CONSULTANCY INVOLVING BOTH DATA ANALYSIS AND STAFF TRAINING
BUSINESS CASE
EAB STUDENT SUCCESS COLLABORATIVE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................... 2
1. Problem Definition ............................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft) ..................................................... 4
3. Organizational Impact ........................................................................................................................................ 5
4. Benefits .............................................................................................................................................................. 8
5. Strategic Alignment ............................................................................................................................................ 9
6. Cost .................................................................................................................................................................... 9
7. Alternatives (add lines as necessary) ................................................................................................................ 10
8. Timing / Schedule (add lines as necessary) ....................................................................................................... 10
9. Technology Migration/Resource Identification ................................................................................................ 11
10. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning .............................................................................. 11
11. References ..................................................................................................................................................... 12
12. Recommendation ........................................................................................................................................... 12
13. Approvals ....................................................................................................................................................... 12
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Recognizing that enrollment and retention of students is of paramount importance for Central
Washington University to thrive in a difficult financial climate, Student Success seeks approval to engage
with the Education Advisory Board (EAB) as a member in their Student Success Collaborative (SSC). The
Education Advisory Board is a national leader, providing best practice research, consulting and
performance technologies in the areas of academic affairs, business affairs and student affairs. EAB
provides sophisticated analytics and solutions that are geared toward solving higher education’s most
difficult challenges.
•
The Provost has identified financial support for our partnership with EAB’s Student Success
Collaborative beginning in this fiscal year and extending for a five year term (2015-2019).
•
The Student Success Collaborative provides data analytics, predictive modeling and
benchmarking that mines university data to provide essential analysis of course-level data o To
assist advisors and faculty in appropriately advising students according to the student’s proven
aptitude and abilities
o To allow students to achieve personal satisfaction with their academic work by 
Being advised into courses and fields in which they have the greatest possibility of
academic success and


Avoiding taking irrelevant or unnecessary courses (quicker time-to-degree and
most affordable cost of degree)
Graduate as expeditiously as possible.
•
SSC also provides substantial professional support to deans and executives with critical
benchmarking and data analysis to achieve retention and graduation goals, and provides quality
networking with the EAB staff, other university personnel and participation at national
conferences.
•
Our Return on Investment (ROI) is expected to be revenue neutral at the minimum, and is very
likely to be substantially revenue positive. We need only retain 7.5 additional students in the
first year and 5.2 students in subsequent years to have the program be revenue neutral. Our
actual retention gains will likely be significantly higher than the minimums for revenue neutrality.
•
The SSC currently works with approximately 110 other institutions around the nation and can
document retention, time-to-degree, and graduation gains at those institutions. For example o
The University of Florida, saw six year graduation rate increase of 8% (2000-2004) after
participating in the Student Success Collaborative
o Florida State gained 13% in their six year graduation rate (2000-2008), and a decrease
of 20% in students who had accrued more than 120 credits prior to degree completion
(2000-2011).
In FY 2015 Central Washington University invested over $800,000 in two retention-related
initiatives, Advising and Sophomore Year Experience. The Student Success Collaborative would dovetail
beautifully with the new initiatives, providing advisors with a rich new source of information regarding
students that will help them to advise most effectively. The Sophomore Year Experience program can
use the data provided by the SSC to assure that students are declared as early as possible and are feeling
successful and engaged with their academic program and the university writ large.
The Student Success Collaborative will be an essential tool in increasing Central Washington
University’s retention and graduation rates, and reducing students’ time to degree and unnecessary
courses. With State funding reductions and increasing pressure on the university to prove its value in
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retention and graduation rates, it is imperative that we use all tools in our reach to best serve our
students and elevate our standing in the eyes of our funding agencies. The Student Success Collaborative
is an essential tool that can make a very positive difference for the university and our students.
Sponsoring Department(s):
Student Success (Academic and Student Life)
Date of Business Case Preparation:
October 9, 2014
Contact Person Name/Phone: Sarah L. Swager, Dean of Student Success
New Product/Service
If there is a draft or sample contract, please provide a copy.
(See attached Letter of Agreement dated October 7, 2014)
Renewal of Existing Product/Service – if checked, include background information.
If there is a site license agreement, existing contract or new contract draft, please provide a
copy.
1. Problem Definition
Central Washington University’s future depends on robust enrollment and retention of
students. The following factors have negatively affected CWU’s enrollment, and have
challenged our financial future in recent years:
 Multiple rounds of budget cuts due to State support reductions

Tuition setting authority has not been granted to CWU

Declining numbers of college-aged population in the state

Flagship competitors (UW and WSU) are expanding their reach and enrolling
students who might previously considered CWU and
Community colleges in the state are beginning to offer bachelor’s degrees, in direct
competition with CWU, and at a lower cost.

While CWU’s first to second year retention and our 6 year graduation rate are near the mean
for regional state-supported institutions, we continue to lose far too many students before
they complete their degrees, and every student who leaves without a degree is detrimental
to both the student’s future and to the university. Increasingly state lawmakers consider
enrollment and completion rates as measures of institutional worth, and funding decisions
are being made on retention rates as proxy for institutional investment worthiness. It cannot
be overstated that the financial future of Central Washington University depends on the
successful enrollment, retention and graduation students in increasing numbers. We are
facing competition from not only other public state institutions, but privates, community
colleges, for profit entities, and competency based institutions.
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2. Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft)
CWU has in place a number of student support initiatives aimed at improving our student
retention and graduation rates. Programs that are currently in place and being used to flag
students who may be at risk include Academic Early Alert (PeopleSoft), and MAPWorks.
Additionally our First Year Experience, Sophomore Year Experience, and a plethora of smaller
programs are aimed at engaging students at the university and helping them to remain
enrolled. For decades, respected national studies on student enrollment patterns have
touted “student engagement” as a significant factor in student satisfaction and retention at
colleges and universities. Central has, for many years, invested boldly in staff and programs
aimed at bolstering opportunities for student involvement (sometimes called “High Impact
Practices”) both on and off campus. Programs such as Athletics, study abroad, internships,
Living/Learning communities, student clubs and organizations, volunteer service, recreation,
First Year Experience, Student Research and Residence Life (to name a few) have developed
their programs with a keen eye to engaging students fully in the university experience.
In 2014-15 CWU launched two important initiatives that are directly related to improving the
student experience and student retention: Advising and Sophomore Year Experience.
 Advising Initiative (funded beginning 2014-15)
The Advising Initiative involved hiring seven new academic advisors to serve students
both pre-and post- major declaration. The advisors serving upper division (declared
majors) students will work closely with faculty mentors to assure that students have
excellent advice both in selecting their courses, but also in advancing their plans for
careers. The advisors in the lower division will help to guide students toward major
declaration as quickly as possible to get the student engaged with their academic
home, and will provide intensive advising (as needed) to students who may be
struggling.
 Sophomore Year Experience (funded beginning 2014-15)
National research studies have identified the sophomore year as one of particular
attrition peril for students, particularly those who are not declared and who are not
engaged in meaningful ways on campus. Our new Sophomore Year Experience
program is aimed at providing sophomore students with meaningful outlets for
engagement, opportunities to interact with students, staff and faculty through
structured (and enjoyable) experiences. Research also shows that students who
reside in on campus housing are statistically more likely to remain enrolled. Using
those research studies as our guide, we are also piloting a new project in 2015-16
that will provide $1000 housing waivers to sophomore students who choose to
remain in campus housing.
While the above assist with addressing our problem, it is not enough. We believe that the
EAB Student Success Collaborative would provide another essential tool to allow for the
success of the above 2 initiatives.
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3. Organizational Impact
We seek endorsement to contract with Educational Advisory Board (EAB) through their
nationally recognized program called the “Student Success Collaborative” to provide
sophisticated analysis of our course and grade data to be used by our advisors, faculty and
deans. The Student Success Collaborative is an innovative predictive modeling platform that
mines our specific university data to provide us with actionable insights, identifying systemic
and individual retention risk factors and illuminating what steps can be taken to improve
graduation rates. EAB has a very strong track record of quality, and serves over 1100 colleges
and universities around the world with their innovative research, software services,
consulting and leadership development programs. Over 110 universities around the country
currently contract with EAB and participate in the Student Success Collaborative.
Two examples of the Student Success Collaborative’s efficacy:
•
The University of Florida’s six year graduation rate increased from 69% in 2000 to
78% in 2004 (after engaging with the Student Success Collaborative in 2001),
•
Florida State University’s six year graduation rate improved from 68% in 2000 to 75%
in 2006 after participation with the Student Success Collaborative.
Testament to the success of the Student Success Collaborative helping universities with “time
and credits to degree,” Florida State University also reports that the number of enrolled
students with 120 semester credits or more dropped from 30.2% in 2000 to 10.2% in 2011.
The Student Success Collaborative serves various populations:
Cabinet and Deans: Identifies areas of risk within individual colleges, majors and specific
populations, and provides course level insight to assist with planning in an RCM
environment,
Advisors: Supports data-driven advising and enables proactive, informed interventions
with students,
Students: Delivers insights into student ability/aptitude for majors, courses and careers
tailored to specific students.
CWU does not currently have the staff resources available to complete the type of analysis
that the Student Success Collaborative can offer. The Provost and VP for Finance attended a
recent leadership conference at which the Student Success Collaborative was featured. Both
the Provost and VP were very impressed with the power and success of the program and
urged Student Success to review the program. Following that conference, the Provost shared
the Student Success Collaborative with Cabinet and with the Provost’s Council (*including the
deans).
On October 1, 2014 leaders from Organizational Effectiveness and Student Success reviewed
the Student Success Collaborative both on paper and via web conference, and were likewise
very impressed with its power and efficacy. We considered whether an in-house program
might be developed that could provide the type of analysis EAB provides, and determined
that if we were to attempt to provide the sophisticated analysis done by EAB it would likely
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take 4-5 years, and would require significant increase in expenditure on additional analytics
personnel.
The program’s goals include benefitting students in reducing time and credits to degree, and
increasing the likelihood that students select majors both quickly and successfully. We fully
expect to see an increase in the percentage of students who complete degrees in 4, 5 and 6
years, as well as a reduction in credits accrued (an indicator of efficient academic progress).
Advisors will use the information to provide guidance to students regarding what majors and
programs fall within their area of aptitude and interest, and referring students to faculty and
others in the major department who are able to serve as mentors and support personnel for
the student once those areas of interest are identified.
The contributors to this business case include staff from Organizational Effectiveness,
Student Success and the Provost’s Office. In order to participate in the Student Success
Collaborative, staff from Organizational Effectiveness will need to provide access to our
course and demographic data through the data warehouse. The Student Success
Collaborative will be responsible for the following tasks:
Orientation, Training and Support
An assigned team of EAB employees, including a dedicated consultant and business analyst
and plays a key role in the project planning and end-user training.
•
•
•
•
•
Configure system alerts to university specifications
Develop plan for system roll-out and end-user training
Load data and validate sensitivity of system flags and alerts
Lead training of authorized users
Offer additional support, including initial opportunity assessment.
Development of Academic Milestones
The dedicated consultant and business analyst from EAB will help CWU develop specific
milestones for colleges and majors. The EAB team will play a lead role in project planning,
facilitating meetings, providing templates and tools including:
•
•
Academic Milestones for each major
Plan for rolling out academic milestones to faculty and students
Web-Based Student Tracking System for Advisors
EAB will provide a web-based system that improves academic advisor effectiveness by
identifying students “off path” for timely degree completion, and helping advisors to more
efficiently manage their outreach.
•
•
•
Automatically identifying at risk students based on key progress indicators
Assisting advisors with outreach, including use of student alerts
Displaying academic success risk and suggesting alternative majors for students who
seek a change
•
Providing 360 degree student view of student record
Web-Based Dashboard for Academic Administrators
•
•
Aggregate view of academic risk
Track degree progress by major or college
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•
Surface potential systemic roadblocks to successful degree completion
Best Practice Sharing and Member Networking
EAB Student Success Collaborative will also include access to services to encourage
networking across the cohort and sharing information about how member institutions
leverage membership to drive increased student retention and graduation success:
•
•
•
Case Studies profiling practice successes
Research briefs on best practices
User group conference calls and annual meetings
System Conversions, Upgrades and Other Changes
The membership fees for the Student Success Collaborative are based on a student
enrollment of 10,423, and use of the University’s current Student Information System
configuration. EAB will work with us to accommodate data feeds from anticipated new
source systems during the first year of membership. (We will be asked to provide any
anticipated changes to EAB in writing within 60 days of signing the Letter of Agreement.) For
system conversions, upgrades and or material modifications that require reprocessing,
remapping and revalidation of data, a one-time re-implementation fee will be assessed based
on EAB’s preferred hourly rate of $175/hour.
Data Requirements
CWU will be responsible for assisting EAB’s development team in developing and transmitting
a set of data files to the EAB secure data center. This proposal assumes that data from
Central Information Systems (Data Warehouse) will be extracted and transmitted. Historical
(up to 10 years) and current data is expected to be provided.
Authorized Users
EAB will provide access to a limited number of authorized users designated by CWU that is
equal to the total number of academic advisors and administrators with oversight for the
colleges that are included in the Student Success Collaborative. The information security
protocols for the Student Success Collaborative are outlined in Appendix C: Application and
Information Security Overview.
Stakeholders
As mentioned above, the Stakeholders for this project include the entire leadership of the
University, including the Cabinet, Deans, Associate Deans and Department Chairs, faculty and
all staff who are in positions to provide advice to students including academic advisors,
program managers and career services staff. The primary users of the program on a daytoday basis will be academic advisors, associate deans and deans.
Potential Partners/Primary Users
The primary users of this product will be academic advisors, associate deans, and deans.
Information will be aggregated from the product to provide updates to the cabinet and
others, as needed. Partners in the use of this product will include all those indicated above
as well as other national EAB Student Success Collaborative participants.
RFP Requirements Contributors (add lines as necessary) – This section may or may not be
required (No RFP is required per Stuart Thompson) This is a membership to a service.
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Department
Name
4. Benefits
Retention and Graduation Rate improvements
CWU anticipates benefits from participation in the EAB Student Success Collaborative to
include increases of at least 7% in our 6 year graduation rate and similar improvements in
time-to-degree, resulting in higher revenues and greater educational benefits to students
(See appendix A “The Student Success Collaborative: An End-to-End Solution for Elevating
Degree Completion,” page 8, for the results reported by University of Florida and Florida
State University after adopting the Student Success Collaborative). The program will also
position us to provide greater assurances to students and parents that their educational
investment at CWU is a very desirable investment and can be easily differentiated in value
from other lower-cost options.
Higher retention and graduation rates also serve as a testament to CWU’s dedication to
improving the educational attainment of the Washington State workforce. The Student
Success Collaborative also can help us serve our minority, first generation, and underserved
populations with advising that is tailored specifically to their needs and interests, a shorter
time to degree clock, and fewer unnecessary credits.
In short, the Student Success Collaborative program is desirable from a student retention and
completion perspective, and can improve both our institutional reputation and financial
standing by bolstering our published retention and graduation rates. As state funding
sources are increasingly looking to graduation rates as indicators of institutional value, this
program can help us raise our profile in the funding pot and improve state investment in
CWU.
Precision in Advising and Shorter Time-to-Degree
With the addition of professional advisors in the colleges, the university has made a
significant investment in advising and mentoring our students. The Student Success
Collaborative is a significant and powerful tool that can be deployed within our existing
advising program to assure the most efficacious advising sessions and accurate student
course and major placements for students. The use of this tool will make it possible for our
advisors to steer students more quickly to appropriate courses and majors and will
significantly reduce the number of courses students may take that are not useful in their
identified program of study.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The Student Success Collaborative has a significant record of success through investment
return at other institutions (See Appendix A, page 8 the information about University of
Florida and Florida State University indicated above). Considering CWU’s current costs, the
retention of each student represents an average of $18,000 in revenue for the University. In
order for this program to be revenue neutral, we would only need to retain an additional 7.5
students in the first year, and then only five additional students annually after that. Our
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expectation is that our results would be much higher than the minimum threshold and the
program should be revenue positive for the university.
5. Strategic Alignment
The Student Success Collaborative directly supports the Strategic Plan in the areas
indicated below:
1 - Teaching and Learning: Student success is the highest priority of the university, and
achievement of programmatic student learning outcomes is the prime measure of that
priority. CWU therefore works to provide its students with accessible, diverse, personalized,
distinctive, and rigorous curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs.
Objective 1.1: Enhance student success by continually improving the curricular, co-curricular,
and extracurricular programs.
Outcome 1.1.1: Students will achieve programmatic learning outcomes.

Indicator 1.1.1.1: Student performance data and outcomes achievement
Outcome 1.1.2: Students will persist to graduation with increased efficiency and rate.

Indicator 1.1.2.1: Freshman-to-sophomore persistence rates 
Indicator 1.1.2.2: Graduation rates.

Indicator 1.1.3.4: Student participation in internships, teaching assistantships, and
research assistantships
Outcome 1.1.4: Student engagement in high quality co-curricular and extracurricular
offerings.
Objective 1.2: Enhance the effectiveness of student support services.
Outcome 1.2.1: Increase student use and impact of relevant and effective support services.
2. Inclusiveness and Diversity: CWU is committed to providing all faculty, staff, and students
a diverse working and learning environment built on principles of respect, support and
encouragement as a way to achieve individual and collaborative excellence.
Indicator 2.2.3.1: Recruitment, retention, and graduation
Indicator 2.2.3.2: Student satisfaction studies conducted by the Dean of Student Success.
Outcome 2.2.4: Increase the number of international students by active recruitment and
retention programs.
Indicator 2.2.4.1: Recruitment, retention, and graduation results
Indicator 2.2.4.2: Student satisfaction studies as reported by the Dean of Student Success.
6. Cost
•
Source of Funding and Description of the Source of Funding.
The Provost has identified resources to support this initiative over the next five years.
Please see the Letter of Agreement (attached) for detail. CWU is receiving a deeply
discounted financial agreement as a result of our long-standing participation with the
EAB group in other products. In addition, EAB will begin the project immediately,
adding additional three months to the work without additional charge. 11733900
(60% or up to 90K) and 32487000 (40% up to 60K)
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•
Cost Breakdown
Project Initiation Fee
$40,000
Annual Services Fee (yr 1) $95,000 + $7,500
Annual Services Fee (yr 2) $95,000 + $7,500
Annual Services Fee (yr 3) $95,000 + $7,500 Annual
Services Fee (yr 4) $95,000 + $7,500
Annual Services Fee (yr 5) $95,000 + $7,500
Total Five Year Expenditure: $515,000 + 37,500 = 552,500 (committed by the
Provost)
*$7,500 per membership year to offset travel and other similar administrative expenses.
7. Alternatives (add lines as necessary)
Alternative
Reasons For Not Selecting Alternative
Develop a similar product in house.
It is the assumption that Organizational
Effectiveness may not be able to develop a
comparable product in the proposed
timeframe.
Do nothing.
We cannot afford to simply wish and hope
that our retention and graduation rates will
improve. We must do everything in our
power to find ways to increase the likelihood
of increasing them.
8. Timing / Schedule (add lines as necessary)
Task
Target Date
Sign agreement and return to EAB
October 24, 2014
Term of EAB Student Success Collaborative begins
December 31,
2014
EAB service will continue for five calendar years from date of start
Est. Dec. 31, 2019
Training Schedule to be provided by EAB
Est. Jan. 30, 2015
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EAB has provided a Technical Implementation Overview document (see attached, Appendix
B) that outlines the key roles/responsibilities, timeline and workflow, and CWU resource
requirements. Please see, particularly, the Member Technical Resource Requirements (page
6 of the document) to see EAB’s estimates of how much time/types of staff will need to
commit to launching the Student Success Collaborative. The SSC is cloud-based and is
developed with anticipation of working with Central Information Solutions (Data Warehouse)
assuring quick and smooth data transfer. Shibboleth will be a long term goal but with the
initial quick start implementation it is not required. We would like to scope this functionality
after the first year.
EAB will provide a rapid implementation as a bonus if CWU signs the agreement by October
24th. Normal project implementation period is generally over 8 months. Note the screen
shot for the technical implementation is for the 8 month timeframe.
9. Technology Migration/Resource Identification
Resource
Requirements
Timeframe
Organizational Effectiveness &
Student Success
None
Personnel
Equipment
Facilities
None
Estimates below. The actual hours need to be scoped prior to project starting.
Resource
Project
Manager
OE Rep
Jan
Feb
4
2
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
2
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
10
5
40
15
Total Hours
10. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning
This proposal is for a contract service that will have a five year term, concluding December
31, 2019. Assessments regarding the efficacy of the program will be completed each year. If,
at the end of the fifth year, the University makes the decision to decommission the program,
EAB will promptly cease all services to CWU, although CWU will be entitled to use any EAB
materials provided to CWU prior to the termination of the agreement. Advisors will be
informed that the Student Success Collaborative information is no longer available, and they
will simply advise students using other tools at their disposal at the time.
EAB or CWU may terminate the contract prior to the conclusion of the five year contract
upon written notice to the other party if the other party a) fails to perform any material
obligation required of it under the official Agreement, and such failure is not cured within 60
days of receipt of such failure, b) bankruptcy or insolvency of one of the parties. (see
“Standard Terms of Membership” document attached).
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11. References
Please see attachment A, Pages 2-3 for a list of members and service offerings by EAB.
University of Washington and Western Washington University use this service.
12. Recommendation
I recommend that CWU enter into a five year agreement with Education Advisory Board to
participate as a member in the Student Success Collaborative. As noted above, the Provost
has set aside funding from her budget to support this endeavor.
With retention and completion rates for students as increasingly prominent determinants for
state support, it is essential for CWU to use all means possible to assure that our rates are
shifted upward. We also feel an obligation to our students to assure that they have the
quickest path to a successful academic career, and are advised using the most state-of-theart
tools. Other member institutions with the Student Success Collaborative have seen
significant improvement in their retention, time-to-degree and graduation rates, and we feel
certain that the same will be true at CWU.
13. Approvals
The following actions have been taken by the appropriate Sub-Council (ATAC or
NonAcademic Sub-Council) and Enterprise Information System Committee (EISC):
Date
Action
By
10/20/2014
Not approved at this time. OE does
EISC
some of this now. Need for this is to be
evaluated.
Upon secured funding and approval by the Enterprise Information System Committee (EISC),
Enterprise Facilities Committee, or one of the two Sub-Councils (Academic or Non-Academic),
CWU procurement policies and procedures should be used to initiate a purchase. Please
contact the Purchasing office at x1001 with any questions regarding the procurement process.
If you have any questions, please contact Ginger McIntosh 963-1466, Sue Noce 963-2927 or Tina
Short 963-2910.
ATTACHMENTS:
A. “The Student Success Collaborative: An End-to-End Solution to Elevating Degree
Completion”
B. “Technical Implementation Overview”
C. “Application and Information Security Overview”
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