Exhibitor Session
First-Year Experience Annual Conference
February 2016
The First Year Matters:
But What Matters Most?
John N. Gardner
President, John N. Gardner Institute
Founding Executive Director, USC National
Resource Center
and Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Betsy O. Barefoot
Senior Scholar, John N. Gardner Institute
Fellow, USC National Resource Center
Session Overview
An “Exhibitor” session
What is the Gardner Institute?
The First Year Matters
The Big Lessons
What Matters Most
Three Routes to Action
Foundations of Excellence®
Gateways to Completion®
Retention Performance Management™
What Difference Can You Make?
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NOTICE: This is an approved
exhibitor session! Voluntary
participation on your part could
lead to reductions in your
discretionary time and resources,
and big increases in your student
success outcomes!
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Yes, we have something to sell
…how uniquely American!
Mainly, we are selling:
Experience
Knowledge
Wisdom
Big Ideas
Processes
(to achieve big changes for big improvements)
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Who were we? Who are we?
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We represent the
Gardner Institute.
Founded in 1999, the Gardner Institute is a non-profit, 501c3
undergraduate higher-education-focused organization based in
Brevard, NC.
• An outgrowth of Barefoot/Gardner’s work at USC
• Serving all sectors of US higher education and some entities abroad
• Using assessment, planning, and technology-driven action processes to
improve student performance
• With a research- and experience-based focus on applications to campus
practices
• Offering tools, processes, wisdom, and advice to increase student success
• Expertise from the academy for the academy
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Historic Purposes
of the First Year
Making money that can be reallocated to
“higher status” endeavors
Weeding out students who don’t belong
Structuring teaching so that senior faculty can
avoid teaching new students
What’s Your Purpose?
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The First Year Matters
It is the foundation for…
-Student success in colleges and universities that were not
designed for them.
- Institutional redesign to meet today’s students’ needs.
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The First Year Matters
It is the foundation for…
– Decisions to stay or transfer
– Retention, therefore revenue
– Impact on graduation rates
– The development of long-term relationships
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The First Year Matters
It is the foundation for…
– Other important decisions like which groups to join
– Acquiring certain behaviors that may or may not carry over
into later adulthood
– A redefinition of family member roles
– The development of long-term relationships
– Developing economies of time
– Conducting initial assessments
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What Matters Most:
The Big Lessons
• Colleges and universities are not designed for students
we now serve and so must be redesigned.
• Many of us weren’t trained to teach these students.
• We need a focus, preferably on what we control.
• We need to rethink “the first-year experience.”
• There are two types of first-year students: first-time
first- year and transfer.
• Transfer is important route to BA but still has low status.
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What Matters Most:
The Big Lessons
• Most common response to the first year - start a
“program.”
• Some have become “High-Impact Practices” such as the
HIP first-year seminar, which this conference was
originally designed to disseminate.
• Programs are necessary but not sufficient; we need an
institution-wide approach.
• We need new language going beyond “completion”
and “retention.”
• Completion for what?
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What Matters Most:
The Big Lessons
•
•
•
•
Our focus should be on “excellence.”
Use standards of excellence: Foundational Dimensions.®
Stop avoiding the faculty and instead engage them.
Need to do self study to assess performance and produce
a plan.
• Need to execute the plan to a high degree.
• Need cross-campus partnerships to do so.
• The “real” first-year experience—the gateway course
experience.
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The Gardner Institute’s work
is a response to the need for
assessment processes to create
action plans to improve institutional
and student performance.
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The Gardner Institute’s
Three Routes
Foundations of Excellence®
Gateways to Completion®
Retention Performance Management™
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Foundations of Excellence
jngi.org/foe-program
Foundations of Excellence (FoE) is the gold standard of
first-year assessment. By using a comprehensive
approach to evaluating all components of the first year or
transfer, institutions can develop a plan to improve their
approach to both the first-year and transfer experience.
Plans that are implemented “to a high degree” yield
significant improvements in student retention.
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Gateways to Completion
jngi.org/g2c
Gateways to Completion (G2C) is a comprehensive set
of tools and processes that help faculty and staff collect
and analyze data, create and implement interventions,
and develop and make use of teaching techniques.
These techniques will help to increase student learning
and success in historically challenging courses. G2C
includes both the new:
• “Teaching and Learning Academy”
• “JNGI Analytics Process Collaborative”
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Save the Date!
April 3-5, 2016
Grand Hyatt Buckhead
Atlanta, GA
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Retention Performance
Management
jngi.org/rpm
Retention Performance Management (RPM) is a flexible
series of time- and resource-efficient processes and tools
that help institutions create, implement, and/or refine
retention and completion plans. The flexible RPM
processes can help institutions with various phases of
retention (first year, sophomore year, etc.) and/or various
populations for whom retention is a concern (male, firstgeneration, low-income, etc.).
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Next Steps
• Visit the Gardner Institute Exhibit Booth 84.
• Follow up with us: barefoot@jngi.org;
gardner@jngi.org
• Check out our website: jngi.org
• Participate in a gratis webinar: jngi.org/webinars
• Talk with past participants
• Apply!
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When You Return to Your Campus,
What Difference Can You Make?
• Use your own sphere of influence to . . .
• encourage your superiors to take the first year
seriously.
• share your knowledge and insights about the first
year.
• Practice assessment and use assessment results for
improvement.
• Learn from others at this conference about what
matters - - and what matters most.
jngi.org
Exhibitor Session
First-Year Experience Annual Conference
February 2016
Betsy O. Barefoot
Thank you!
barefoot@jngi.org
828-475-6018
John N. Gardner
gardner@jngi.org
828-885-6014