Many studies have shown that implementation of a mandatory or targeted college success course can improve student persistence, retention, as well as academic achievement in English and Math (2-4). These courses focus on helping students understand college expectations and essential academic information, learn how to appropriately use college technologies, identify campus opportunities and resources, and introducing them to the academic and life skills necessary for student success.
- Check out the student success course created by Renton Technical College to explore what type of content is often included!
- Early outreach programs (into high school or junior high) to develop students' academic competencies.
- Create bridge programs that provide study on campus between high school and college
- Orientation programs to ease the transition to college that contain academic strategies, social support, and information about campus life
- Studies have created predictive modeling, based on student high school GPA, ethnicity, and first-term GPA to pre-emptively identify those at risk for non-retention. Such modeling can be used to target students for effective intervention strategies.
- Providing informal and physical places for socializing to build student sense-of-belonging
- Improve programs aimed at celebrating cultural diversity
- Conduct exit interviews to understand why students may be leaving or what helped them in staying
- Many students struggle to find affordable housing, transportation, childcare, and/or lack food security. Some may be facing mental health challenges. Create a boiler statement for your institution that instructors can insert into their syllabi that directs students to campus resources that could support them, such as a campus food bank, subsidized public transit, on-campus childcare, or campus-affiliated housing.
- Adjust college infrastructure to create a "One-Stop Shop" for students seeking these resources.
- The development of peer advising programs can improve the access of advising resources for students (5). Peer advisors can be partnered with small groups of at-risk students to encourage engagement in service and community learning, diversity/global learning experiences, learning communities, and undergraduate research via weekly or bi-weekly meetings. Peer mentorship can ensure students are appropriately connected to the career center, resources, and support to address different issues.
- Monitor students for early warning signs and enact intrusive counseling/advising
- Create automated alerts for students that align with at-risk indicators to target intervention strategies as can reminders for increased communication and check-ins with these students
- When students are able to connect coursework to their lives, they are more likely to succeed (1). Increase inclusion of DEI-relevant topics into courses.
- Create an accelerated study program to help students complete their degrees as quickly as possible, increasing their likelihood of doing so