Student success initiatives (SSIs) are essential to help students reach their full potential. But despite increased investment in SSIs, outcomes aren’t improving enough. It’s still unclear who needs help, services are underutilized, staff capacity is limited, information is siloed, and it’s challenging to align approaches across departments.
Do you know how much ineffective SSIs are costing your institution?
Stopping Out of College Costs Institutions & Students*:
$16.6 b
in lost tuition revenue each year
$7 k
debt acquired per student who stops out
$21 k
less in annual earnings per student compared to graduates
The Good News? Top Reasons Students Stop Out Can Be Mitigated with Institutional Support*:
38%
Financial Pressure
28%
Academic Disqualification
13%
Poor Social Fit
9%
Little Family Support
The Bad News? Many Student Success Initiativesare Missing Opportunities to Help Students:
40%
of student success initiatives have no measurable impact on persistence to graduation
20%
of initiatives that help students succeed do not work for specific student groups
39%
of students’ likelihoodto persist changes over the course of a term
Shift to an ROI-Generating Student Success Strategy
While one-size-fits all best practices may have been effective in the past, there’s no longer a standard recipe for improving student outcomes.
SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MISSTEPS ARE
Relying on lagging indicators of risk to plan interventions
Assuming what works for one group of students works for all students
Equating participation with impact
To scale effective student success approaches you must know what’s working for specific students and which efforts contribute to net tuition revenue. Do you know?
Citations:
*Source Education Data Initiative: https://educationdata.org/college-dropout-rates
*https://hechingerreport.org/federal-data-shows-3-9-million-students-dropped-college-debt-2015-2016/
*What Works for Student Success