Tutoring Center Initiative/Strategic Direction Three
Original goal: The college will create a robust tutoring environment through enhancement in
space/equipment, personnel and even training practices – with a special focus on developmental
students. The college will employ an accredited full-time Tutor Coordinator to oversee the hiring,
coordination, training and evaluation of all tutors. This person would serve as liaison to the classroom
ensuring proper coordination of requirements, techniques and advisements for alignment/integration of
tutoring with class curriculum.
Action: The Tutoring Resource Center (TRC) completed its third year of operation in summer 2012.
While serving numerically fewer students due to declining enrollment, it served an increased percentage
of students (both unique and duplicated attempts). The chart below compares overall usage statistics.
Over three years (summer 2012 academic outcomes pending), 25% of unique developmental students at
North Central State have visited the TRC, comprising 17% of all duplicated developmental attempts. The
college tracks tutoring services according to quarterly frequency thresholds of no use, lower use (<1 one
hour for writing/reading and 2 hours for math) and greater use (>1 hour writing/reading and 2 hours
math). The charts below track frequency of use and success by frequency of use. Through spring 2012,
62% of tutored students (duplicated) had greater use of services and 38% had lower use. The following
charts track use and performance by discipline from fall-spring for each academic year:
Frequency of Math Tutoring
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Frequency of Writing Tutoring
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
AY2010
AY2011
AY2012
AY2010
AY2011
AY2012
No Tutor
86%
79%
80%
No Tutor
88%
84%
81%
< 2 HR
6%
10%
8%
< 1 HR
3%
4%
6%
>= 2 HR
8%
12%
13%
>= 1HR
8%
14%
14%
Summary progress results: The college has tracked success (ABC grade) of students according to the
tutored developmental course, disaggregating by frequency of tutoring. The following charts compare
success in developmental math and writing through the first three years of the grant (fall-spring given
unfinalized summer 2012).
Writing Success by Tutor Frequency
Dev Math Success by Tutor Frequency
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
AY2010
AY2011
AY2012
AY2010
AY2011
AY2012
No Tutor
58%
58%
62%
No Tutor
63%
64%
64%
< 2 HR
51%
62%
75%
< 1 HR
92%
65%
79%
> = 2 HR
68%
60%
64%
>= 1HR
70%
64%
77%
In both disciplines, the data show that students who receive tutoring succeed at higher rates than
students with no tutoring regardless of frequency. However, frequency of tutoring does not correlate
with success, as the most successful students were those with less than two hours of quarterly tutoring.
An analysis of outcomes by class shows tutoring has the greatest impact at the second developmental
math level. Another key outcome measurement is correlation of tutoring to retention:
AtD Cohort Fall-Winter Retention by Tutoring
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
AtD Cohort Fall-Fall Retention by Tutoring
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2009
2010
2011
2009
2010
2011
All Dev
78%
72%
75%
All Dev
46%
42%
42%
No Tutor
76%
71%
72%
No Tutor
37%
31%
30%
Any Frequency
87%
79%
81%
Any Frequency
48%
49%
51%
>= Threshold
69%
83%
73%
>= Threshold
51%
50%
49%
The data reflects outcomes for cohort students referred developmental, breaking them out by students
who received no tutoring, tutoring of any frequency, and those with at least one record of greater
frequency use. The first chart represents student outcomes in the first fall term, while the second chart
represents student outcomes in the first year (fall-spring, with tutored students receiving service at least
one term). In every single instance, students who received any frequency of tutored achieved higher
retention rates than their peers with no tutoring, and the developmental cohort as a whole. Those
receiving greater amounts of tutoring, who may reflect greater academic need, outperform the
developmental cohort as a whole in fall-to-fall. Further, fall-to-fall retention of tutored students is
growing while the developmental cohort has stagnated and developmental no tutoring is falling. PostDEI Plans: The college is sustaining the TRC beyond DEI through increased institutional investment as
well as several supplemental state, federal and private grants. Moreover, the TRC is embedding more
tutors into the classroom. In fall 2012, tutors will align with classes representing six academic disciplines.