 2017

Patrick C. HughesAssociate Vice Provost Undergraduate Education

Joshua R. BarronDirectorStudent Success & Retention

www.provost.ttu.edu/success

The Texas Tech University Strategic Plan specifically recognizes the significance of student success to the institution. Research-based instruction, academic rigor, personal commitment, and financial resources are important variables to helping students engage, navigate, and make the most of their university experiences at TTU. Undergraduate Education, Student Success & Retention, and the Provost’s Task Force are committed to identifying, promoting, encouraging, and facilitating the implementation of empirically sound and operationally viable methods for maximizing and accelerating students’ success. As overarching measures that keep with its Tier 1 distinction and AAU aspirations, Texas Tech University has set the goals of achieving a 90 percent first-year retention rate and a 70 percent six-year graduation rate. This annual report highlights many of the ways TTU applied its resources in 2016 to reach these particular goals and to contribute toward many more. Additional details and current developments on efforts that support student success are available online at the following website:

Juan S. MuñozVice ProvostUndergraduate Education & Student Affairs


2016 Report on Student Success and Retention

Division of Undergraduate Education & Student Affairs

page 1 page 2

Several years ago TTU invested in student advising and retention programs that serve undergraduate and graduate students. In the measures of increased student retention, persistence, and graduation, we already see several early results of the following investments:

• Provided for the expansion andimprovement of a collectively-owned and continually-improvingAcademic Advising Handbook, ablog for Advisor communications, arepository of research annotations,and a social space; all of theseapplications were built on andcontinue to improve using the wiki:a popular and simple technologyframework that supports theasynchronous sharing and collectiveimprovement of content.

• R e l e a s e d a c a m p u s - w i d e on-line appointment scheduling,documentation, and reportingtool to make personnel moreaccessible to students for officehours, advising appointments,tutoring appointments, etc.

• Equipped all colleges to directlyinfluence one-year retention forfirst-time-in-college-freshmen (FTICstudents) by providing individualstudent identification reports to allacademic colleges. Created real-timeidentification and performance reportsfor this same population and made thisstudent-specific information availableon-line to all college administrators,faculty members, and supportpersonnel.

• Encouraged all college leadersand administrators to pro-actively engage students-at-risk in their majors by providingemailed summary reports of at-risk populations. Also extendedtraining and implementation effortsto involve more academic collegesto use our real-time identification/communication tools that includehistorically-driven predictivemodeling, campus early alerts, dailyattendance reporting, and gradedcourse assignments.

INSTITUTIONAlprogress

• A few simple measures strongly encourage campus personnel to continueinvesting in proactive calls to connect with and guide their students. One ofthese measures is the number of days between a registration-focused outreachcall and the student’s actual registration for the upcoming term. When contactedby a college representative during 2016, 908 (or almost 30%) of the studentsreached who were intending to return subsequently resolved their holds andcompleted the registration process within one week’s time.

www.provost.ttu.edu/success

January 2017

The Texas Tech University Strategic Plan specifically recognizes the significance of student success to the institution. Research-based instruction, academic rigor, personal commitment, and financial resources are important variables to helping students engage, navigate, and make the most of their university experiences at TTU. Undergraduate Education, Student Success & Retention, and the Provost’s Task Force are committed to identifying, promoting, encouraging, and facilitating the implementation of empirically sound and operationally viable methods for maximizing and accelerating students’ success.

As overarching measures that keep with its Tier 1 distinction and AAU aspirations, Texas Tech University has set the goals of achieving a 90 percent first-year retention rate and a 70 percent six-year graduation rate. This annual report highlights many of the ways TTU applied its resources in 2016 to reach these particular goals and to contribute toward many more. It is our privilege to serve as a resource and catalyzer to that end.

Additional details and current developments on efforts that support student success are available online at the following website:

Vice ProvostUndergraduate Education & Student Affairs

Associate Vice ProvostUndergraduate Education

DirectorStudent Success & Retention

http://www.provost.ttu.edu/success



One-Year Retention Rate

Two-Year Retention Rate

Four-Year Graduation Rate

Six-Year Graduation Rate

Hispanic Serving Institution Designation

Strategic Plan Goals

performance

100%

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

100%

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

STRATEGIC Measures of student Success & Retention at Texas Tech university

Fall 2012 - Fall 2013

Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

Fall 2014 - Fall 2015

Fall 2015 - Fall 2016

Fall 2011 - Fall 2013

Fall 2012 - Fall 2014

Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

Fall 2014 - Fall 2016

Fall 2013

Fall 2014

Fall 2015

Fall 2016

Fall 2010 - Fall 2014

Fall 2011 - Fall 2015

Fall 2012 - Fall 2016

Fall 2008 - Fall 2014

Fall 2009 - Fall 2015

Fall 2010 - Fall 2016

82.4/81.5

83.5/82.5

83.5/83.0

83.6/83.2

71.3/71.5

70.4/71.3

71.5/72.0

73.9/72.6

59.1/62.0

59.9/63.0

60.0/63.4

20.6/17.9

22.0/20.7

23.3/21.0

24.2/25.0

34.1/35.0

34.8/37.0

33.8/37.6


page 4

One-Year Retention Rate

Two-Year Retention Rate

Four-Year Graduation Rate

Six-Year Graduation Rate

Hispanic Serving Institution Designation

Strategic Plan Goals

performance

100%

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

100%

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

STRATEGIC Measures ofstudent Success & Retention at Texas Tech university

Fall 2012 - Fall 2013

Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

Fall 2014 - Fall 2015

Fall 2015 - Fall 2016

Fall 2011 - Fall 2013

Fall 2012 - Fall 2014

Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

Fall 2014 - Fall 2016

Fall 2013

Fall 2014

Fall 2015

Fall 2016

Fall 2010 - Fall 2013

Fall 2011 - Fall 2015

Fall 2012 - Fall 2016

Fall 2008 - Fall 2014

Fall 2009 - Fall 2015

Fall 2010 - Fall 2016

82.4/81.5

83.5/82.5

83.5/83.0

83.6/83.2

71.3/71.5

70.4/71.3

71.5/72.0

73.9/72.6

59.1/62.0

59.9/63.0

60.0/63.4

20.6/17.9

22.0/20.7

23.3/21.0

24.2/25.0

34.1/35.0

34.8/37.0

33.8/37.6



P r o v o s t ’ s Ta s k F o r c e o nStudent Success & Retention

When created in 2014, department chairs and associate deans nominated individuals to be considered for appointment to the Provost’s Task Force on Student Success and Retention. Following the Deans’ review of all nominations, the Provost appointed 30 individuals to this important advisory group.

Building on the successes of the task force’s first iteration, the group scaled back its membership to focus in 2016-2017 on engaging several remaining issues and to investigate the impact of The task force will work to ensure that students reach even higher levels of excellence and success while at Texas Tech.

Its charge reads as follows:

The Provost’s Task Force on Student Success & Retention exists to improve communications on current retention and success initiatives, recommending strategies that will increase participation in and utilization of these efforts. Accordingly, it is expected that the task force will make recommendations on optimization of policies, procedures, technologies, and practices impacting student retention, persistence, and success.

Mitzi Lauderdale

Shane Blum

Victoria Coverstone

Jamie HansardExecutive Director

Undergraduate Admissions

Academic Associate Dean

Managing Director Institutional Research

Vice Provost (convener)

Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Department Chairperson & Associate Professor

Professor

Senior Associate Registrar




Senior Director Undergraduate

Services Center

Director for Student Success & Retention

Vicki West

Katherine Austin-Beltz Assistant Vice President for Information Technology Administration

Rawls College of Business

Administration

College of Arts& Sciences

Whitacre College of Engineering

College of Human Sciences

College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

Universityprograms

Brenda Martinez

Paul FrazierAssociate Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Equity, & Community Engagement

Adrienne CarnesCathe NutterDirector

University Advising

Stefanie Borst

Gene Wilde

Cindy Akers

Patrick Hughes

Cathy Duran

Joshua Barron

Juan Muñoz


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141

26

12

TTU Office of the President & TTU Office of the Provost, who fund the Student Success & Retention Initiative through Undergraduate Education

Helix EducationEABTexas Higher EducationCoordinating BoardTTU CALUETTU Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity, & Community Engagement

Visual Schedule BuilderPharos ResourcesTownsendCommunicationsRuffalo Noel Levitz

Civitas Learning

Success Sponsors

Persistence Sponsors Retention Sponsors

Texas Tech University invested beneficially in wide-spread culture change by hosting the Texas Commissioner for Higher Education, two nationally known experts in Student Success, and 141 faculty and staff participants representing nine different schools at the inaugural Regional Symposium for Student Success & Retention. Twenty-six concurrent sessions, three plenary sessions, and several meals later, the crowd dispersed to take home a newfound energy, camaraderie, and a more developed collegiate network. These assets are likely to energize the innovative, data-driven ideas that were discussed throughout the proceedings.

Thought Leadership:

SUMMARY BY THE numbers

PARTICIPANTS

NUMBER OF SESSIONS

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS

purpose

2016 symposium for student success & retention

On February 29-March 1, representatives of our leadership, faculty, enrollment, academic affairs, and student affairs teams joined together in Lubbock to

engage the challenging topic of student success, and to hear from their peers around the region. Our facilitators and presenters helped us consider our own opportunities as we discuss the challenges and the variety of current innovative approaches happening in their respective domains and institutions. This inaugural gathering was the 2016 Regional Symposium for Student Success & Retention.

Institutions from across the state were invited to send individual leaders, or to bring teams of participants. Several accepted this wholly, bringing diverse teams, with members ranging from senior executives to data analysts to front-line faculty, advisors.

Though we could not guarantee innovation, we may still have catalyzed it by strategically facilitating intentional hierarchical disruption … for the potential benefit of our participating institutions and their stakeholders. Grateful for the time and intellectual contributions of all participants, Student Success & Retention also expresses its sincere appreciation to the sponsors and exhibitors whose creativity and commitments made the inaugural gathering possible.

We were pleased to host Dr. RaymundParedes, Commissioner of HigherEducation for the State of Texas, Dr.

Mark Milliron, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Civitas Learning, and Dr. Ed Venit, Senior Director for EAB Student Success Collaborative, who brought their remarks on these issues and opportunities in three keynote addresses.

PARTICIPATION

PROGRESS

PRESENTERS

september 15 - 162017 save the date:



Early Calls Correlating with Enrollment

Late Calls Calls Correlating with Enrollment

Calls Correlating with No Enrollment

No Call No Enrollment

3326

1923

423

1703

CAMPUS re-enrollmentINITIATIVE

observations recommendations

SUMMER 2016 TO FALL 2016Called: Bad Number

Called: No Answer

Called: Voice Mail

Grad Records Out-of-Date:

Person: Met or Email

Person: Other Representative by Phone

Person: Student Conversation by Phone

Total Contacts:

Attrition: Dropping Out

Attrition: Transferring

Attrition: Unsure

Completion: Graduating

Completion: Professional School

Persisting: Changing Majors

Persisting: Holds

Persisting: Needs Advisor

Persisting: Needs Appointment

Persisting: Procrastinating

Persisting: Registration Help

Persisting: Studying Abroad

Persisting: Time Off

Persisting: Waiting for Grades

Suspended

Students Responding:

983

1,050

2,462

75

323

194

1,383

6,470

176

808

273

28

410

182

608

45

323

1,631

19

40

147

19

105

4,814

Enrollment Campaign DashboardEnrollment Campaign Dashboard

Incorrect or missing contact information and limits on callers’ availability to participate resulted in many potential returners who were not engaged in any personal way.

Students’ current cell phone numbers should be recorded by advisors (or gathered via a periodic automated prompt in Raiderlink) and returned to update Banner for use in other important institution-student communications.

Relative to the small number completed, late spring and early summer calls were very effective, especially when initiated by a student’s assigned advisor.

Colleges’ callers should make every effort to complete a first round of communication before Summer I begins. For example, colleges can begin examining enrollment patterns during early registration and contacting students who have not yet registered for classes. A portion of the outreach

effortsof the outreach efforts did not result in students’ enrollment. However, data were collected indicating students’ reasons for not returning to Tech.

Supplemental calling services provided by the Office of the Provost have been generally well-received by the colleges. This service should continue to supplement the colleges’ calls, especially during particularly busy periods of the advising season.

Summer calls to students on First Academic Suspension after the spring term might support increased rates of return. Re-enrollment policies and time lines differ between colleges and do not currently lend themselves to encouraging students’ return to Texas Tech University.

Enrollments of the TTU Colleges would likely benefit from having their own full-time advising personnel invested in completing this outreach effort each term.

Late summer calls and text messages significantly increased enrollment in Fall 2016.


page 8

CAMPUS progressINITIATIVE

The research is clear, 30 semester credit hours completed in any combination over the course of an academic calendar year results in significantly higher retention, graduation, and a sizable financial benefit for students and their families. In spring of 2016, SSR surveyed all TTU academic advisors and several student leadership groups. The subsequent analysis was equally clear, students frequently enroll in fewer semester credit hours then they are capable of completing successfully. Moreover, when asked, students often cite a variety of reasons for making these decisions.

Combining the results of our survey with national best practices and available scholarship on the topic, SSR partnered with TTU Marketing & Communications to develop a job aid that might prompt and guide important conversations about progress-toward-degree between advisors and their students. The PDF guide was submitted to the academic colleges for distribution to their respective advising and support teams, further investing in a culture of consistent and continual communicat ions students are hearing on the matter. Certainly 15 credit-hour semesters are not the right decision for every student, but excellent professionals working through a vetted process may help accelerate the progress of those for whom a full course load is appropriate.

Advisors Facilitate Progress Toward Degree: 30=4 Communications



Live Updates on Strive Implementation and SSR Communication Efforts @ www.provost.ttu.edu/success

DOCUMENTED communications and meetings by audience/participants

the breakdown of “SSR OTHER: 588*”

DEANS: 89department chairs: 53

student: 105,560

family members: 2,470

ssr other: 588*

task force leaders: 68

training sessions: 23

advising leaders: 90

associate deans: 84

academic advisors: 181


V i s u a l S c h e d u l e B u i l d e r served 7,461 unique users in the month of August alone, generating 51.63 million total schedules. Conservative estimates put overall schedule creation time-savings at 415 days during this one month, indicating the application’s usefulness

in supporting students in organizing their academic plans for coming terms. New updates this year included easy viewing of department-provided, section-specific text that was useful in

helping students select more appropriate sections, and navigate restrictions, etc. The update also improved accessibility for persons with disabilities, and introduced new conflict resolution features and administrative analytics.

51 million schedules at VSB

SSR improved and provided support for Strive.TTU.edu, a freely available online appointment system that allows students 24-7 access to schedule future appointments with participating support personnel, instructional faculty, academic advisors, and college administrators.

• Strive.TTU.edu is a campus-wide technology system that connects students, faculty, and staff members to better coordinate support efforts for all undergraduate and graduate students.In the last half of the 2016 school year, the system was used to schedule and documentover 20K academic advising appointments, logged almost 86K individual email messages,and delivered more than 23K SMS/text messages to current students from engaged campuspersonnel.

• The Strive.TTU.edu system supported 102 Academic Advisors/Faculty Members and 67Tutors in conducting 35,998 in-person interactions with 13,337 unique students.

• Faculty and instructors responded to 2,470 different progress report requests, providinginput for support personnel to more quickly identify and intervene with students who werereported as being at risk in one or more of their courses.

STRIVEStrive.TTU.edu

M A K IN G T HE V I S U A L T R A N S I T I O N: A R e-B r a nd

Strive.TTU.eduFrom here, it’s possible.

TM

http://ssc.ttu.eduhttp://ssc.ttu.edu

http://appointments.ttu.eduhttp://appointments.ttu.edu

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schedulebuilder.ttu.edu



INNOVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS: ARTS & SCIENCES INNOVATION GRANT UPDATE

The first involved hiring two new advisors who specifically engage the A&S students who are on academic probation or suspension. These advisors are located in the Dean’s Office in Holden Hall and are readily available to support their assigned population and any other A&S students experiencing difficulty. Dr. Stefanie Borst holds this as a success; many students reported appreciatiating their interactions with the A&S Student Success Advisors. Each year, approximately 300 students are invited, encouraged, and (sometimes) required to meet periodically with these advisors.

Currently the response rate to follow-up surveys is low; Dr. Borst and team are exploring other means to provide a more reliable formal evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. Still, from the responses received and anecdotal information provided by students, families, and staff members, the effort is clearly a green light investment. Dr. Borst hopes to add additional success advisors to the team. New additions will help improve quality in each interaction while growing the number of students who benefit from coaching.

The second initiative implemented was in the Mathematics Department at Texas Tech University. In high fail courses such as Calculus, the College of Arts and Sciences hired special tutors who hold course-specific tutoring sessions every night. This support has helped many students as evidenced by improved scores for many participants. The second part of this program was to implement a flipped classroom style, which is not widely used at Texas Tech. Dr. Borst indicated that Teaching Assistants were encouraged to implement this new teaching method, and received bonuses for doing so. Early results are positive, and Borst plans on using these incentives again with additional measurements, to confirm and build on the high success rates experienced to date.

The College of Arts and Sciences has over 9,000 students, making it the single largest college at Texas Tech University. Until 18 months ago, this college did not have a centralized advising team to help with student retention. When the College of Arts and Sciences received the Provost’s Matching Grant for Innovation in Student Success, it immediately implemented two initiatives.

B Y T H O M A S K AY, 2 019 HI S T O R Y & T HE AT R E D O U B L E M A J O R


The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is committed to leading in teaching, research, and service. CASNR has over 2,000 students and enjoys growth that is fueled, in part, by annual increases in its retention rate. The college successfully applied for the first set of Provost’s Grants for Innovation in Student Success and Retention two years ago. The college was pleased to be awarded an initial grant and is proud to have received a subsequent award for the implementation- and reinvention-oriented funds offered in the second year of the program. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is dedicated to use these awards as it invests in a two-pronged approach toward leadership in success, retention, and professional development. Using the grant, the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources wanted to continue the CASNR Advising Academy. CASNR is the only Texas Tech college that has faculty advising. This type of advising is beneficial to students, because faculty involvement beyond the classroom helps provide a more robust student learning experience. The CASNR Advising Academy is helpful to advisors because it serves as a deliberate investment in thinking about and collaboratively creating new approaches to assisting students. When they meet with students, advisors feel more confident in each conversation, from course selection to academic policies to career planning. The CASNR Advising Academy has four sessions. The first session is about student resources; it provides advisors with a thorough understanding of the available student resources including Student Counseling, the Learning Center, and student Disability Services, among many others. The second session focuses on technology tools, e.g., DegreeWorks, Students of Concern, and Strive. The third details the CASNR-specific advising process. The fourth session features a first-hand student-focused advising appointment experience.

INNOVATIONS ANDEXPERIMENTS:

CASNR INNOVATION GRANt UPDATE

By Irinia Y. Fernandez2018 University Studies

page 12

The second part of the grant was used to fund students’ participation at the Agricultural Future of America Conference. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources sent 14 students to the conference, providing them with a great co-curricular support. Students reported the following benefits: opportunities for networking, training in contacting potential employers, exploration of future jobs and current internships, and sessions for working through bigger-picture career planning exercises. The college received a great deal of positive feedback about this program.

CASNR wants to continue improving its student experience by regularly offering and expanding its advising academy. In assessing the progam, 100% of the faculty who attended training would recommend it to a colleague.

In conjunction with these grant-related efforts, CASNR recently hired a new Retention Specialist who is placing a heavy emphasis on advising improvements, identification of students’ personal issues, early alert case management, and data-driven proactive interventions with various student groups.



During the fall of 2016, five new members of the Student Success &

Retention team began our duties as Peer Success Coaches for TTU students. Our team’s first goal is to continuously investigate and implement new methods that will further advance s t u d e n t s ’ p r o g r e s s toward achieving a degree. Close behind this goal is the second: use existing data to proactively engage struggling students very early-on in their challenges, offering them encouragement, tools, and connections that

will support a faster return to academic health.

We pursue the outcome of increasing student retention rates one student at a time, through various calling campaigns, outreach projects, and website management aimed at facilitating measurable progress throughout the institution. For example, as our first challenge, the 5-student team developedcalling campaign scripts toreach out to specific studentpopulations at designatedperiods throughout the fallsemester.

Peer Success Coaching

As commissioned by the Task Force, the Student Success & Retention team undertook an effort to maintain its annually updated inventory of departmental, college, and institutional efforts to improve student success and retention. Publicly articulating retention goals and defining accountable m e a s u r e s o f s u c c e s s e n c o u r a g e s perseverance in successful long-term initiatives, and provides motivation to continually review and retool shorter-term intervention strategies.

This update is published on-line as the “Texas Tech Undergraduate Retention Initiatives Report (URI)” and has been scheduled by the Task Force for another update to be completed in Spring 2017, demonstrating Texas Tech’s ongoing commitment to continually improving the effectiveness of these important efforts.

Created with the intention of demonstrating the highest levels of support for academic advising personnel, the President’s Excellence Awards in Advising (PEAA) provide long-standing evidence of administrative support for ongoing improvements in this important arena. Upon reviewing the structure and potential impact of the award, substantial modifications were proposed for leadership consideration.

After refining criteria for the existing individual and team awards, the new proposal also recommends adding one award to celebrate an exceptional “rookie” advisor early in her/his career.. Once the new proposal is reviewed and approved, look to hear more on the TTU Advising Wiki, www.wikis.ttu.edu.

Innovations and Experiments:

Thomas Kay, Muhammad Solichin,Samantha Herrera, Irinia Fernandez, and Dania Al-BarghuthiBy

In v e n t o r y o f C a mp u s R e t e n t i o n E f f o r t s

U p d at e s t o P r e s id e n t ’ s E xc e l l e n c e Awa r d s in A c a d e mi c A d v i s in g


We also learned that there is a lot of outreach that could still be done across the landscape of students’ experiences on the campus. We learned the value of making important referrals to expert TTU personnel; before the October 31st drop date, our calls helped engage students and successfully connect them with their advisors and counselors in the Financial Aid Office. We heard time and again how appreciative students were to be assisted in this way. We learned that there are many interesting reasons students drop classes, and that they’re not always thinking, “Hey, I should talk to someone before making a big decision like this.”

We learned that the Strive system is not perfect and, though powerful and friendly, still many adjustments are needed for it to achieve its full potential. We learned the value of up-to-date contact information because we found many students with out-of-date records. This made it very difficult to have the widest possible reach because we spent so many hours just trying to track these folks down. Surprisingly, we also learned that there are still many advisors are not using the Strive system, which required us to invest even more energy in hunting phone numbers. Thankfully, we were able to use a number of other methods to get students connected with their advisors and other helpful campus resources. Overall, the peer success coaches now know where to find the most helpful information, and are working to ensure students have the correct contact information provided to the university.

Throughout our first semester in this new role, many lessons were learned. Initially, our one-to-one interactions were tentative; many times we sounded robotic and impersonal. After a few calls, the process became more familiar and insecurities faded

away. This led to much better connections with our students. We also became extremely efficient in guiding students toward the available resource, particularly thanks to campaigns that were highly sensitive to time constraints. These included the IS 1101 Pilot and the Midterm Calling Campaign.

Peer success coaching created unique opportunities to engage, facilitate, and connect students to useful campus resources. Scripts were written with the intention of being flexible, personable, and engaging, yet highly-focused on directing students away from us to directly engage campus resources by the end of each call.

Every calling campaign challenged our interpersonal skills, in many cases we were required to adapt our methods of engagement to be more appealing for each person called. Our collaborative efforts would not have been so successful without the help of our mentor, Joshua Barron. For each of the founding team members, it was personally rewarding to serve as a catalyst of student success.

Months ahead, we are eager to build a more formal schedule for the entire team. We believe this type of coordination will increase our own efficiencies, require more deliberate partnerships, and ensure that everyone is operating from the same page. In upcoming semesters, a more scheduled and structured “game plan” will be beneficial to our campaigns. With our calendars fully scheduled prior to each term, we will be better equipped to maximize every moment at work.

Additionally, although students of high risk are a more urgent target, this team feels that students who are successful should also be contacted. We know that a student’s grades don’t necessarily tell the whole story, and we are committed to help the entire body of students, if possible.

what we’ve learned

W H AT W E L IK E D A B O U T P E E R S U C C E S S C O A C HIN G

W H AT C A N B E IMP R O V E D IN T HE U P C O MIN G S E ME S T E R S ?

page 14



Are there incentives for academic advisors that might help catalyze full-load enrollment where it is appropriate for students? Certainly it is not always true to say that all students should be enrolled in more hours. If we were to incentivize advisors based on their students’ full-load enrollment would we foster an incorrect assumption that the university only sees its students as a number on its state report card?

Through multiple meetings with success-oriented constituents across campus, many strong opinions, research-worthy questions, and interesting ideas were surfaced. The list on the following page summarizes selected ideas generated during these meetings.

Academic units universally appear to be in need of more funding to supplement existing budgets that provide for an adequate number of front-line academic (faculty and staff) advisors.

When examining measures of student success and program outcomes involving student success, how should we measure students who want to be enrolled in more credit

hours, but for whom there are no available scheduled classes falling within the students’ required/recommended course sequencing requirements?

What would be the correct metric to use? Ideas abound: percentage of students fully enrolled, those enrolled in courses required for their degrees, percentage retained within the major, percentage retained at TTU, percentage in good standing, etc.

What is the best way to measure the success of students who begin at Texas Tech never intending to persist in a major, or those who intend only to complete foundational coursework before transferring over to the Nursing School at TTUHSC?

In assessing student readiness and stability, and for improving communications, how should we calculate changes of major?

What day and time should we fix the values for the calculation process?

Despite the high quality and integrity of our advising personnel, would new financial incentives for university personnel also present these team members with unnecessary and unfair ethical dilemmas? How might we build scenarios that lend themselves toward the desired outcomes while simultaneously avoiding those that require personnel to repeatedly face potentially compromising situations?

ideas, questions,and POSSIBILITIES

task force phase iiiInstitution-wide adoption of Strive.TTU.edu (EAB-SSC Campus).Second Annual Regional Symposium on Student Success & Retention: September 15-16, 2017; McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center.Design and distribute best-practice college timelines for using predictive analytics.Design and distribute departmental timelines for proactive outreach.Develop additional opportunities for involving faculty, particularly regarding their opportunity to submit early alerts and share attendance information on-line via Strive.TTU.edu.Begin additional outreach campaigns using SSR’s Peer Success Coaches using lessons learned from first semester’s implementation.Identify, engage, and deploy a network of ‘first responders’ for early alert case management, communication, and collaboration across academic units.


page 16

Three

Eight

Seven

Six

Two

Five

One

Four

As funding allows, here are some creative ideas for investing in student success & retentionContinue the process of calling for, selecting, and awarding matching funds a third year of Innovation Grants.

Invest financially in reconstituting and expanding the institution-wide Advising Academy, including paying for participants to travel to relevant advising conferences on the condition they return and present what they learned during their travels.

Begin issuing a series of monthly student support awards to faculty and staff members that come with one month of unusual incentives, e.g., Paid Presidential Parking Privileges (or Chancellor’s Choice, if you prefer) for the recipients.

Place a call for proposals to the colleges issuing a maximum of $10,000 per year (for two years maximum) in research grants for projects that support the outcome of publishable, discipline-specific research on student success and retention across the institution. These presenters would agree to present their plans in year one and their findings in years two through four at the Symposium for Student Success & Retention, and commit to submit for scholarly publication.

Partner with the Graduate School and all colleges to centrally-fund one required, coordinated, student success-oriented GA training involving all new GAs in every academic unit to participate in this two-day event held each May or August.

Partner with Housing and Residence life to centrally-fund 8 hours of additional training for all CAs that involves their interaction with representatives from every academic unit, a visit to every academic building, role playing through a variety of academically-oriented challenge situations, computer training for using our early alert system, and a meal/game show event in the Tech Club with the institution’s senior leadership, success-oriented Associate Deans from every college, and Advising Leadership from each college.

Fund two appointees from the President’s/Provost’s Office to attend the NACADA annual conference each year, where they attend the conference and meet daily with the TTU contingent, in addition to hosting a TTU-sponsored reception for academic advisors from the state of Texas. Years ago the Texas schools partnered to do this, each contributing up to $1,000 toward the event, but leaders changed and it fell by the wayside. On what better national stage might we promote Texas Tech as a great place, recruiting excellent academic advisors to come and join a healthy and continually-improving team?

Fund NACADA memberships for all faculty members and academic advisors for one year; host departmental journal review sessions (complete with a meal) in conjunction with one standard faculty meeting for every academic department.

Procure a student-centered mobile technology platform to facilitate success-timeline communications and improved student accountability. By defining and communicating about particular milestones for various success paths, the solution would curate personalized advice, nudge students, and clarify action steps for students from all backgrounds, enrolled in all levels and academic areas of the university.

Expand peer success coaching team or formally partner with an outsourcer to provide targeted populations with extensive academic coaching services.

Nine

ten

a c a d e mi cF ir s t R e s p o nd e r

Ne t w or kJuan MuñozDivision of Undergraduate Education & Student Affairs

Patrick HughesUndergraduate Education

Joshua BarronStudent Success & Retention

Stephanie LegakoCollege of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

Lori RodriguezCollege of Architecture

Stephanie BorstCollege of Arts & Sciences

Adrienne CarnesRawls College of Business Administration

Sarah HatleyCollege of Education

Victoria CoverstoneWhitacre College of Engineering

Aliza WongHonors College

Ashlee BrownCollege of Human Sciences

Julia HeardCollege of Media & Communication

Erik GonzalezTalkington College of Visual& Performing Arts

Sarah SchwintzUniversity Programs

Cathe NutterUniversity Advising

C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f s u c c e s s f u l e a r l y a l e r t s y s t e m s ( E A S ) , a n d h o w t h e y c o m p a r e w i t h c u r r e n t a p p r o a c h e s a t T T U :

E a s e o f U s e • E f f e c t i v e E A S a r e e a s y t o u s e f o r b o t h i n s t r u c t o r s a n d

s u p p o r t s t a f f , a n d t h o s e p e r s o n n e l a r e r e s p o n s i b l e f o ru t i l i z i n g t h e m . W h e n p o s s i b l e , t h e y a r e i n t e g r a t e d i n t or e l a t e d s y s t e m s a n d s t r u c t u r e s , s u c h a s E - L e a r n i n g s y s t e m so r o t h e r a d v i s i n g o r C R M s o f t w a r e p r o g r a m s .

• A t T T U t h e c u r r e n t s y s t e m i s e a s y t o u s e b u t n o t f u l l yu t i l i z e d . O n l y t h i s y e a r d i d w e a c h i e v e t h e a b i l i t y f o r t h eB a n n e r s y s t e m t o i n t e r f a c e w i t h S t r i v e . T T U . e d u f o r e a r l yw o r k a n d m i d t e r m g r a d e s . W e a l s o e n c o u r a g e f i r s t - w o r kg r a d e s , b u t d o n o t s e e k i n s t r u c t o r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i nr e p o r t i n g a s s i g n m e n t g r a d e s , n o r a u t o m a t e d B l a c k b o a r dg r a d e i n t e g r a t i o n f o r S t r i v e . T T U . e d u .

C l a r i t y a n d c o n s i s t e n c y o f c r i t e r i a• E f f e c t i v e E A S h a v e c l e a r a n d c o n s i s t e n t c r i t e r i a f o r v a r i o u s

c a t e g o r i e s f r o m w h i c h i n s t r u c t o r s a n d s t a f f c a n c h o o s e t of l a g s t u d e n t s . T h e s e a r e n o r m a l l y f i n i t e i n n u m b e r ( w i t h a no p t i o n f o r “ o t h e r ” ) a n d c a n i n c l u d e m u l t i p l e s e l e c t i o n s .

• A t T T U w e u s e t r a d i t i o n a l l e t t e r g r a d e s f o r e a r l y w o r k a n dm i d t e r m g r a d e s , a n d o f f e r l i t t l e g u i d a n c e o n w h a t w e m e a nb y n o t a t t e n d i n g . S t r i v e . T T U . e d u ( a n d i t s p r o g r e s s r e p o r t sf e a t u r e s ) c a n p r o v i d e t h i s , b u t m u c h i n s t r u c t i o n a n do r g a n i z a t i o n a l b u y - i n n e e d s t o t a k e p l a c e f o r w i d e s p r e a dp a r t i c i p a t i o n b y f a c u l t y .

C l a r i t y a n d C o n s i s t e n c y o f I n t e r v e n t i o n P r o c e s s e s • E f f e c t i v e E A S h a v e c l e a r l y d e f i n e d p l a n s f o r i n t e r v e n t i o n s

w i t h s t u d e n t s , a n d t h e s e a r e c o n s i s t e n t a c r o s s c a m p u s( e . g . , a s t u d e n t f l a g g e d f o r p o o r e a r l y w o r k g r a d e s i n t h eC o l l e g e o f B u s i n e s s i s t r e a t e d l a r g e l y t h e s a m e a s as t u d e n t f l a g g e d f o r p o o r e a r l y w o r k g r a d e s i n t h e C o l l e g eo f A r t s a n d S c i e n c e s ) . T h e r u l e o f t h u m b i n e f f e c t i v e E A S i s“ r e s p o n d t o t h e s t u d e n t , n o t t h e p r o b l e m . ”

• A t T T U t h e p r o t o c o l s f o r i n t e r v e n t i o n s a r e s p o r a d i ca n d i n c o n s i s t e n t . S o m e u n i t s h a v e s p e c i f i c p r o t o c o l s f o rr e a c h i n g o u t t o s t u d e n t s f l a g g e d b y v a r i o u s e a r l y a l e r t s ,b u t m o s t d o n o t . E v e n i n c a s e s w h e r e t h e r e i s a p r o t o c o l i np l a c e , s u c h a s e m a i l i n g s t u d e n t s r e p o r t e d f o r h a v i n g l o wm i d t e r m g r a d e s , t h e r e i s n o e v i d e n c e t h a t s t u d e n t s a r er e a d i n g , l e t a l o n e r e s p o n d i n g t o , t h o s e m e s s a g e s . O n e s i z en e e d n o t f i t a l l , b u t c o o r d i n a t i n g a n d m a k i n g c o n s i s t e n to u r f i r s t r e s p o n d e r p r o c e s s e s h a s p o t e n t i a l t o s u b s t a n t i a l l yi m p r o v e i n s t i t u t i o n a l e f f o r t s .

Creating Effective Early Alerts The Content That Follows is

adapted from Western Michigan University.


Planned in 2016 and deployed in 2017, Texas Tech's New Academic First Responder Network is working to make the REd Raider EAS exceed the highest standards for systems of its kind.


F o r m a l S y s t e m s f o r F o l l o w - U p a n d F e e d b a c k • E f f e c t i v e E A S d o n o t s i m p l y “ i n t e r v e n e ” w i t h

s t u d e n t s ; t h e y f o l l o w u p , d o c u m e n t , a n dp r o v i d e f e e d b a c k t o t h o s e w h o f l a g g e d t h es t u d e n t . T h i s r e q u i r e s a h i g h l e v e l o fc o o r d i n a t i o n a n d c o m m u n i c a t i o n a c r o s sd i v e r s e u n i t s , a n d i s o f t e n m o s t e f f e c t i v e a ts m a l l e r i n s t i t u t i o n s .

• S t r i v e . T T U . e d u e x i s t s t o h a n d l e t h i s .C u r r e n t l y , h o w e v e r , T T U ’ s f o l l o w - u p a n df e e d b a c k m e c h a n i s m s a r e e v e n m o r es p o r a d i c a n d i n c o n s i s t e n t . M o s t i n s t r u c t o r sr e p o r t n o t r e c e i v i n g a n y f o l l o w - u p a b o u ts t u d e n t s t h e y f l a g i n T T U ’ s E A S , a n d m o s ta r e a l s o u n a w a r e o f t h e b a s i c p r o c e s s o fh o w f l a g g i n g a s t u d e n t i s s u p p o s e d t ot r i g g e r a r e s p o n s e e l s e w h e r e o n c a m p u s .P r o v i d i n g a n e f f e c t i v e f e e d b a c k l o o p t or e p o r t e r s a n d r e s p o n d e r s i s a c h a l l e n g e , b u th a s b e e n s h o w n t o i n c r e a s e p a r t i c i p a t i o na n d b u y - i n t o E A S .

E a r l i e r I n t e r v e n t i o n s • E f f e c t i v e E A S r e c o g n i z e t h a t t h e m o s t

e f f e c t i v e i n t e r v e n t i o n s c o m e e a r l y i n t h es e m e s t e r , p l a c i n g a n e m p h a s i s n o t j u s t o na c a d e m i c p e r f o r m a n c e b u t o n a c a d e m i c a n ds o c i a l e n g a g e m e n t a s w e l l , p a r t i c u l a r l y i nt h e f i r s t t h r e e w e e k s o f t h e s e m e s t e r . M a n ye f f e c t i v e E A S a l s o b e g i n p r i o r i t i z i n g a n di n t e r v e n i n g w i t h s t u d e n t s b e f o r e t h es e m e s t e r b e g i n s , t h r o u g h o r i e n t a t i o n a n de a r l y t e r m p r o g r a m m i n g .

• A t T T U a d m i n i s t r a t o r s d o d i s c u s s t h ei m p o r t a n c e p l a c e o f e a r l y w o r k , a n d v a r i o u se n g a g e m e n t p r o g r a m s e x i s t , b u t t h e r e i s n oc o o r d i n a t e d o r c o n s i s t e n t m e s s a g i n g a c r o s st h e a c a d e m i c u n i t s .

P r i o r i t i z i n g T a r g e t P o p u l a t i o n s• E f f e c t i v e E A S r e c o g n i z e t h e n e e d t o

p r i o r i t i z e t h e s t u d e n t s w h o a r e m o s t a t - r i s ka n d w h o a r e l i k e l y t o b e n e f i t m o s t f r o mi n t e r v e n t i o n s . M a n y i n s t i t u t i o n s f o c u s o np a r t i c u l a r s t u d e n t s w h o a r e m o r e l i k e l y t ob e a t - r i s k b a s e d o n f a c t o r s l i k e h i g h s c h o o lG P A o r t h o s e w h o m i s s m o r e t h a n o n ec o u r s e i n t h e f i r s t t w o w e e k s o f t h es e m e s t e r ; o t h e r s f o c u s o n c o u r s e s w i t h h i g hD / F / W ( d r o p / f a i l / w i t h d r a w ) r a t e s , b u t a l ls u c c e s s f u l E A S p r i o r i t i z e .

• A t T T U , w e h a v e c o n s i s t e n t l y e m p h a s i z e dr e p o r t i n g e a r l y w o r k a n d u t i l i z i n g m i d t e r mg r a d e s f o r f r e s h m e n a n d s p e c i a lp o p u l a t i o n s o f s t u d e n t s i n a l l s e c t i o n s , w i t hl e s s t h a n 1 0 0 % i n v o l v e m e n t b y f a c u l t y a n di n l i e u o f f o c u s i n g o n s p e c i f i c p o p u l a t i o n so r s p e c i f i c c o u r s e s . A g a i n , t h e r e a r e m a n yw a y s t o p r i o r i t i z e r e p o r t i n g a n di n t e r v e n t i o n , b u t t o b e e f f e c t i v e , w e w i l ln e e d t o p r i o r i t i z e i n s o m e f o r m .

W o r k l o a d , R e s p o n s i b i l i t y , a n d A c c o u n t a b i l i t y

• E f f e c t i v e E A S h a v e a d e s i g n a t e dp e r s o n w h o i s r e s p o n s i b l e f o rc o o r d i n a t i n g c a m p u s - w i d e e a r l y a l e r te f f o r t s . A t s m a l l e r c o l l e g e s a n du n i v e r s i t i e s t h i s i s o f t e n a r e g i s t r a r ,a s s o c i a t e r e g i s t r a r , o r a m e m b e r o ft h e i n s t i t u t i o n a l r e s e a r c h t e a m . A tl a r g e r c a m p u s e s , t h e p o s i t i o n i s o f t e na d i r e c t r e p o r t t o a n A s s o c i a t e P r o v o s tf o r S t u d e n t S u c c e s s o r s i m i l a rp o s i t i o n . S o m e c a m p u s e s a l s o h a v eE a r l y A l e r t “ t e a m s ” o r c o m m i t t e e sw h o s e j o b i t i s t o c o o r d i n a t e a c t i v i t i e sf o r t h e e n t i r e c a m p u s .

• A t T T U , a s i s t y p i c a l o f o u r l a r g e ra p p r o a c h t o r e t e n t i o n , S t u d e n tS u c c e s s & R e t e n t i o n n o w “ o w n s ” e a r l ya l e r t t h r o u g h S t r i v e . T T U . e d u . T h eS S R S e c t i o n C o o r d i n a t o r i s t a s k e d w i t hm a n a g i n g a l e r t s , b u t t o a d d r e s sc h a l l e n g e s w i t h c o o r d i n a t i o n ,c o m m u n i c a t i o n , a n d a c c o u n t a b i l i t yt h e f i r s t r e s p o n d e r t e a m m u s t b e f u l l ye n g a g e d i n a n d c o m m i t t e d t o 1 0 0 %c a s e r e s o l u t i o n f o r t h e i r a s s i g n e ds t u d e n t s . A t a l a r g e c a m p u s s u c h a so u r s , d o i n g e a r l y a l e r t w e l l i s a l a r g et a s k t h a t d e m a n d s d e f i n e dr e l a t i o n s h i p s b e t w e e n d e d i c a t e dp e r s o n s t o e f f e c t i v e l y o r g a n i z eo u t r e a c h a n d f o l l o w - u p e f f o r t s .

R e s u l t s - D r i v e n R e s o u r c e A l l o c a t i o n• E f f e c t i v e E A S a r e s u p p o r t e d w i t h

r e s o u r c e s b a s e d o n t h e i r a b i l i t y t od e m o n s t r a t e r e s u l t s i n t h e a r e a s o fr e t e n t i o n a n d s t u d e n t s u c c e s s . G i v e nt h e r e s o u r c e s n e c e s s a r y t o s u s t a i np r o g r a m s t h a t c o m b i n e e f f e c t i v ei n t e r v e n t i o n s w i t h c o n s i s t e n tc o m m u n i c a t i o n , c o o r d i n a t i o n , a n df o l l o w - u p , t y i n g t h e m t o r e s u l t se n c o u r a g e s s t a k e h o l d e r s t o b e t i m e l ya n d e f f e c t i v e w h i l e d o c u m e n t i n g a n da s s e s s i n g t h e i r e f f o r t s . E f f e c t i v e E A Sp r o g r a m s a r e a b l e t o d e m o n s t r a t e t h eb u d g e t a r y i m p a c t t h e y m a k e b yr e t a i n i n g a n d g r a d u a t i n g s t u d e n t sw h o g o o n t o b e c o m e a l u m n i a n dd o n o r s .

• A t T T U , w e a r e o n l y b e g i n n i n g t o h a v ed a t a t h a t a l l o w s f o r a n a n a l y s i s o fa l e r t e f f e c t i v e n e s s . W e w i l l b ef o c u s i n g m o r e o n e v a l u a t i n g e f f e c t i v ef o r m s o f r e p o r t i n g a n d f o l l o w - u p a n di n v e s t i n g i n a r e a s t h a t c a nd e m o n s t r a t e a n i m p a c t o n s t u d e n ts u c c e s s , r e t e n t i o n , a n d g r a d u a t i o nr a t e s .

page 18


STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS

Samantha Herrera2017 Bachelor of Science in AdvertisingPeer Success Coach for Student Success & Retention

Muhammad Solichin2016 Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Peer Success Coach for Student Success & Retention

Dania Al-Barghuthi2015 Bachelor of Arts in Spanish2016 Bachelor of Science in Advertising 2017 Graduate Certificate in Business Graduate Assistant for Student Success & Retention

Yari Fernandez2017 Bachelor of Science in University Studies Peer Success Coach for Student Success & Retention

Thomas Kay2019 Bachelor of Arts in History & Theatre Peer Success Coach for Student Success & Retention

2016 report on student success and retention · 2020. 1. 13. · success & retention exists to...

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