West Virginia Northern
Community College
August 2012
8/8/2012
7.5% State Reduction
$592,000
(Plus Mandated Raises)
Retention
Graduation Rates
Enrollment
• Revise the curriculum to quickly get students into
programs of study, streamline time to degree and
facilitate transfer to four-year institutions.
• Create a comprehensive student advising and
management system that ensures students
a strong start and consistent feedback
along each step of their way through
college.
• Restructure developmental education
to reduce time spent in pre-collegiate
coursework.
(Source:
CC Times 8/6/12)
7 Key Strategies to Exponentially Increase
Graduation Rates
Set College Policies
Automate Processes
Implement Progression Tracking Tools
* For Managers
* For Students
Maximize Program Design
Advise for Impact
Schedule for Success
Promote Active Learning Strategies
Students who register late:
* Tend to be male, older (25 or over), have
enrolled part-time, and have lower academic
preparation levels (Freer-Weiss, 2004)
* Differ in confidence, academic and organization skills, and
motivation (Weiss, 1999)
* Have higher course withdrawal rates, lower GPA’s, and lower
retention rates (Freer-Weiss, 2004)
Time of registration is a significant predictor
of:
* Semester Performance (Hiller, 2005)
* Student Retention (Hiller, 2005)
Advantages of automatic processes:
 Sustain graduation rates without relying on manual
processes which may have a single point of failure.
 Translate gains a college may have in retention into
graduates automatically.
 Implementation of automatic processes may allow a
college to have substantial gains in graduation rates in
a short period of time.
What is Auto-GRAD?
Auto-GRAD is an automatic degree audit that is
run periodically on every degree-seeking
student at the college.
What is Auto-POP?
Auto-POP is an automatic process for
populating program of study codes for
college credit certificate programs that are
embedded into existing Associate degrees.
Why Auto-POP is Needed
College credit certificate program of study codes are
seldom added to a students record.
 Advisors very seldom added college credit certificate
program of study codes to a student’s record when initially
advising students.
 Program Managers frequently forgot to add college credit
certificate program of study codes to a student’s record
when advising students.
 Students seldom added college credit certificate program of
study codes to their own record when changing their
program of study.
What percentage of your total sections do you
cancel less than seven (7) days prior to the
start of the semester?
How closely do you monitor
the performance of a
program’s introductory
course?
Are your students taking
advantage of “compressed”
terms? (Terms less than 16 weeks in
length)
Are your students taking advantage of
hybrid courses?
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Cooperative Learning
Project Based Learning
Internships/Coops
Simulation
Learning Communities
Supplemental Instruction
Technology Enhanced Classes
“Right Start” Orientation
On-going Active Teaching Strategy Training
for Faculty
Information is located on the College Web site at: