Intrusive Academic Advising:An Effective Strategy To Increase

Student Success

Tom Brown

www.tbrownassociates.comtom@tbrownassociates.com

Intrusive Academic Advising

1. What is it?2. Why consider using it?3. What does it involve?4. Is it effective?5. Can it work for your students, your work, and your campus?

The context for today’s workshop:

A continued focus on student learning, engagement and success.

Shift in emphasis….

1970s and 80s Access 1980s and 90s Retention

Today Student Success

A continuing shift….

TeachingLearning

Student Success

Vincent Tinto, Syracuse University, 2007

Increasing student persistence is a continuing concern in higher education…

U.S. Graduation* RatesHighest Lowest Current

Two-year public 38.8 (’89) 22.5 (’13) 22.5Four–year public BA/BS 52.8 (’86) 36.0 (’00) 36.0Four-year private BA/BS 58.5 (’13) 53.3 (’01) 58.5Four-year public MA/MS 46.7 (’86) 37.0 (’00) 37.7Four-year private MA/MS 58.4 (’88) 53.5 (’01) 55.2Four-year public PhD 50.6 (’89, ’90) 45.0 (’01)

48.9Four-year private PhD 68.8 (’86) 62.9 (’12) 63.5

Completion in 3 years for Associates; 5 years for BA/BS

*Source: ACT Institutional Data File, 1983-1012 http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/12retain_trends.pdf

Retention Matters

College student retention has been the most intensely studied issue in academic over the past several decades.

Ward, Siegel, & Davenport, 2012

RULE OF THE UNIVERSE

The center of community college work is student learning, persistence and success.

Kay McClenney, 2011

Retention practices with greatest impact

1. First-year programs

2. Academic advising, including interventions for specific student populations

3. Learning support

Habley & McClanahan, WWISR 2004, 2010

Next to the quality of instruction, academic advising is consistently the next most important area of the college experience to students.

Five Year Trend Study- National Student Satisfaction ReportNoel Levitz 2006

What matters to students?

National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report 2012

>745,000 students>1095 two- and four-year

institutions

National Student Satisfaction Report 2012Four-year Private Institutions

Instructional effectiveness (6.36) Academic advising (6.33) Student centeredness (6.21) Recruitment and financial aid (6.21) Registration effectiveness (6.20) Safety and security (6.19) Concern for the individual (6.18) Campus climate (6.18) Campus support services (6.06)

National Student Satisfaction Report 2012Four-year Public Institutions

Academic advising (6.38) Instructional effectiveness (6.37) Safety and security (6.32) Registration effectiveness (6.25) Recruitment and financial aid (6.21) Concern for the individual (6.17) Campus climate (6.16) Student centeredness (6.14) Campus support services (6.10)

Community & Technical CollegesStudent Priorities 2012

Instructional effectiveness 6.22 Registration effectiveness 6.20 Academic Advising/Counseling6.18 Concern for the individual 6.12 Academic services 6.09 Admissions and financial aid 6.09 Safety and security 6.05 Student centeredness 6.02 Campus climate 6.01 Service excellence 6.00 Campus Support Services 5.51

National Adult Student Priorities ReportNoel-Levitz, 2012

1. Instructional Effectiveness

2. Academic Advising/Counseling

3. Campus Climate

4. Registration Effectiveness

5. Service Excellence

TRIAD FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

High Quality Teaching

Comprehensive Support Programs

Developmental Academic Advising

A key question:

Does academic advising matter to student success?

Research has shown that advising improves student retention rates through the establishment of relationships with faculty or staff members who help students to clarify their academic and career goals.

Noel Levitz 2006

There is a relationship between advising and retention.

Agree/strongly agree 86%Disagree 4%

Brown Faculty Survey, 2001-2012

Academic advising is the only structured activity on campus in which all students have the opportunity for on-going one-to-one interaction with a concerned representative of the institution.

Wes Habley, ACT

Redefining academic advising:

From an event to a processthat is integrally linked to

student engagement and learning.

Much more than a service that supports registration….

How does XYZ Collegedefine advising?

The advising staff offers support to all XYZ College students in the selection of the liberal education courses required for their degrees.

XYZ College Undergraduate Bulletin (pg 96)

How does Local CCdefine advising?

Students meet with academic advisors to choose a major, select courses, review degree requirements…. Local CC Academic Bulletin (Pg. 21)

Academic Advising is… a systematic process based on a close advisor student relationship intended to aid students in achieving their personal, educational, and career goals….

focuses on helping students to acquire skills and attitudes that promote their intellectual and personal development.

assists students to make full use of campus and community resources in the process.

Developmental Academic AdvisingWinston, Miller, Ender, Grites & Associates. 1984

HIERARCHY OF ADVISING

Life goals, values, abilities, interests, limitations.

Career/vocational opportunities

Academic Programs/Field of Study

Course selectionClass scheduling

Terry O'Banion, 1972, 1994

Academic Advising assists students to make full use of campus and community resources…

Academic Advising

Counseling

Financial Aid

Assessment Learning Center

Faculty

TRIO/SSS

Orientation

Registration

MulticulturalAffairs

Career Center

Retention

Counseling

Financial Aid

Assessment Learning

Center

Faculty

TRIO/SSS

Orientation

Registration

MulticulturalAffairs

Career Center

Academic Academic AdvisingAdvising

The Hub of the Campus Wheel W. Habley

Attributes of an environment that supports student success:

IntentionalStructured

Proactive

Tinto, 2007

What happens to students after they enroll frequently has a more powerful impact on whether they stay and achieve their goals or leave.

Tinto 1987, 1993

Why do students leave college?

Isolation

Inability to connect with significant members of the campus community….

The more interaction students have with faculty and staff, the more likely they are to learn effectively and persist toward achievement of their educational goals.

CCSSE

Transforming Students Through Validation

Success appears to be contingent on whether faculty and staff can validate students in an academic or interpersonal way.

Rendon, 1994, 2002

Some Institutions seem to be more effective than others in helping students from a wide range of abilities and backgrounds succeed…

How College Affects StudentsPascarella & Terenzini, 2005

Redefining Excellence

The New American University measures its academic quality by the education its graduates received rather than by the academic credentials of the incoming freshman class….

Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University

Excellence Redefined:Talent Development

The belief that students can learn anything the institution teaches, provided the right conditions are established—including challenge and support….

Increasing PersistenceHabley, Bloom, & Robbins, 2012

Intrusive Academic Advising

What is intrusive academic advising??

Aggressive Academic Advising?

Invasive Academic Advising?

Origins of Intrusive Advising

“Reduction of Attrition Through Intrusive Advising”

Robert Glennen & Dan BaxleyNASPA Journal, v22 n3 p10-14 Win 1985

The intrusive model of advising is action-oriented in involving and motivating students to seek help when needed. Utilizing the good qualities of prescriptive advising (expertise, awareness of student needs, structured programs) and of developmental advising (relationship to a student's total needs), intrusive advising is a direct response to an identified academic crisis with a specific program of action….

Earl, 1987

Intrusive Advising?

Intrusive Advising?

Active Outreach Advising??

Active Outreach Advising

Does not mean “hand holding” or parenting. Rather, it does mean active concern and a willingness to assist students to explore programs and services to improve their skills and motivate them to persist toward their goals.

Active Outreach Advising

Taking a personal interest in students and approaching them with an open caring attitude.

A personal relationship with a concerned member of the campus community can reduce the psychological distance that hinders academic integration.

Proactive (Intrusive) Advising Involves deliberate interventions to enhance student

motivation, using strategies to show interest and

involvement with students, intensive advising designed to increase the

probability of student success, working to educate students on all options, approaching students before situations develop.

Jennifer Varney, 2012

The intrusive model is proactive and seeks to address problems as they emerge, rather than being reactive. Essentially, advisors reach out to help students instead of waiting for students to seek help.

University of Minnesota General College

The theoretical framework of intrusive

advising is based on three postulates:

1. Advisors can be trained to identify students who need and can benefit from this kind of intervention.

2. Students DO respond to direct contact in which a problem in their academic life is identified and a resource or assistance is offered.

The theoretical framework of intrusive

advising is based on three postulates:

3. Deficiencies in the necessary "fit" of a student to his/her academic environment are treatable.

4. Students can be taught and can learn the skills needed to be successful.

Guiding Principles of Intrusive

Advising: Academic and social integration are

keys to persistence. Motivation is not the cause but

rather the result of intrusive intervention activities.

Sharon Holmes, 2000

Some advantages of an intrusive model of advising

A direct contact is established with an advisor who deals openly with the student's academic situation when the student has maximum motivation to accept assistance.

Earl, 1987

The Intrusive Advising model is valuable because it assumes that some students will not take the initiative in resolving academic concerns, therefore, assigned counselors operate intrusively.

Holmes, 2000

At-risk students have difficulty:

Recognizing that a problem exists

Asking for help once they realize that they have a problem

Asking for help in time for the assistance to be of benefit

Levin & Levin, 1991

For many students asking for help seems to violate their notion of what it means to be strong, independent, and self-reliant. However, the longer they are in school the more likely they are to seek help…

MDRC, 2010

Advantages of intrusive advising

The student is placed in a position where s/he must do academic planning within the parameters of self-motivation.

Structured advising programs are enhanced by a student's involvement in contract modules.

Does Intrusive Advising work?

Intrusive advising has been shown to improve the effectiveness of advising, enhance student academic skills and increase retention.

Earl, 1987

There is compelling evidence regarding the importance students place on the value of intrusive advising relationships in the context of their ability to persist.

DeAnna Burt, 2009

Intrusive advising is all the rage in the national literature now. I think of it as systematic nagging…The whole enterprise strikes me as demeaning and vaguely creepy…

A Skeptic’s View

But the results I've seen suggest that it can actually work. Confessions of a Community College Dean www.insidehigher ed.com, 8/12/10

Does Intrusive Advising Work?

Tacoma College increased fall-to-fall retention rates for students enrolled in two or more developmental courses from 47% in 2005 to 58% in 2009.

This improvement is associated with the Declared and Prepared advising model and an intrusive advising approach.

Why Intrusive Advising Works: Students who know that an advisor will

contact them are motivated to keep up with their work. (Heisserer & Parette, 2002)

Intrusive advising helps students make connections to campus services.

Referrals to sources of assistance informs students that some one cares about them.

Earl, 1998; Backus, 1989; Holmes, 2000

Promising Practices

The application of principles and theories leads to effective individual and institutional practices that produce increased persistence and success.

Active Outreach Advising:People AND Programs

Colleges being more proactive…“College Move to Organize Retention Efforts”

More students participating in orientation 70% collect midyear grades for first-year students Even more flag courses with high rates of Ds, Fs,

and withdrawals Half offer some form of Supplemental Instruction 80% require first-year students to meet with an

advisor at least once a termChronicle of Higher Education 10/25/2009

Intrusive Advising Strategies Mandated assessment and placement Required orientation programs Required advising meetings Early alert systems Mentors including peer mentors Midterm grade reports Supplemental Instruction

Intrusive Advising Strategies Clear statements of responsibility Interventions for specific student cohorts Advising contracts

Retention practices with greatest impact

Two-year colleges:

Mandatory Assessment

Habley & McClanahan, WWISR 2004Habley & McClanahan, WWISR 2004

Required Advising Meetings

Structured content What should be discussed and when? What would be discussed at a first advising

meeting? At a meeting three weeks into the first term? At a meeting following midterms? Prior to registration for the following term? At the first meeting of the following term?

Early alert systems

Identify students who are having difficulty and also provide recommended sources of assistance.

These were originally sent to faculty through campus mail, but they are increasingly available in web-based formats.

Mentor Programs

The value of the mentoring relationship seems to be long lasting. “We have found that our mentees from two or three semesters ago are still our students. We still hear from them. It has worked beautifully….”

Gale Lammers, Phillips CC (Ark.)

Midterm Semester Grades

(MSEs) target low SES and first year students and is one of the most successful initiatives at CSU San Marcos pertaining to identifying and assisting at-risk students before they find themselves in difficulty.

Parisa Soltani, 2007

Professor

A B C D

Tutor A Tutor B Tutor C Tutor D

Supplemental Instruction Study Groups

Course:Chemistry I

Supplemental Instruction

http://web2.umkc.edu/cad/SI/

Promising Practices

The application of principles and theories leads to effective individual and institutional practices that produce increased persistence and success.

The key: Adapt vs. Adopt

Academic Advising: A Shared Responsibility

In loco parentis has been replaced by the philosophy that students are responsible for their own survival and relate to their experiences in the same way that other adults relate to their environments…

While functioning relatively well for [many] services, it is not functioning well in the campus environment for the delivery of academic assistance services.

Earl, 1987

While students must accept responsibility for their own success or failure, institutional actors, particularly faculty members, also bear individual and collective responsibility for student outcomes.

Achieving Equitable Outcome for All StudentsAAC&U, 2005

A Shared Responsibility: A Model

Three Approaches to Advising Prescriptive: authoritarian with students assuming

little responsibility for decision making; mainly focuses on choosing courses.

Developmental: close student/advisor relationship focuses on assisting students to achieve goals.

Integrated: Incorporates techniques from both, with an intrusive approach for at-risk students. Emphasizes frequent early contact and a shared responsibility for goal setting, decision making and planning

Changing Environment & Changing Students

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th, 5th, 6th Year

Creamer, 2000

Need for Information

Need for ConsultationChanging Needs for Advising

Changing Environment & Changing Students

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th, 5th, 6th Year

Creamer, 2000; Lynch, 1989

Need for Information

Need for ConsultationChanging Needs for Advising

Moving In Moving Through Moving On

Changing Environment & Changing Students

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th, 5th, 6th Year

Lynch, 1989; Creamer, 2000; Brown, 2006

Need for Information

Need for ConsultationChanging Needs for Advising

Moving In Moving Through Moving On

I I/S I/S S/I SI = Faculty, advisors, etc.S = Student

Changing Environment & Changing Students

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th, 5th, 6th Year

PRESCRIPTIVE DEVELOPMENTAL

Lynch, 1989; Brown& Rivas, 1994; Creamer, 2000; Brown, 2006

Need for Information

Need for ConsultationChanging Needs for Advising

Moving In Moving Through Moving On

I I/S I/S S/I SI = Faculty, advisors, etc.S = Student

What are some student responsibilities in academic

advising?

Student ResponsibilitiesOhio University

Contact your advisor and every instructor regularly.

Read email and Blackboard postings carefully and follow instructions.

Utilize instructor and advisor office hours. Make appointments in advance and keep

them. Follow-up on advice and referrals

Student Expectation of Advisors

•Availability/Accessibility•Knowledge•Care and Concern

Caring…

•Early and frequent contact

•Comprehensive orientation

•Intrusive advising

Buyer & Connolly, 2006

Using Active Outreach Advising with Specific Student Cohorts

Adult students often “recycle” through developmental issues faced by younger students.

Chickering and Reisser, 1993

Active Outreach Strategies

Assign an adult student advocate to identify issues, mediate problems, etc.

Facilitate formation of support groups and peer mentoring

Interactive on-line advising system (Santa Fe CC, Florida)

Proactive advising system

40% of first-generation students leave college without a degree; they are more likely to come from low income families.

US Department of Education, 2005

First Generation Students

Active Outreach Strategies

First-year programs: summer bridge, orientation programs, FYE courses, Freshman Interest groups (FIGs)

Learning communities Integrated courses clusters (e.g., Psych

course linked with English and tutoring or SI)

Students with disabilities

are far less likely to finish high school or college, far more likely to be unemployed, and, when they find work, to be paid less than minimum wage….

Johnson, 2006

Students with disabilities

For many students with disabilities, college is an initial experience wherein personal responsibility and independence become critical.

Steven Ender & Carolyn WilkieAcademic Advising, 2000

[We] must stress the importance of personal assertiveness [and] work actively and systematically when addressing the area of developing or validating life purpose.

Ender & Wilkie, 2000

Active Outreach Strategies

Encourage full participation Encourage appropriate disclosure Connect with campus and community

resources Be willing to act as an advocate. Support them to self-advocate

Undecided Students

Undecidedness has been linked to low achievement, lack of involvement and attrition.

Peterson & McDonough

You are not alone…

Sources of Support• Academic advisor

• Faculty and department chairs

• Career Services

• Counseling Center

• Internships work experience, job shadowing

LGBT Students

Students, staff, professors, or administrators who identify as LGBT report significant harassment at their colleges and discomfort with the overall campus climate….

Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/14/2010

Active Outreach Strategies

First-year Transition Programs Mentoring Creating “Safe Zones” and

developing Allies Links to Career Development

Jennifer Joslin, 2007

Multicultural Students

Students of color base their decisions on whether or not to persist on the quality of their interactions with faculty….

Cabrera, Terenzini, et. al.Journal of Higher Education, 1999

Active Outreach Strategies

Peer mentoring programs Faculty and staff mentor programs Active outreach to connect with campus

and community resources Intrusive academic advising Understand and integrate “stereotype

threat” research

First-year Students

One-third to one-half of first-year students do not return for the second year.

ACT Data file, 2010

Students need the support of advising programs and academic advisors as they make three critical transitions:

Moving into college

Moving through college

Moving on from college

Students need the support of advising programs and academic advisors as they make three critical transitions:

Moving into college

Moving through college

Moving on from college

Helping students move into college is far and away the most important task for academic advisors.

Professor Arthur Chickering, 1994

FYE Peer Mentors

Attend FYE classes Monitor student progress Provide study skills assistance Organize study groups Connects to campus resources Support faculty to motivate students

toward academic goals

Students on Probation

Studies have shown that probationary students have higher GPAs when intrusive advising is used.

Heisserer & Parette, 2002

Helping students get back on track

Assess GPA deficit Help develop a plan to return to good standing--

concrete, tangible, doable Reflect on factors contributing to unsuccessful

academic performance Accept responsibility for choices Examine and [re]assess academic, career, and

personal goals Acknowledge that the past does not necessarily

equal the future

Probation ContractsExamples

Morehead State University

http://www.moreheadstate.edu/files/units/acs/probation/Academic_Probation_Contract_Fall_2009.pdf

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

http://studentsuccess.unc.edu/docs/updated%20contract.pdf

Rio Hondo Community College

http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Getting%20On%20Course008.htm

Why reach out?

An academic advisor is unlike any role model the new student has encountered.

Students receive advice from all sorts of people and much of that advice is inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriately value laden.

Why reach out?

The use of technology may supplant rather than support the advising process.

The first six weeks of transition are critical to the institution’s retention efforts.

It is easier to anticipate a problem than it is to solve one.

Cultivating Intrusive/Proactive Academic Advising

Take photos of students and post in their advising folders.

Follow up personally on early alerts. Postcard, email, and/or text reminders of

important deadlines, meetings, etc. Attend co-curricular activities. Explore opportunities for residence hall advising.

Jennifer Varney, 2007

Advisors should… truly know the school and its resources

and know the staff of school programs. be available to be reached by students

whenever or wherever is reasonably possible.

be trained in all relevant areas (academic and non-academic) that have a direct impact on students’ well-being and success.

monitor advisee progress with or without student presence.

Jennifer Varney, 2007

Advisors should…

maintain clear boundaries with students: show genuine care, including a positive attitude, openness and honestly, but maintain professionalism at all times

do not be afraid to contact students before they contact you e.g., email, IM, telephone, and personalized mail.

College students today have many distractions from academics: advisors must compete with those distractions!

We should not assume that effective advisors will simply emerge without structured pre-service and in-service professional development programs.

Campuses must assume the responsibility for teaching and developing their own educators to enhance student learning inside and outside the classroom by providing professional development programs. “Preparing Providers to Foster Student Success”

Brown & Ward, 2007

Professional development is key

Colleges must provide “more powerful occasions for educators to learn about what works for students…”

Professional development must be more than occasional programs or workshops.

Carnegie Foundation, 2008

Developing Effective Relational Advisors

1. A fundamental belief in the capacity of all students to learn and achieve their goals.

2. Understanding of what advising is, its relationship to the teaching and learning mission of the college and how advising impacts the academic and social integration essential to student persistence and success.

3. Possess strong relational and communication skills

4. Thorough awareness of college program, policies, and campus an community referral resources.

Academic advising is the only structured activity on campus in which all students have the opportunity for on-going one-to-one interaction with a concerned representative of the institution.

Wes Habley, ACT

Comments?

Questions?

Challenges?

Successes?

Intrusive Academic Advising:An Effective Strategy To Increase

Student Successwww.innovativeeducators.org

Tom Brown

www.tbrownassociates.comtom@tbrownassociates.com