2010 CCCSE Workshop Benchmarks and Benchmarking June 1, 2010.

2010 CCCSE Workshop

Benchmarks and Benchmarking

June 1, 2010

Agenda

• Provide a brief overview of SENSE

• Present selected findings to illustrate benchmarks

• Share stories of colleges’ using SENSE data

• Tour the SENSE electronic reporting website (time permitting)

• Respond to your questions about SENSE and the Six Benchmarks for Effective Practice with Entering Students

Center for Community College Student Engagement

Jeff CrumpleyAssociate [email protected]

Angela Oriano-DarnallAssociate [email protected] Center for Community College Student EngagementCommunity College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE)Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE)Community College Leadership ProgramThe University of Texas at Austin


Introductions

Introductions

• Who are you and what’s your role at your college?

• Has your college participated in SENSE?

• What are you hoping to take from today’s session?


Why Entering Students?

Community colleges typically lose about half of their students prior to the students’ second college year.

An Achieving the Dream study determined that 14% of entering students do not earn a single college credit during their first term.

Lack of success lowers persistence rates — just 15% of students who earn no credits in their first term persist to the following term, compared to 74% of students who earn credit in their first term.


Why SENSE?• National data show that students of color, low-income

students, and academically underprepared students are at greater risk of dropping out.

• And CCSSE data show students typically described as high risk are more engaged in their college experience than their low-risk peers.*

What does this tell us?

*When there are differences in engagement between low- and high-risk students.


Why SENSE?

• Highly engaged students are the ones who survive to the second term.

• Maximizing engagement may be essential to retain high-risk students.

• SENSE helps colleges, students, and the nation by focusing on the front door of the college experience.


SENSE: A Tool for Improvement

• Helping students succeed through the equivalent of the first semester (12–15 credit hours) can dramatically improve subsequent success rates.

• Successfully completing the first semester can improve students' chances of returning for subsequent semesters, reaching key milestones, and ultimately earning certificates and degrees.


SENSE: A Tool for Improvement

SENSE provides both quantitative and qualitative data that:

• Are grounded in research about what works to retain and support entering students,

• Identify and help colleges learn from practices that engage entering students, and

• Identify areas in which we can improve.


SENSE: Quantitative and Qualitative Data

• SENSE administers its survey during the fourth and fifth weeks of the fall academic term in courses most likely to enroll entering students.

• Working through the Initiative on Student Success, SENSE also conducts focus groups and interviews with new students as well as faculty, student services professionals, and presidents. The initiative is supported by the MetLife Foundation and Houston Endowment Inc.


The SENSE Benchmarks of Effective Practice with Entering

Students

Why Benchmark?

Benchmarking helps colleges by providing:• A process for establishing baselines, setting goals,

and measuring progress toward goals.• A method to gauge and monitor their performance

in areas central to their missions and goals.• A means of answering the question of how their

performance compares to national average – “How good is good enough?”


The SENSE Benchmarks

• The SENSE benchmarks are groups of conceptually related survey items that address key areas of student engagement.

• The six SENSE benchmarks reflect critical elements of engagement for entering students.

• The SENSE Benchmarks of Effective Practice with Entering Students are early connections, high expectations and aspirations, clear academic plan and pathway, effective track to college readiness, engaged learning, and academic and social support network.


Early Connections

When students describe their early college experiences, they typically reflect on occasions when they felt discouraged or thought about dropping out. Their reasons for persisting almost always include one common element: a strong, early connection to someone at the college.


Early Connections: Student Voices


Video Removed

Early Connections: Key Findings

Source: 2009 SENSE data.

A specific person was assigned to me so I could see him/her each time I needed information or assistance.


Early Connections: Key FindingsThinking about your experiences from the time of your decision to attend this college through the end of the first three weeks of your first semester or quarter, respond to each item (using a five-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree):


Percentage of entering students who agree or strongly agree


Early Connections: Colleges Using SENSE – Johnson County CC

Welcome to College Campaign

• Fall 2009 targeted 1,500 students

• Faculty, staff, administration, and students helped

• JCCC T-shirts: “Learning comes first, how can I help?”

• Hit the halls

• Hit the parking lots

• More than 90% students enrolled fall semester!


High Expectations and AspirationsNearly all students arrive at their community colleges intending to succeed and believing that they have the motivation to do so. When entering students perceive clear, high expectations from college staff and faculty, they are more likely to understand what it takes to be successful and adopt behaviors that lead to achievement. Students then often rise to meet expectations, making it more likely that they will attain their goals. Often, students’ aspirations also climb, and they seek more advanced credentials than they originally envisioned.


Thinking about your experiences from the time of your decision to attend this college through the end of the first three weeks of your first semester or quarter, respond to each item (using a five-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree):

High Expectations and Aspirations: Key Findings

Source: 2009 SENSE data.Percentage of entering students who agree or strongly agree


High Expectations and Aspirations: Key Findings

During the first three weeks of your first semester or quarter at this college, how often did you:

33%

43%

33%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Skip class

Come to class without completing readings or assignments

Turn in an assignment late


Percentage of students responding once, two or three times, or four or more times


Clear Academic Plan and Pathway

When a student, with knowledgeable assistance, creates a road map — one that shows where he or she is headed, what academic path to follow, and how long it will take to reach the end goal— that student has a critical tool for staying on track. Students are more likely to persist if they not only are advised about what courses to take, but also are helped to set academic goals and to create a plan for achieving them.



Clear Academic Plan and Pathway: Key Findings


Percentage of entering students who disagree or strongly disagree


Clear Academic Plan and Pathway: Colleges Using SENSE – North Harris (LSCS)• FTIC Advisors assigned to an entering student cohort

• Initial meetings to discuss contact information, registration & resources• Welcome phone calls to all students w/in first two weeks• One-on-one meetings twice per semester• Discuss and complete degree/career plan• Email cohort at least twice per month

• Meet with students (and instructors, if needed) on a regular basis to track progress

• Collect and act on data - connect students to resources

• Benchmark revealed significant differences between developmental/non-developmental and first-generation/non-first generation: Focusing to close this gap!


Clear Academic Plan and Pathway: Colleges Using SENSE – North Harris (LSCS)

Results?

Spring 2009 – 596 students; Fall 2009 1,150 students

• Among spring 2009 cohort 93% completed all credits attempted versus 82% for LSCS.

• Spring-to-fall retention (spring 2009 cohort) was 58% for FTIC assigned to an advisor students compared with 36% overall.

• Fall-to-spring retention (fall 2009 cohort) was 83% for FTIC assigned to an advisor students compared with 74% overall.


Effective Track to College Readiness

Nationally, more than six in 10 entering community college students are underprepared for college-level work. Significant improvements in student success will hinge upon effective assessment, placement of students into appropriate courses, and implementation of effective strategies to ensure that students build academic skills and receive needed support.


Effective Track to College Readiness: Key Findings

• 87% of students report that they were required to take a placement test to assess their skills before they could register for classes.

• 81% of those required to take a placement test report that their college also required them to enroll in classes indicated by their placement test scores during their first semester/ quarter.


Effective Track to College Readiness: Key Findings





Effective Track to College Readiness: Student Voices


Video Removed

Engaged Learning

Instructional approaches that foster engaged learning are critical for student success. Because most community college students attend college part-time, and most also must find ways to balance their studies with work and family responsibilities, the most effective learning experiences will be those the college intentionally designs.


Engaged Learning: Key FindingsDuring the first three weeks of your first semester or quarter at this college, how often did you:

Source: 2009 SENSE data. Percentage of entering students responding never


Engaged Learning: Student Voices


Video Removed

Engaged Learning: Colleges Using SENSE – Jackson CC

Engaging Students in Learning Communities

• Target: Dev Ed, Under 25, Males, and Students of Color

• Linked courses: Dev Ed Math/College English; Dev Ed Math/FYS; Dev Ed Writing/CIS 101

• Faculty volunteer to participate

• Males succeeding at a 10% higher rate than non-enrolled men

• Students of color succeeding at 20% higher rate than students of color not enrolled


Academic and Social Support Network

Students benefit from having a personal network that enables them to obtain information about college services, along with the academic and social support critical to student success. Because entering students often don’t know what they don’t know, colleges must purposefully create those networks.


Academic and Social Support Network: Key FindingsThinking about your experiences from the time of your decision to attend this college through the end of the first three weeks of your first semester or quarter, respond to each item (using a five-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree):




How to Benchmark using SENSE

A walk through the SENSE Members Only reporting website

Logging in with your SENSE Username andPassword


SENSE Standard Reports


Benchmark Reports

Means Summary Reports

Frequency Distribution Reports


SENSE Custom Reports


SENSE Custom Reports




Community College Survey of Student Engagement

The Inarguable Fundamentals

1. The center of community college work is student learning, persistence, and success.

2. Every program, every service, every academic policy is perfectly designed to achieve the exact outcome it currently produces.

Community College Survey of Student Engagement

The Inarguable Fundamentals

3. If nothing changes, nothing changes.

4. Neither individuals nor organizations are good at accomplishing things they never actually decided to do.

5. Students can’t succeed if they don’t come back!

Please take a few moments to complete the session evaluation.

Thank you!


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2010 CCCSE Workshop Benchmarks and Benchmarking June 1, 2010.

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