Ruffalo Noel Levitz Blog: Higher Education Enrollment, Student Retention, and Student Success

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How to increase retention and completion with a proven early-alert “trouble spotter” [Infographic]

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When new students enter your institution, what if you quickly flagged their support needs using a 20-minute online assessment that captured key noncognitive indicators for retention and completion? What could you do differently? See highlights from RNL’s 2017 National Freshman Motivation to Complete College Report:

 

Increase retention and completion: National data for new freshmen

More than 400 colleges and universities use the 100-item RNL College Student Inventory to drive their early identification and early intervention strategies so they can increase retention and completion. This proven, early-alert assessment quickly spots trouble—and identifies each student’s strengths—much earlier than most programs that are designed to flag at-risk students and sound off early alerts.

Example—how it works—a first-year named Sarah (not her real name)

With a 3.4 GPA in high school, first-year student Sarah didn’t appear to be at risk, but even before her classes began, Sarah’s advisor and student services team were alerted to a number of her motivational risks immediately following orientation when Sarah completed the RNL College Student Inventory, part of RNL Student Success.

Sarah’s top 3 requests (of 25 possible)
I would like to talk with a counselor about my general attitude toward school.
I would like some training to improve my reading skills.
I would like some help selecting an educational plan that will prepare me to get a good job.

In response, Sarah’s institution took appropriate steps to intervene to keep her on track to graduation.

Learn how to better serve each individual adult learner, traditional-age learner, and other groups

Using 20-minute assessments, your advisors and student services teams will be equipped to:

  • Move beyond mid-term appraisals and exit interviews.
  • Understand how to provide better, more individualized service from day one that connects with each incoming learner.
  • Learn what motivates each individual student and which services they are most receptive to.

Download a sample survey today

See a sample of the College Student Inventory (CSI) and learn how to improve your students’ success, increase retention, and raise graduation rates by utilizing the CSI.

Questions? Request a personal consultation to discuss your early-alert and intervention strategy with an expert from Ruffalo Noel Levitz.

 

How 3 campuses incrementally reached student retention rates of 80 to 90 percent

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The fall term has now begun—is your institution doing anything differently this year to increase your student retention rates and help more students succeed? As classes begin, take a minute to compare the effectiveness of your existing student success programs and services with those of other institutions. While there is comfort and success in “the way we’ve always done it,” there may also be room to grow and become even one percent better.

Three award-winning programs for college student success

Three institutions from across the country received Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards at the 2017 National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention, convened by Ruffalo Noel Levitz from July 26-28 in Denver, Colorado. These winning programs were all unique and tailored by student type, institution type, and available resources, and all of these programs pulled together data from multiple sources to anticipate students’ needs.

  • University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida): The university has a Student Success Case Management program to identify and serve at-risk students. This individualized and data-informed approach has helped USF raise student retention rates to 90 percent for the 2015 cohort and is on track to surpass the 70 percent six-year graduation rate later in 2017, which will unlock up to $15 million in performance-based funding. The individualization of the Student Success Case Management program is considered core to achieving this goal and broke a three-year performance plateau.
  • Walsh University (North Canton, Ohio): Walsh University employs a campuswide, student-centered program to connect students to key academic resources and social supports to ensure student success. The holistic, intentional approach relies on a collaborative culture across campus and has resulted in an overall student retention rate of 83 percent.
  • Southeast Technical Institute (Sioux Falls, South Dakota): Southeast Technical has developed a retention process called Cares to capture data about student needs and meet those needs directly via empowered employees or referral to specific retention programs. Outcomes include 84 percent persistence for the new student Seminar Course, 92 percent persistence for students meeting the Attendance Challenge, and 96 percent persistence for the JumpStart program.

What do these campuses have in common? They are all using student-specific, data-driven, individualized interventions and are empowering every department to engage with students and intervene personally, which includes a meaningful, one-on-one relationship with each student. These recognized programs demonstrate that colleges and universities can truly have an impact on the success of their students and serve as national models for others to use and build upon. Dr. Lee Noel captured this concept many years ago when he advised “give the student what they need, before they know they need it.” With the help of data and technology, the relationships at the core of these winning programs are informing the work caring individuals do to anticipate students’ needs and solve student success challenges.

Learn how these campuses raised their student retention rates during a free webinar

Register for a free webinar on September 27, 2017, to learn how these three institutions launched, nurtured, and grew their initiatives into effective retention programs.

Also, check out the Compendium of Retention Excellence Award Winners 1989-2017 (PDF), which summarizes each winner’s strategies and outcomes, and is indexed by institution type.

Best wishes for a successful 2017-18 academic year!

Learn how three institutions raised their student retention rates

7 compelling facts that impact student retention and college completion [Infographic]

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What’s working on campuses?

Download a new student retention infographic from Ruffalo Noel Levitz to see seven highlighted facts from a new RNL benchmark report of effective practices for college student success, retention, and completion. The research is based on a June 2017 poll of campus officials.

Facts one and two from our student retention infographic

Student retention infographic

Student retention infographic
Download the full INFOGRAPHIC AND REPORT to see all the findings of this study focused on optimizing student success, retention, and college completion rates.

What’s included in the report

  • Effectiveness rankings for 30 management practices and 28 general strategies and tactics
  • Effectiveness ratings for 13 population-specific programs, such as programs for under-represented students and honor students
  • Quality ratings for three leadership practices, such as a committee and a written plan to guide efforts for student success/retention/completion

The ratings are provided separately for four-year private institutions, four-year public institutions, and two-year public institutions.

Download the full student retention INFOGRAPHIC AND REPORT.

Learn about RNL products to increase student success, retention, and college completion rates

RNL has long been a leader in helping campuses improve student success, retention, and completion rates. Our comprehensive Student Success portfolio provides comprehensive analytics, insights, and assessments for retention planning and student success interventions. You’ll see where to focus your effort for greater impact by connecting your data directly to improved student persistence.

Also, join us for a webinar on 2017 Retention Excellence Award Winners on Wednesday, September 27, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. This webinar will highlight exceptional student retention programs used by several campuses across the U.S.

Do you have a “CAN Plan” to extend your enrollment marketing through college completion?

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For years, admissions and recruitment teams have developed marketing and communication plans to build demand, generate applications, and optimize yields. These plans ensure that key messages are sent out to provide students and their families with the information they need to make timely decisions along the enrollment pathway. But what happens after the student is enrolled and committed? Do you have a plan to extend this type of communication and relationship management through to college completion? Are you sending key messages at the right times to influence re-enrollment?

When I work with colleges and universities on their student success initiatives, I often recommend developing a post-enrollment communication flow to continue communicating with students and families to increase college completion. I like to call this a CAN Plan.

CAN stands for Congratulate, Alert and Nudge (CAN). A CAN Plan equips you to communicate persuasively with enrolled students as they attempt to persist in their classes, make progress, and re-enroll from term to term. Your plan should include many customized messages informed by pre-enrollment data and information you collect after students enroll.

How to build a well-designed CAN Plan to influence students to re-enroll

Just as you customize messages for prospective students, you must also customize messages for enrolled students. Let me share three examples of ways to do this. Here is the first way:

College completion: The Attrition Curve

This attrition curve clusters students into three groups based on a statistical analysis of each student’s likelihood to retain, drawn from pre-enrollment data. You can use the pre-enrollment information to target messaging to nudge incoming students to take advantage of student services and refer them to resources that satisfy their needs. I recommend sending more and different messages for students in the middle of your curve (about two-thirds of your new students) versus students who are already likely to retain (about 20 percent of your population) based on your analysis.

[Read more…]

How graduation ceremonies can motivate students to complete college and give back

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My daughter, Kylie, graduated from a private, liberal arts college in Iowa this spring. I experienced her graduation ceremony both as a proud parent and as a higher education professional, observing what the college did right in celebrating the class of 2017.

You may have been following along on my parental observations over the past five years as Kylie visited potential colleges, went through orientation and arrived on campus, reflected on her freshman and sophomore years, and began her senior year.

Since I manage the Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys for Ruffalo Noel Levitz, the keynote speaker at my daughter’s graduation ceremony was definitely speaking my language when he told students he hoped they were satisfied with their experience! (Yes, he really said that, and my ears perked up!) As they left the college, he wanted them to feel that their investment of time and tuition had been worthwhile.  (I would definitely echo that from the national data perspective, and further point out that a 2015 study indicated that institutions with higher satisfaction levels also have higher alumni giving). But the speaker also said he hoped the students were dissatisfied enough with the world around them that they would want to find what they were passionate about and make a change in something that matters. (This fits with how I advise institutions to improve the college experience for students in areas that matter: areas with high importance and low satisfaction to the student body).

What did they celebrate during the graduation ceremony?

A few observations on how the speakers motivated the audience toward college completion and giving back to the college:

  • The president acknowledged first-generation students and their families for blazing the trail and persevering. She also had legacy students stand and be recognized. There was one student who was a fifth-generation legacy, along with several who were fourth- and third-generation students. I was impressed with the strong family commitments to the college, but can you imagine the expectations those students felt to continue the family tradition?
  • The college’s young alumni award was presented during the graduation ceremony. (My alma mater presents it during homecoming.) By acknowledging the young alumni during graduation, it encouraged today’s graduates—and their younger peers in the audience—to see what they can accomplish within ten years after graduation. These young alumni stories were an inspiration and a validation of what can be done with a degree from the college.
  • As part of the Senior Giving Campaign, students who pledged to give back to the college were given a cord to wear with their cap and gown as a visible acknowledgment of their commitment. Kylie commented that she heard several classmates signed up because they wanted some “bling” for the gown, and the Senior Giving commitment was up 10% to 60% with this first year of the graduation cord offer.

Are you implementing acknowledgments like these during your graduation ceremony? Are there additional ways you can motivate students toward completion and celebrate students who blazed a trail or continued a legacy? How else can you reinforce the value of the tuition to the students and their families so they will continue to feel positive about your college? And what is going to motivate your new alumni to stay engaged with your institution as they move on to the next phase of their lives? [Read more…]

Using college student satisfaction data to take action to improve: Examples from campuses

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I recently heard someone say, “Schools don’t lack for data. However, they often lack the ability to take action with their data.” Do you agree? As you gather student feedback data on your campus, I encourage you to look for survey tools that are going to give you data that is prioritized and actionable.

Student satisfaction surveys from Ruffalo Noel Levitz are one example of an actionable survey tool. These surveys gather student perceptions of the current experience at your institution and prioritize the findings. Many institutions assess student satisfaction on a regular basis with these tools. College student satisfaction data can serve as the “student voice” for informed decision making for student success efforts (i.e. retention improvements), strategic planning, and accreditation purposes.

Prioritization drives action

The college student satisfaction data from the RNL Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) are prioritized based on two types of scores students assign to each survey item:

– importance scores (a level of expectation)
– satisfaction scores (student perceptions of their current experience)

The survey uncovers priority items for improvement by identifying areas where students express a high level of importance along with a low level of satisfaction, based on national norms. Survey items measured in this way are actionable by changing institutional policies and procedures, immediately or in the near future, and by adjusting student perceptions.

To take action, you also need the following:

  • Supportive leadership
  • Budget dollars (but there are things that can be done with a small investment)
  • Individuals who will take responsibility for new initiatives
  • Additional direction from students–through focus groups or other qualitative methods–to be sure you fully understand what the item on the survey means on your campus.

Examples from campuses putting college student satisfaction data to work

[Read more…]

YES, your institution CAN be ‘student-ready’ on Day One for diverse college populations!

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This is part two of a two-part post on preparing for today’s diverse college populations, to increase their college completion rates. See part one.

A few weeks ago my colleague, Dr. Mari Normyle, posted a blog with a question:  Will your institution be ‘student-ready’ for diverse college populations on Day One? My response is YES, you can be!

To be ready, first look carefully at the needs of the diverse populations within the entering class. When you understand the needs of our entering students by race/ethnicity, first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents, gender, age, or any other diverse category, you can begin to make decisions how to strategically use the data to impact outcomes.

One way to gain a solid understanding of entering students’ diverse needs is to gather motivation data by population. For example, the first part of this post provided 13 facts in four diverse categories about 2016 entering freshman which were collected from 99,300 students who completed RNL’s College Student Inventory.  All 13 facts are what we call leading indicators, or early alerts, which can help to determine what entering students need to persist, progress, retain, and complete. Most of you know we at RNL are all about being data-informed and spend most of our time working with you to move data into action.

Benchmarking: another important first step for serving diverse college populations

Before you set strategy, it is also helpful to understand normal outcomes for your institution type. In the 2017 Student Retention Indicators Benchmark Report you will find benchmarks for persistence, progression, and retention for four-year and two-year institutions. For example, you will find persistence outcomes from term one to term two and term two to term three for first-time-in-college students regardless of race/ethnicity, first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents, gender, age or other attributes.

Retention indicators and serving diverse college populations

[Read more…]

INFOGRAPHIC: 5 insights to increase student retention and college completion rates

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Click for full-size PDF of this infographic
College student retention benchmarks

College student retention benchmarks

Want to strengthen your student retention strategies?

Learn more about our solutions for student success, or contact Ruffalo Noel Levitz with your student retention questions and challenges.

Will your institution be ‘student ready’ for diverse college student populations on Day One?

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This is part one of a two-part post on preparing for diverse college student populations. Read part 2 here.

In my more than 20 years working on college campuses, a common theme of conversations has been “are the students we are enrolling ready for college?” This applies to the full range of students: traditional-aged students coming directly from high school, transfer students, adult learners, law school students…. No matter the type of student, faculty and staff frequently ask “are they ready”?

However, now I’m increasingly concerned about whether institutions themselves are “student ready.” Do we know enough about our students as they enter our institutions, either as freshmen or transfers? Do we understand what they are experiencing as they make numerous transitions in their first and second years of enrollment? And do we have nuanced understandings of our diverse college student populations by race/ethnicity, first-generation, by age, and by gender? What do students have in common? Where are their divergent experiences, pressures, and challenges? How prepared is the institution to meet the needs of entering students where they are now, and how solidly in place are the structures for support on day one? Also, do we know what information would be critical to ensure we are “student ready” on day one?

13 facts about entering student diversity that influence completion rates

National data on entering students in 2016 was gathered by RNL’s College Student Inventory from 99,300 students attending 290 institutions across North America. Here are some of the key findings, all statistically significant:

By race/ethnicity:

  • Asian, Hispanic, and African-American entering students anticipate that they will be more satisfied with the college experience than white entering students. This is important because there is a relationship between satisfaction and retention, graduation, and alumni engagement (see this satisfaction research).
  • 41 percent of non-white entering students report they have the financial resources necessary to finish college compared with 53 percent of white entering students.
  • Entering students of color are more receptive to assistance from the institution (and are already requesting help as they enter their institutions) in every category than white students: academic assistance, career guidance, personal counseling, social enrichment, and financial guidance.

By first-generation vs. students with college-educated parents:

  • Incoming first-generation students are much less confident in their ability to grasp scientific ideas and write college-level papers than their peers with college-educated parents.
  • The first-generation students also report lower levels of family support and financial security than their peers with college-educated parents.
  • These students are entering college with a greater percentage of them asking for help in improving their writing and math skills than their counterparts (math: 56 percent vs. 46 percent; writing: 55 percent vs. 46 percent).

By gender:

  • Entering female students continue to express a stronger commitment to achieving their educational goals than males: 94 percent vs. 89 percent.
  • More women than men agree that reading has broadened their horizons and stimulated their imaginations: 61 percent vs. 48 percent.
  • And women are entering college with much stronger established study habits: 68 percent of entering women report that they study hard for all of their classes, even those they don’t like, vs. 53 percent of men.

By age:

  • Adult learners are entering college with stronger intellectual interests and more positive attitudes toward reading.
  • These students are also reporting stronger study habits than their traditional-age colleagues.
  • While less inclined to get involved in campus social activities, entering adult learners report greater tolerance for persons with different political and social ideas.
  • And these students are more receptive to getting academic assistance and career counseling.

Now is the time on most campuses across the country to begin preparing for welcoming new students in the summer and fall. What is driving your decision-making about how to prepare for your newest students? If you’re relying on the traditional (and limited) metrics of high school GPA or transfer student GPA and SAT or ACT, you’re missing significant information that is relevant to student success programs. Having motivational, non-cognitive data available can help you fill in the gaps left by old metrics and ensure that you are “student ready” on Day One.

Read part 2 and see more of our reports on entering students

Read part 2 of this blog series here, where my colleague Dr. Tim Culver shares strategies for getting your institution ready for student success on Day One.

Interested in learning more about preparing diverse college student populations for success? See all of our reports here on entering students, including the 2017 National Freshman Motivation to Complete College Report and its Addendum by Race/Ethnicity. Questions? Contact us by email or call me at 800.876.1117.

Share your student success assets with others

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We all live in and enjoy the benefits of a sharing economy, where individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else. We see this regularly when the price of the asset is high (a car, a home) and not fully utilized all of the time, think Airbnb, Uber. But it can also apply to the sharing of information technology and intellectual resources. It’s that sharing of intellectual resources, specifically, college student success assets, that I want to focus on today.

As educators, the reality of our work today is that we face intense pressure to address our college student success needs. Think performance-based funding, budgeting and net revenue issues, accreditation, local, regional, and national employment trends. And student needs are changing as demographics change; we have less time and resources to design an effective solution, not to mention we have very little room for error. Instead of designing something from the ground up, we often take advantage of our student success sharing economy and frequently look to established best practices, associations, vendors, and colleagues for an idea that can be customized to fit our unique needs and situation.

Descriptions of more than 170 award-winning retention programs

I hope you’ve taken advantage of the body of knowledge Ruffalo Noel Levitz contributes to the student success sharing economy. One way we contribute is by celebrating effective college retention programs with the Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Awards (REAs). More than 170 colleges and universities have been honored with Retention Excellence Awards and they all have shared their retention assets via our compendium. If you’re looking for new ideas to serve minority students, to create a comprehensive retention plan, to recruit back stop outs or virtually anything else, check out the retention assets your colleagues have shared.

Apply for a Retention Excellence Award

Naturally, giving is as important as receiving in the college student success sharing economy. I invite you to share your retention assets by applying for a 2017 Retention Excellence Award (REA). Applications are now being accepted and must be completed by March 17, 2017. The application process is brief and is similar to submitting a proposal to present at a conference. Up to three winners will be recognized and the honor includes a free conference registration to the National Conference on Student Marketing Recruitment and Retention being held in Denver, July 26-28, 2017. Winners are featured in a national webinar hosted by Ruffalo Noel Levitz and will serve as a judge in selecting the 2018 winners.

Please take the time to contribute to the student success sharing economy. I encourage you to review the application and consider applying. The process is easy, and the rewards for your campus and our student success sharing economy are many!

Questions? Please contact me directly by email or call me at 800.876.1117, ext. 8787.


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