Andrew K. Koch
Catherine F. Andersen
June 4 and 5, 2012
Copyright, Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, 2012.
The purpose of this event is . . .
 To put Michigan's Community Colleges’ approach(es)
to new student success in a broader national context
of relevant theory, research, and best practice.
 To undertake a thoughtful analysis of the
effectiveness of the beginning college experience at
Michigan's Community Colleges.
 To develop a faculty call to action in supporting firstyear student success.
Session Overview
 What We Learned About You
 From Theory to Practice
 The Context
 High Impact Strategies
 The Current Situation – From National Studies
 We Know that Faculty Matter
 What We Know (and Don’t Know) About New Student Programs
 Moving from Tactical to Strategic – Considerations for Faculty
Please complete an index card anonymously.
 You have a strong vision to support Michigan’s 28
community colleges.
 You have goals that stress communities of practice,
professional development, use of data, research and
collaboration.
 You have a strategic plan that outlines specific
strategies for faculty in this plan.
TOTAL CREDIT ENROLLMENT (2010-2011)
Total: 294,960
Enrolled full-time: 39.02%
Enrolled part-time: 60.98%
With an estimated 35 % enrollment increase from Fall
2006:
 STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS (Fall 2010)
 Average age: 26.4
18-24 years old: 52%
25-34 years old: 21.62%
35-49 years old: 16.24%
Over 50 years old: 5.16%
Women: 56.08%
Men: 43.92%
Minorities: 21.97%
White/Non-Hispanic: 62.60%
Black: 15.39%
Hispanic: 2.81%
Asian American: 0.77%
Native American/Pacific Islanders: 0.08%
Non-U.S. citizens: 1.27%
 62% placed in one or more developmental courses:
 36% enrolled in one or more developmental courses
 49% completed ≤ 3 terms in 4 years*
 31% receive Pell Grants
 73% retained fall 2010 to spring 2011
 33% of CC students transfer at least once
*

from 14 ATD schools from 2008-2010
 Question as we begin:
Do the major theories that serve as a
foundation for student success and
retention apply to your students?
Which one(s) are most relevant?
 Institutional fit (a state of being) (Tinto)
 Can the student’s needs be met at the institution?
 Can institutional fit be developed?
 Social and academic integration (learning the culture)
(Tinto with replication)
 Differences in preference by age and life stage
 Campus involvement (student behaviors) (Astin with
replication)
 How important for adults or commuters?
 Engagement in learning (Kuh and others)
 Links affective and cognitive dimensions of
learning
 Is both a means to learning outcomes and an end
in itself
 Commitment and motivation (Tinto and others)
 To the institution
 To completion of a degree
 To a career or life goal
Professional
Communities
Prospective
Students
Entry
Michigan Experience
Semester 1 Semester 2
Major
Personal
Communities
Novice
Professional
Practitioners
Transfer/graduate
Which is most important?
In your opinion, which of these theories
best explains student success and
retention at your institution?
(Or propose your own ideas)
Context
X
Context
High Impact Strategies
 First-Year Seminars
 Common Intellectual
Experiences
 Learning Communities
 Writing-Intensive
Courses
 Collaborative
Assignments and
Projects
High Impact Strategies
 Undergraduate Research
 Diversity/Global
Learning
 Service Learning,
Community-Based
Learning
 Internships
 Capstone Courses and
Projects
Other Practices / Programs
What We Know From
National Studies
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly . . .
High School Graduation Class Sizes
 WICHE
 Decline in Most States
 When There is a Rebound .
..
 Non-College Going
 Low-Income
 First-Generation
First-Year Students / Retention
 Research
 Tinto
 Braxton
 Padilla
 Bean & Eaton
 Astin
 Kuh
Transfer Students
 1/3 of all students
 AA/AS
 Not Quite 40%
 The Norm – Not the Anomaly
 Institution (culture, policy and practice – early
alert)
 Department (pedagogy, expectations)
 Course (triggers -points where students struggle –
curriculum – add SI and modify)
 Instructor Reduce size or pace of assignments -- but not
expectations or standards. If there are large numbers of
failing students allow greater opportunity for success. i.e.
larger assignments with high percentage grades become
several smaller sequential assignments. Are they available?
 Adjusting Students' Expectations
 Calibrating Your Expectations
 Being Approachable
 Getting Students to Office Hours
 Enhancing Large Lectures
 Improving Attendance
 Engaging Students in Meaningful Learning
 Helping Students Manage and Monitor their Learning
 Challenging Talented Students
 Assuring Quality in Teaching
 Maintaining Cohesiveness Across Multi sectional
Courses
 Addressing Academic Integrity Issues
 Helping Students Who are Experiencing Difficulty
Best Practices in Teaching and
Learning in the first-year
 http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/Publicatio
nsArchives/InternalReports/BestPractices1stYears.pdf
1.
Embrace undergraduates & their learning.
2.
Set and maintain high expectations for student
performance.
3.
Clarify what students need to do to succeed.
4.
Use engaging pedagogy for approaches appropriate for
course objectives and students’ abilities and learning
styles.
5.
Build on students’ knowledge, abilities & talents.
6.
Provide meaningful feedback to students.
7.
Weave diversity into the curriculum including outof-class assignments.
8.
Make time for students.
9.
Hold students accountable for taking their share of
the responsibility for their learning.
 What faculty do makes a difference.
 Basic theoretical models are sound but developed
primarily for white, male students
 Question: How well do these models apply to all of today’s
students?
 Research today focuses on program outcomes that can
be easily counted (e.g., retention, grade point average)
 How can we better understand the short-term and longterm learning that does or does not result from common
first-year programs ?
In Summation
 High School Student Graduating Class Sizes Decreasing
 First-Year Students Mobile
 Transfer Students the Norm
 “Atypical” Subpopulations Become the Typical
What We Know (and Don’t Know)
About New Student Programs
First-Year Seminars
 First-Year Seminars


Do credit hours matter?
Is there a perceived difference between required
and elective courses?

Should courses be pass/fail or letter graded?

Do peer leaders have an impact?

Is it a good idea to link seminars into a block or
“learning community”?
First-Year Seminars
 First-year seminars, cont’d.
 Does section size influence effectiveness?
 Does the “type” of instructor make a difference?
 Does impact relate to a particular textbook?
 What’s the bottom line on first-year seminar impact
on learning, academic achievement, and retention?
First-Year Seminars Summary
Seminars that
 Are elective
 Are graded
 Use peer leaders
 Carry sufficient credit hours to achieve objectives
 Are linked into a learning community
Produce better student outcomes!
Learning Communities
 Learning communities –institution-specific
findings
 Impact on retention
 Impact on academic achievement
 Impact on student satisfaction
 Insufficient evidence about impact on student
learning
 Insufficient evidence about impact on faculty and
student leaders
 Need clarity about desired learning outcomes
Academic Advising
 Academic advising
 Strong anecdotal evidence about the influence of
advising, especially intensive/intrusive advising
 Weak statistical evidence
 Lack of clarity about goals for advising – Retention?
Speed of declaring major? Satisfaction? Time to
graduation?
 The inherent research difficulties
 Issues of student expectations of advisors and
experiences
Supplemental Instruction and
Orientation
 Supplemental Instruction
 Strong evidence to support link with retention
 Strong evidence to support link with academic
achievement
 Orientation – a means of early socialization
 Strong (but dated) evidence linking two-day
pre-term orientation with retention
 Research lacking that compares different
modes of pre-term orientation
Early Warning Systems
 Early Warning
 Many models
 Some Local Examples
 Labor Intensive
 Grades – Not Retention
 Analytics
Early Warning (Analytics)
 Learner Analytics (A Form
of Early Warning)
 Big Market – Some Promising Data
 Retention correlation is spotty a
best
 Grades
Financial Aid and Employment
 Financial Aid
 Combining Support with Aid
 Lead Them to Water and Pay Them to
Drink
 MDRC – Performance-Based
Scholarships
 Employment on Campus
 On-Campus Employment
 10-20 Hours a Week
Service Learning / Developmental
Education
 Service Learning
 Strong impact on expected involvement in civic affairs and
improved life skills
 Limited-to-no direct impact on retention
 Developmental Education
 A necessary, but challenging, service on a number of levels
 Impact is mixed on student outcomes
 Do developmental courses prepare students for success in
regular courses?
 How is developmental work best delivered? The ongoing
debate.
Summing Up
 Basic theoretical models are sound but developed
primarily for white, male students
 Question: How well do these models apply to all of
today’s students?
 Research today focuses on program outcomes
that can be easily counted (e.g., retention, grade
point average)
 How can we better understand the short-term and
long-term learning that does or does not result from
common first-year programs ?
Thinking About Your First-Year
Programs
 What are their desired outcomes (apart from
retention)
 What do you know about the degree to
which outcomes are realized?
Moving from Tactical to Strategic
Considerations
Four “Take-Aways”
 Context
 Scale
 Coordination
 A Plan
1. Context
X
2. Scale
 Many Single
Pockets of
Excellence?
 All, Most, or
Some?
 Critical Mass
3. Coordination
 The Benefits of
Coordination
Exponential
Combinations
Explicit role of
faculty
 Downsides to
Coordination?
4. A (The) Plan!
 “Coordinated
Coordination”
 Application of
Evidence to Action
 Do You Have One?
 Do You Need One?
Questions and Discussion
Reporting Out and
Feedback
First-Year Success
Strategies
Group Work
 What are the College’s greatest strengths in
serving beginning students?
 What policies, practices, programs are
“okay” but could use improvement?
 What is not working well and needs to be
changed?
Before the first term of
enrollment
1. Your website: how user-friendly is it for prospective
students?
.
2. Use of social media – Facebook, and/or Twitter, etc.?
3. Summer bridge programs
4. Incentives for early registration
5. Placement testing
6. Focused outreach to high school students
Before the first term of
enrollment
7. “College success” class for high school students
8. Collaborative networks with h.s. faculty to align
competencies
9. Campus visits by prospective students and families
10. Pre-term orientation/welcome week
11. Involvement of upper-level students as orientation
leaders
12. Parents’ or family programs
13. Pre-term advising
Before the first term of
enrollment
14. Admissions process: setting accurate academic
expectations
15. Firm admission/registration dates (late start
options)
16. Encouragement of full-time enrollment
17. Enforcing course pre-requisites
18. Probationary/readmit programs
19. Attention to transfer-bound students
20. What’s missing? (College initiatives not listed)
During the first term of
enrollment
1. First-year seminars (ACA courses)
2. Learning communities
3. Supplemental Instruction
4. Information literacy/library skills
5. Special attention to first-year courses with high
DFWI rates
6. Special focus on math
7. Early alert programs/attendance monitoring
8. On-campus student employment
During the first term of
enrollment
9. Honors programs
10. Learning/study skills centers
11. First-year advising (including for “exploratory”
students)
12. Special programs for underrepresented students
13. TRIO Student Support
14. Undergraduate research
15. Service learning
During the first term of
enrollment
16. Developmental coursework
17. Utilizing upper-level students as mentors, peer leaders,
etc.
18. Opportunities for out-of-class interaction with faculty
19. Encouraging/requiring assistance seeking
20. Creation of student study groups
21. Encouraging joining behaviors (campus activities)
22. Introductory course redesign (especially in terms of
pedagogy)
23. Career counseling/planning
24. What’s missing? (College initiatives not listed)
Discussions, questions, feedback
 Feedback Cards
 Question #1: One thing that I enjoyed today was..
 Questions #2: One thing I would like to change for
tomorrow is ….
 Questions #3 I would recommend the following as one
key focus for a first-year action plan:
Homework
What ideas for new or improved first-year programs,
practices, policies would you like to explore for your
community college?
What ideas for new or improved first-year programs,
practices, policies would you like to explore for your all
community colleges in Michigan?
See you tomorrow!