Maybe because it's the work I'm involved in and maybe because the article featured my previous boss but I found the article: Higher Education Confronts its Own Achievement Gap relevant, important and likely under discussed. I believe that we all believe student success and retention is important - and I also believe that in our daily quest to survive the myriad of student issues, administrator requests, technology issues and assessment work, to name a few, we don't give as much intentional thought to increasing the number of students who persist in and ultimately complete their degrees.
The issue is important and relevant because it is now begining to be given attention related to accountability measures that will demand institutions pay closer attention. Two weeks ago the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with the National Journal hosted a summit in which our own Dr. Matt Gianneschi, Deputy Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, was a panelist discussing some of the strategies Colorado is exploring to increase the success of students in completing their degrees.
The summit highlighted that 75% of students enrolled in institutions of higher education are non-traditional students and that many who start their degree never finish it. Nothing we don't already know to be true. The national and state conversation is changing rapidly - for many of us it has already changed - to demand that institutions begin focusing on success and not simply access. Yet, as Dr. Gianneschi made clear the same things we've done for decades are not working and we shouldn't expect that they will magically begin to work because the conversation has shifted.
In Colorado this means going after national grants that will help address significant areas of need. Colorado has recently won a grant from Complete College America to address remedial education. The grant will allow the state to implement better data tracking systems and curricular cohort models that support student success.
Another measure that Colorado is working towards is performance funding focused on student persistence and completion. The goal, Gianneschi argued, should be to "incent retention not just enrollment." While we are still a little ways off, due to current budget realities, performance funding is coming. Retention is an incredibly complex issue for institutions to grapple with and its not as simple as "programming" our way to better results. The system must undergo wholesale changes if we are going to create an environment where more students can be successful. All of us, faculty, staff and administrators must start more clearly articulating the ways in which we are working to help students succeed.
I would agree that there are changes to be made and one institutions should consider is providing more support for those 75% that are non-traditional students.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that institutions have such a focus on 1st year students and a limited focus on non-traditional students when we have such statistics available. In my role, my focus is on transitioning and working with 1st and 2nd years but if you are a non-traditional I am not sending you information to help you succeed. Why is that? Why is the focus solely on one population when we know that we several populations to serve at our institutions.
In addition, the article I would have to say is correct - programming will not equate better results. We need people and time to work with our students to assist them in succeeding. I wonder with the continuous budgets cuts are we really setting ourselves up for failure to some extent.
I have kind of a radical idea, one that would never happened. What if we did a grand experiment - we got rid of all student services for traditional and non-traditional students at one institution for like 4 years, and then compared the results of student learning before and after. I'd like to think it will provide faculty with an ah-ha "hey these folks are super great!" Moreover, maybe it will show us what students really need, and what they could really figure out on their own. Then, we could see what resources we can reallocate to non-traditional students.
ReplyDeleteI know it will never happen, but I do think we have a ton of resources for our traditional students and the rest of the students are left with little help. If we looked at the numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if traditional students have a support staff/administrator for every 6 students or so. I bet non-traditional students are closer to 100 students per staff member!