ACADEMIC ADVISING: IMPACTING STUDENT LEARNING, PERSISTENCE, RETENTION AND COMPLETION Rusty Fox Dean, Mountain View College Charlie Nutt Executive Director, NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising (Special thanks to Drs. Susan Poch, Charlie Nutt, Nancy King and Joanne Damminger for their contributions) 2017 NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising The contents of all material in this presentation are copyrighted by NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising, unless otherwise indicated. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of an original work prepared by a U.S. or state government officer or employee as part of that person's official duties. All rights are reserved by NACADA, and content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of NACADA, or as indicated below. Members of NACADA may download pages or other content for their own use, consistent with the mission and purpose of NACADA. However, no part of such content may be otherwise or subsequently be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred, in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of, and with express attribution to NACADA. Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law and is subject to criminal and civil penalties. NACADA and NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising are service marks of the NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising Academic Advising is the very human art of building relationships with students and helping them connect their personal strengths and interests with their academic and life goals. -Dr. Jayne K. Drake TODAYS AGENDA: Review the importance of persistence and retention Understand the impact of the completion agenda on college and universities Identify campus collaborations that affect student persistence and retention Identify strategies that will assist student in persisting and completing. THE FOCUS ON STUDENT RETENTION AND PERSISTENCE Resurgence in interest of a better educated population Attitude shift to support students through completion (focus on underprepared and poor educated systems) Commitment that those who start higher education must be guided back to finish Focus is on identifying those who need more assistance (ETS, SuccessNavigator, The Retention Agenda, July 2013)
Nationally, Retention/Completion Rates: According to J.J. Selingo, (2015) The Chronicle for Higher Education Nationally, Hours Completed: MEDIAN RETENTION RATES: Public Colleges 77% Private Colleges 79% MEDIAN 6 YEAR COMPLETION RATES: Public Colleges 51% Private Colleges 64% Remediation at Community Colleges: Nationally, Six Year Graduation Rates:
CONDITION OF EDUCATION 2016, At a Glance 2014 The National Center for Educational Statistics Population Characteristics Percentage of 25 29 year olds with level of educational attainment High School completion or higher 91% Associate's or higher 44% Bachelor's or higher 34% Master's or higher 8% Median annual earnings 25 34 year olds TOTAL $ 40,600 With less than high school completion $ 24,300 Complete high school as highest level $ 30,500 Attained a bachelor's or higher degree $ 50,800 Unemployment rates by educational attainment of 20 24 year olds TOTAL 15% with less tha high school completion 25% who completed high school as highest level 19% NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS NCES reports to Congress by June 1 of each year. The Condition of Education 2016 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The 2016 report presents 43 key indicators on the status and condition of education. College is expensive, but it costs even more for the students who don't graduate. At public universities, 31.3 percent of students graduate in the traditional four years, versus 52.4 percent for those at private, nonprofit institutions. Not surprisingly, the state schools with the best graduation rates tend to be the wealthier state flagships. Schools with the highest graduation rates spend many times more than the cost of tuition, on each degree granted. From $100,000 at some state schools, to $500,000 at some Ivy League private schools. http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/table/ who attained a bachelor's degree or higher 7% Higher Education (2013) College Completion Section, The Chronicle for WHAT ABOUT YOUR CAMPUS? Challenges facing your students? What interferes with persistence and completion where you are? Why do your students leave? Who is at the table, discussing completion for you? What info/data do you need to impact change? SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY What high-impact practices are being used at your institution? How will your students benefit from these practices? What do advisors need to know about these practices and student success? What can you do to create this?
COMPLETE COLLEGE AMERICA http://completecollege.org/ Co-requisite remediation (Austin Peay State University) Incentives for 15-to-Finish Structure Schedules Banded Tuition COMPLETE COLLEGE AMERICA http://completecollege.org/ RECOMMENDS: Whole programs of study Informed choices and meta majors Default pathways Guaranteed milestone courses Intrusive, just-in-time advising Early warning systems make it easy for institutions to track student performance in required courses and target interventions when they are most needed. Academic advisers can focus attention almost exclusively on students most in need of services Math alignment to majors BUILDING A CULTURE FOR RETENTION AND COMPLETION Colleges and Universities are ramping up efforts to improve Methods include increased student success practices, particularly Academic Advising Nearly all colleges/universities use data analytics to better understand student success WHAT ARE OTHERS DOING? Professional Advising First-Year Programs Freshman Seminars Living/Learning Communities Faculty Development Career Exploration Summer Bridge Programs Mentoring Programs Gateway Courses Proactive Advising Awareness of Services Midterm Progress Reports J. Doubleday (Chronicle Article: With an Eye Toward Retention.. ((Dec. 2013) J.J. Selingo, The Chronicle 2015)
CCSSE BENCHMARKS Center for Community College Student Engagement (2015) Active and collaborative learning Student Effort Academic Challenge Student-Faculty Interaction Support for Learners It is hard to imagine any academic support function that is more important to student success and institutional productivity than advising. (Dr. George Kuh, Student Success in College, 2005) Good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience. TRUST WHAT YOU KNOW! GROUP ACTIVITY # 2 (Dr. Richard Light, Making the Most of College, 2001) So what DO you know? What do you do BEST? What could impact success, TOMORROW? How has your student population changed? Where do your advisors need to grow because of that change?
There is no silver bullet! Student retention is based on improving the entire undergraduate experience. WHAT WORKS? What we ve heard here! Genuine works! Caring works! Students rise to higher expectations Dr. Charlie Nutt, as cited by Doubleday (2013) Research is encouraging, Data is essential Re-learn regularly, who you students are WHAT WORKS? Competence is powerful Focus on completion, intentionally Connect to faculty and classrooms Assess, Measure, Evaluate as a on-going cycle Academic Advising, done well, is the KEY! A FEW BEST PRACTICES Florida State University s use of degree programs increased its graduation rate for all students by 12 percent to 74 percent. Tennessee s 27 Tech Centers have an average 75 percent completion rate, Job placement rates also are high 80 percent or higher. Program vs class. Accelerate TEXAS a fast-track initiative Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board 2,500 adult basic education students earn certificates in high-demand sectors Survey of Best Practices in Student Retention, 2017 Edition http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f269k5/survey_of_best NACADA Clearinghouse http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/resources/clearinghouse
A FEW BEST PRACTICES The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education http://www.cas.edu/ The National Center for Educational Statistics https://nces.ed.gov/ (SENSE) Survey of Entering Student Engagement http://www.ccsse.org/sense/ (CCSSE) The Community College Survey of Student Engagement http://www.ccsse.org/ Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive! Howard Thurman Author, Philosopher, Theologian, Educator, Civil Rights Leader Grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida I want to hear from you! Please tell me about my session. Your thoughts and opinions help shape future NACADA Institutes! To rate this session visit: PollEv.com/Institutefac2 This evaluation will be open until 10:00 p.m. tonight