Use of Multiple Interventions to
Increase Retention in the First
Year
20th International Conference on the First-Year Experience
July 12th, 2007
Kona, Hawaii
Peggy D. Kennedy, Vice President of Academic & Student Development
Margie L. Tomsic, Associate Dean of Assessment and Research
Thomas Matos, Dean of Student Development & Services
Saint Paul College-A Community & Technical College
History of the College
Re-Engineering Student Affairs
Interventions, Strategies & Findings
History of Saint Paul College
•
1910: Established as a Vocational School for Boys (TVI)
•
1983: Initial Accreditation
•
2002: Became a comprehensive community & technical
college (Saint Paul College)
•
2003: Accredited by Higher Learning Commission of the
North Central Accreditation of Colleges and Universities
through 2013
•
2005: Accepted into Academic Quality Improvement Program
(AQIP)
•
Holds program-specific accreditation in healthcare areas,
NATEF
Saint Paul College Profile
• Enrollment: 9,459 students; 7,645 credits; 3,616
full-time students
• Faculty: 115 fulltime; 10 part-time; 220 adjunct
• Student/Faculty Ratio: 17 to 1
• Annual Tuition: $4,318 (FY08)
• Graduate placement rate: 90—100%
• Students of color: 45% (FY07)
• 41 Associate Degrees, 69 diploma & certificate
programs
Popular Programs
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Nursing
Construction Electricity
Geomatics (Land Surveying)
Liberal Arts & Sciences
Sign Language Interpreter/Transliterator
Business & Computers
Massage Therapy
Culinary Arts
New Programs
• Polysomnography
• Personal Trainer
• Biomedical Engineering Technician
• Web 2.0 (Second Life)
• Pipe Welding
Quest for Excellence
• Re-engineering of Student Services
• Integration of Academic & Student Affairs (partners
in college learning process)
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Award
2007
Re-Engineering Process
• Complete reorganization of job functions to meet
student needs
• Increased use of technology to improve student
access
• Focused resource allocation to enhance student
learning
Re-Engineering Process
• More accurate data to manage enrollment and
tuition payments
• Reduced wait time to register
• Evaluation component adaptable to other
institutions
Evaluation/Comparisons at Saint Paul
College, 2000 vs. 2007
Outcome
2000
2007
Full Year Equivalent
(FYE)
2,555
3,276
$0
$500,000
1—2 Hours
1—2 Minutes
0
2,635
Reallocation
Dollars/Dollar Savings
Student Wait Time
FYE Web
Registrations
Additional Interventions and
Strategies
• Promotion of online registration process
• WriteNow -- Electronic Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) system
• ImageNow -- Document Imaging System—better
sharing of records
• EARS -- Early Alert Referral System, followed by
Intrusive Advising
• Additional Strategies Through Grants
What is the Early Alert
Referral System (EARS)?
• EARS is an online database system designed to
assist Saint Paul College faculty and retention
coordinators in identifying and assisting students
facing academic difficulty.
• The EARS database maintains written
documentation of the steps taken by both the faculty
and retention staff to retain at- risk Saint Paul
College students.
Why Use the Early Alert
Referral System (EARS) ?
• EARS is used to report students who exhibit a
variety of academic risk factors. Faculty report
students to EARS after attempting to rectify with
the student discrepancies between perceived and
actual performance.
Why Use the Early Alert Referral System
(EARS) ?
Faculty report students who have demonstrated a problem
in one or more of the following:
• Have stopped attending or have sporadic attendance
without notifying the instructor prior to absences
• Have failed to complete coursework or are not
satisfactorily completing coursework
• Have completed tests or quizzes at an unsatisfactory
level
• Have behavioral issues that disrupt the class
• Have indicated to their instructor that they have health
issues or concerns that effects their learning
Why Use the Early Alert
Referral System (EARS) ?
• Once a problem has been identified, faculty may further
elaborate by selecting an area of weakness to assist the
retention coordinators in determining an appropriate
course of action for the individual student.
• If the pull down menu options do not satisfactorily
encompass the issues with the student, a faculty member
may select the Other option, and provide case specific
documentation in the comments field provided.
How Do I Complete an Early Alert
Referral System (EARS) Report ?
Faculty training at a Faculty In-Service.
The EARS reporting page is located on the Saint Paul College Intranet.
To complete an EARS report you must:
•
•
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Log on to the intranet at www.saintpaul.edu.
Click on the Early Alert Referral System (EARS) Form link
located under the Documents Section of the Quick Links Box
Complete the EARS form in its entirety and click submit.
When completing the form please note-In the Recommendations Section: Please indicate the action you
would like the student to take.
For example, “Turn in all missing work by 2.26.07 and contact the
instructor.”
In the Comments Sections: Please document specific actions* to
be taken by the retention specialists:
For example, “Please contact student and ask them to contact
instructor about missing work.”
What Happens After Submitting an Early
Alert Referral System (EARS) Report?
Once the eForm has been completed and
submitted the information is transmitted into
the EARS database.
Every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday the Retention Specilaists download
the data and do the following:
• Send a confirmation email to the submitting faculty.
• Attempt to contact the student and relay the
information concerning their performance and the
steps that need to be taken.
What Happens After Submitting an Early
Alert Referral System (EARS) Report?
The following is the order of action taken in attempting
to contact the student.
• A Retention Specialist will attempt to contact the
student by phone if the number in the College’s
student database is accurate:
– We will discuss with the student actions needed to be
taken and make note of the conversation in the Early
Alert Referral System (EARS) database.
– If the student is not available, but the number is valid
we will leave a message requesting that they contact
the retention office as soon as possible. Due to
FERPA we will not disclose the purpose of the call,
just request a return call.
•
If the phone information in ISRS is not valid
– An email will be sent to the student summarizing the information
submitted by the instructor and requesting that the student
contact the instructor directly.
– An email will also be sent which provides the student directions
for changing their personal contact information online.
– If none of the contact information is valid in ISRS, the instructor
will be notified that no contact could be made.
Once student contact has been made and or attempted the
retention staff will:
Email the submitting faculty an abbreviated copy of their submitted
report along with comments from the Retention Specialist on the
student interaction.
If the student does not follow through on the faculty
recommendation the faculty can contact the Retention
Specialist directly to request follow up.
EARS Usage Data
To Increase Access for the Underserved
• Power of YOU Program
• Hired a retention specialist for Power of YOU
• Hired Power of YOU recruiter
• Increased collaboration with Saint Paul Public
Schools
Applied for and received four grants
•
Enable Math Retention Grant
- $20,000 over 2 years and up to $100,000 in test
materials, training and services
•
IPESL Enable Math Implementation Award
- $99,539 over 1 year to compensate faculty and staff selected to lead this
effort
•
Transitions into the Power of YOU
- $75,000 over one year to include the purchase of Enable
Learning materials for Power of YOU students
•
Saint Paul College, Saint Paul Schools Math Readiness
Initiative
- $10,000 over one year to include the purchase of Enable Learning materials
for High School students
Enablearning
• Received grant in Spring 2006
• Attended Noel-Levitz Conference in July
• Trained faculty and staff in July-Sept.
• Incorporated the Enable Math program into
mathematics courses
• Administered the College Student Inventory to 150
students with feedback reports
• Worked with retention specialists and instructors to
monitor student performance
• Provided training and materials to faculty from the
Saint Paul Schools and Minneapolis Community and
Technical College
• Worked with Noel-Levitz to launch a Retention
Opportunity Analysis
• Continued work on the project through Spring 2007
• Worked with retention specialists and instructors to
monitor student performance
• Summarized achievement and retention data
The Enable Math Retention Initiative
Is Based on Five Principles
1) The key to student success is effective
practice.
•
Homework is the critical
factor in student success
– Correlations from .5 to .7
between the amount of
homework students do on
EnableMath and their course
grade
•
You can’t learn to play golf
by just watching Tiger
Woods
– You have to practice hitting
golf balls
2) Mastery learning can promote student
success
•
“The
more at-risk students come to develop mastery
over previously difficult material, the more positive
they become in their view of what is possible in the
future. This, in turn, leads to heightened likelihood
of future success”
– Tinto (1993)
3) The key to successful teaching is
relevant and timely student information
4) Technology is helpful in instruction
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•
•
•
•
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Interactive
Immediate feedback
Support mastery-based approach
Available anytime/anywhere
Students like it
Instructors can track student process and pinpoint problems
5) Results of student motivational
assessments can assist students in
reaching their goals
Begins with a motivational assessment
of each incoming student (College
Student Inventory)
•
Academic Motivation
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–
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–
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Study habits
Intellectual interests
Verbal confidence
Math and Science confidence
Desire to finish college
Attitude toward educators
• General Coping
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–
–
–
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Sociability
Family emotional support
Opinion tolerance
Career closure
Sense of financial security
Form B
• Receptivity to Support Services
– Academic assistance
– Personal counseling
– Social enrichment
– Career counseling
– Financial guidance
• Background Information on each student, including:
– Senior year GPA
– Time of their decision to enroll
– Parent’s education
– The degree they are seeking
– Hours they intend to work while in college
Information Provided Includes
• A Summary of Academic Motivation:
Measures the student’s willingness to make the sacrifices
needed to achieve academic success.
• Coordinator Report, and includes a stanine score for each
student regarding:
– Dropout proneness
– Predicted academic difficulty
– Educational stress
– Receptivity to institutional help
• Specific Recommendations for Action are
provided for each student who completes the
College Success Inventory.
• These action statements are rated on a scale of
one to ten.
• They are used to encourage steps that the
student can take to accomplish their goals.
The Student Guide: A comprehensive book that provides
students support for the online content – with two-page
spreads for each assignment.
Examples: One-step-at-a-time examples provide students
with “just-in-time” help on every assignment.
Visualized and Interactive Concepts: Visualized
because math is a visual language. Interactive so
students see the patterns.
Immediate feedback: Students receive feedback on every
problem – while tracking their progress.
Adaptive Assignments: Every problem is assigned by
matching difficulty (red bar) with student progress (green
bar).
Mastery: Assignments are complete when a student
reaches mastery. Mastery levels can be set by the faculty.
Progress: Students can track their own progress for
student-centered learning. The green bar charts progress
and the blue bar charts efficiency (% of correct answers)
for every assignment.
Progress: A comprehensive, continuously updated
progress report of class and individual work - providing a full
range of data all the way down to every student’s work on
each problem.
Integrated Gradebook: An online “traditional-style”
Gradebook provides visual up-to-the-minute data.
Tracking students by e-mail: Weekly and on-demand e-mails make it
easy to follow the progress of individual students and the class as a whole.
Results for Fall 2006
Course
#
Students
% A-C
Develop. Math
Enable
82
76%
23%
80%
Non Enable
Developmental
182
68%
32%
78%
Introductory
Algebra Enable
40
77%
22%
88%
Introductory
Algebra Non
Enable
47
53%
47%
74%
Power of YOU
Students
123
All Students
5296
% D, F, W
Mean GPA 2.4
Fall to
Spring %
85.3%
63%
Results for 2006—2007
Course
#
Students
% A-C
% D, F, W
Fall to
Spring %
23%
80%
Develop. Math
Enable
140
Non Enable
Developmental
304
65%
35%
78%
Introductory
Algebra Enable
99
70%
30%
88%
Introductory
Algebra Non
Enable
77
55%
45%
74%
76%
Next Steps
1) Enhance Early Alert Referral System (EARS) online
system to facilitate usage
2) Continue use of Enablearning and College Student
Inventory with increased collaboration in high
schools
3) Monitor student retention efforts
Thank you!
www.saintpaul.edu
Saint Paul College-A Community & Technical College