The Student Success
Symposium Road Show
Findings and Strategies from
the 2006 National Symposium
on Postsecondary Student
Success
James Hearn, University of Georgia
Hans L’Orange, State Higher Education Executive Officers
May 10, 2007
National Postsecondary
Education Cooperative (NPEC)
• Mission: promote the quality, comparability
and utility of postsecondary data and
information that support policy development
at the federal, state, and institution levels
• Voluntary partnership of postsecondary
institutions, associations, government
agencies, and organizations
• Funding from the National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES), U.S.
Department of Education
Outline of Presentation
• Part I- Commissioned Papers on
Student Success
• Part II- Policymaker and Practitioner
Perspectives
• Part III- Responses from the Research
Community
• Part IV- What Does it All Mean?
Part I- Commissioned Papers
on Student Success
Faculty Professional Choices
in Teaching That Foster
Student Success
John Braxton
Vanderbilt University
8 Dimensions of Student
Success
• Academic Attainment
• Acquisition of General Knowledge
• Development of Academic Competence
• Development of Cognitive Skills and Intellectual
Dispositions
• Occupational Attainment
• Preparation for Adulthood and Citizenship
• Personal Accomplishments
• Personal Development
Teaching Practices that foster
student success
• Use of active learning vs. passive learning
• Frequent contact between faculty and
students
• Cooperative learning
• Prompt and frequent feedback
• Communication of high expectations
• Respect for diverse talents and ways of
knowing
• Multiple forms of assessment that require
higher order thinking
State Policies that foster
student success
• Tie state funding for institutions to teaching
practices
• Give above average increases in faculty salaries
to faculty who engage in good teaching practices
• Set aside funds for faculty development
workshops and seminars
• Require reviews of academic programs to
include measures of teaching practices that
contribute to student learning
Institutional Policies that foster
student success
• Institutional leaders should communicate their
desire for teaching practices that will foster student
learning in all communication
• Require teaching candidates to present a teaching
demonstration as part of their interview
• Tie tenure, promotion, and salary increases to
teaching performance
What Matters to Student
Success: A Review of the
Literature
George Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, Jennifer Buckley
Indiana University Bloomington
Brian Bridges
American Council on Education
John Hayek
Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Proposition 1 - Trajectory for student success is
established long before students matriculate
Recommendations:
• Ensure that all students have rigorous, intensive precollege preparation
• Align high school curricula with college performance
standards
Proposition 2 - Family & community support are
indispensable to students’ educational aspirations,
preparation and persistence in college
Recommendations:
• Expand the scale and scope of effective college
encouragement and transition programs
• Ensure that students and families have accurate
information about college, including real costs and aid
availability
Proposition 3 - The right amount and kind
of money matters to student success
Recommendations:
• Align financial aid and tuition policies so that financial
assistance packages meet students’ need
• Create small pockets of emergency funds to meet
student financial needs in real time
Proposition 4 - Most students benefit from early
interventions and sustained attention at various
transition points in their educational journey
Recommendations:
• Clarify institutional values and expectations early and
often
• Concentrate early intervention on those with two or more
risk factors (e.g., first generation and/or low income
• Provide multiple learning support networks, early
warning systems and safety nets
Proposition 5 - Students who find something or
someone to connect with are more likely to be
engaged, persist, and achieve their objectives
Recommendations:
• Make the classroom the locus of the community
• Structure ways for commuter students to spend time with
classmates
• Involve every student in a meaningful way in some activity or
with a positive role model in the college environment
Proposition 6 - Institutions that create a student
centered culture are better positioned to help their
students attain their educational objectives
Recommendations:
• Instill assets based talent development philosophy about
teaching, learning and student success
• Use effective educational practices and technology
• Provide incentives for institutions to identify and ameliorate
debilitating cultural properties
Proposition 7 - Because we value what we
measure, focus assessment and accountability
efforts on what matters to student success
Recommendations:
• Conduct periodic examinations of the student
experience
• Provide incentives for institutions to report and use
information about the student experience to improve
teaching, learning and personal development
• Provide incentives for postsecondary institutions to
adopt a common reporting template for indicators of
student success to make their performance transparent
• Enhance state and institutional capacity for collecting,
analyzing and using data for accountability and
improvement
A Framework for Reducing
the College Success Gap and
Promoting Success for All
Laura Perna
University of Pennsylvania
Scott Thomas
University of Georgia
Success is reflected in multiple indicators:
• Transition 1- College Readiness
 Indicator 1: Educational Aspirations
 Indicator 2: Academic Preparation
• Transition 2- College Enrollment
 Indicator 3: College Access
 Indicator 4: College Choice
• Transition 3- College Achievement
 Indicator 5: Academic Performance
 Indicator 6: Transfer
 Indicator 7: Persistence
• Transition 4- Post-college Attainment
 Indicator 8: Post-BA Enrollment
 Indicator 9: Income
 Indicator 10: Educational Attainment
Implications for policy and
practice
• Policies and practices are enacted through multiple
layers of content, therefore we must acknowledge the
limitations that may be imposed by a student’s context
• Policies and programs interact with other policies,
programs, and characteristics of schools, families and
students
• No single approach to policy or practice will improve
students success for all students
• Policymakers and practitioners should support research
that test aspects of the conceptual model using multiple
methods and theoretical perspectives
Moving From Theory to Action:
Building a Model of Institutional
Action for Student Success
Vincent Tinto
Syracuse University
Brian Pusser
University of Virginia
State and National policies should
focus on:
• Creating linked P-16 systems to align primary and secondary
schools with postsecondary requirements
• Creating databases that can follow students throughout all
educational levels
• Supporting teacher development in K-12
• Creating outreach programs directed at traditionally
underrepresented students
• Improving course articulation between 2 and 4 year
institutions
• Conducting early and continuous evaluation and assessment
• Establishing innovative financial policies to increase overall
financial support and direct aid to students with greatest need
Holland's Theory and
Patterns of College Student
Success
John Smart
University of Memphis
Kenneth Feldman
SUNY at Stonybrook
Corrina Ethington
University of Memphis
Congruence Assumption
• The growth of a student’s dominant personality
type is dependent on the student’s personality
type and fit with their academic environments
(e.g., major).
• An academic environment that matches the
student’s personality type will enhance the
student’s dominant personality type and the
skills and abilities associated with that
personality type.
Socialization Assumption
• Patterns of change and stability in students’
abilities and interests are singularly
dependent on the academic environment that
they enter and not by their dominant
personality type.
• A student’s abilities and interests will be
reinforced and rewarded by their chosen
academic environment (major).
Therefore…..
• Academic environments are an absolutely
essential component for understanding
student success in postsecondary education.
• Academic environments are successful in
promoting the learning of students whether
their dominant personality type is congruent
or incongruent with their academic
environment.
Policy and Programmatic
Implications
• Students do not need to be constrained in
their choice of academic major by whether or
not their major matches their dominant
personality type.
• Academic environments should be a key
element in efforts to assess student learning
outcomes.
Part II- Policymaker and
Practitioner Perspectives
Piedad Robertson
Past President, Education Commission of the
States
• Need to build partnerships between institutions and
policymakers so policymakers will be informed about
best practices and concentrate funds in these areas
• Need early intervention programs for students at risk
– Summer bridge programs
– Dual enrollment programs
• Need to recognize the role that student services play
in ensuring student success
• Policymakers need to adequately fund student
support services
Earl S. Richardson
President, Morgan State University
• Student Financial Aid
– Focus resources on need based aid instead of merit aid; grants, not loans
– Need flexible student aid programs that are timely and fill in relatively
small gaps between expenses and unanticipated costs
– Need early awareness on availability of financial aid
• Pre-college Academic Preparation
– Align college requirements and coursework in high school
– Provide early, continuing, and voluntary assessment of academic abilities
prior to college
– Motivate students to prepare for college
– Bring college level coursework into high schools
• Campus Programs that Promote Student Success
– Value Good Teaching
– Support Teaching-Oriented Campuses
– Provide guidance to postsecondary institutions on how to develop strong
leadership and a management culture to enable student success
Donna Alvarado
President and Founder of Aguila International
Chair of the Ohio Board of Regents
• Key challenge of educational policymakers is to learn how to
increase the graduation rates of current college students
while vastly increasing the number and diversity of students
• To facilitate increasing graduation rates and the number of
graduates, disseminate best practices discussed in papers
• In addition to best practices, need to have the will to:
–
–
–
–
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Get policymakers to devote funding to postsecondary education
Make cultural shifts in the expectations of faculty
Support articulation agreements between 2 yr and 4 yr institutions
Insist on shared accountability and mutual rewards throughout K-16
Provide career counseling and aptitude testing throughout K-16
William Demmert Jr.
Western Washington University
• Critical success elements for Native American students
– A record of family support and a significant mentor
– Basic academic skills for college level work and financial resources
• Challenges facing Native students
– Early learning environments of children are not stimulating
– Substandard levels of language development
• No Child Left Behind Act consequences
– Students are so concerned about making annual progress in math and
English that students are not learning their native languages
– Teachers who teach native languages are not certified and are being
replaced by certified teachers who do not know native languages
• Other Challenges
– Lack of fit between home environment and institutional environment
– Incongruity between Native American students’ values & institutional
values
Part III- Responses from the
Research Community
Thomas Bailey
Columbia University
• Difficult to determine causality between programs,
policies and success
• Many studies do not have control groups or comparison
groups
• When comparing students who participate in a program
to those who do not participate, need measure of
baseline academic ability
• Few studies use institutions as the unit of analysis,
making it difficult to determine whether institutional
practices and programs have an impact on student
success
• Longitudinal measures of student success are rare
Bridget Terry Long
Harvard University
• Translating Research into Results
– Examples of successful K-16 systems and actions needed to create them
– Translate academic research language into language that is easily
understood
– Reduce lengthy academic papers, into shorter papers for policymakers
• Get to the Root Cause
– Distinguish correlation from causation
– Research needs to use statistical techniques that control for selection
effects
– Once the root cause is identified, then policies can be effective
• Context Matters
– Need to consider the individual circumstances of a student when forming
policies or programs
– A program that is effective for one student may not be effective for another
– Develop research models that apply to a particular circumstance or type of
student
Bridget Terry Long (cont.)
• Use interdisciplinary approaches
– Move beyond disciplinary silos
– Expand our definition of educational research
to include areas that have not been included
and to studies that do not have the word
education in their title
• Areas of Additional Research for
Undeserved Students
– Role of information for underserved students
– Research needs to be done specifically on
undeserved students to find programs and
policies that work for them
Laura Rendon
Iowa State University
• Who are underserved students?
– First Generation, Low income, Generation 1.5
– Students Learning Through Electronic Media
– Students Enrolled in For-Profit Institutions
• Re-conceptualizing Student Success for
Underserved Students
– Scholars need to engage in efforts to theorize race, class
and gender and how these constructions might affect
policymaking and student success
– Scholars need to push for transformation of societal
structures and interrogate institutional structures
including how they privilege some and exclude others
– Institutions need to first value the culture and learning of
these students and shape the institutional environment to
be inviting and inclusive of thee students
Laura Rendon (cont.)
• Recognize that success is the result of
multiple student interactions with different
systems at different times
• Include institutional factors when examining
student success and not just individual student
factors
• Expand definitions of student success to
include measures beyond intellectual/
academic indicators
– Social-leadership skills
– Emotional maturity
– Spiritual and Sense of purpose
Part IV- What Does it All
Mean?
James Hearn
University of Georgia
Peter Ewell
NCHEMS
Jane Wellman
The Delta Project
Jim Hearn
University of Georgia
Challenges to Achieving Student Success
• Difficult to maintain high graduation rates and retention when
have high numbers of students with varying skills and
abilities
• There is no one solution for student success
• Integrative P-16 efforts can be hindered by structural,
procedural, cultural and political differences
• Cannot implement all student success programs, often a
trade off between cost and effectiveness
Areas of Additional Research
• Alternative Measures of Student Success
– Move Beyond Graduation Rates
– Consider value added measures
• Measure what student gains from attending an institution and
• Controls for student’s initial skills and abilities
– Measures need to be cost effective
• Based on available data
• Data that can be obtained without great expense
• How student motivations, aspirations and values shape
success
• Influence of societal structures on student success
• Guidelines for policy implementation
• Institutional financial aid policies
• Commuting and part time students
• Student success for different socioeconomic, ethnic, racial,
cultural and age populations
• Role of Information and Emerging Information Technologies
Peter Ewell
Jane Wellman
Themes from Symposium Discussions
• Act on What We Know
– Use teaching, learning, and institutional practices
which have been shown to work
– Use active and engaging pedagogies, such as
learning communities and collaborative approaches
– Set high and clear expectations for students
– Use proactive early warning and intervention
strategies
– Have mandatory assessment of basic skills and
directed placement of students in need of
developmental work
Intentionality and Alignment
• Align high school exit standards with college readiness
standards
• Align federal, state and institutional policies and practices
• Alignment within institution
• Coordination between academic affairs and student affairs
– Coordinate faculty development and student success efforts across
academic departments
• Establish a public agenda on higher education
• Alignment in research
– Research should be interdisciplinary and work from a problem
based standpoint, instead of a theoretical perspective
– Include stakeholders in defining a research agenda
More Precise Research Methods and
Policy Approaches
• Different definitions of student success
• Contextualized models
• Recognition of the growing complexity of
student progression
• More detail about educational treatments and
experiences
• Research from within particular cultural
perspectives
Action Research
• Make a clear distinction between variables that policy
can affect and conditions that affect student success,
but about which policy can do little
• Focus on implementation questions
– Research on how to best to implement policy
– Research on how institutions make use of data they collect
– Understand what conditions and incentives will induce faculty
to adopt effective teaching and learning practices
• Establish a translation function
– Convert findings of best practice studies into actionable
propositions that practitioners and policymakers can
understand
– Publish results not just in academic journals
For More Information…..
• http://nces.ed.gov/npec/index.asp
• http://nces.ed.gov/npec/symposium.asp
nancy.borkow@ed.gov
jhearn@uga.edu
hlorange@sheeo.org