Dive Brief:
- Faculty at San Jose State University in California started calling dropouts, especially black and Latino students who were even more likely than their white peers to leave before graduation, and discovered institutional barriers to student success on campus.
- NPR reports the exit interviews, of sorts, revealed issues with class scheduling, advising and fitting in on campus, which has prompted initiatives at San Jose State to add classes, increase the number of advisors and bring students together.
- Social events targeting black and Latino students give students a chance to get to know each other and connect with tutors, counselors and professors, developing ties that may contribute to higher graduation rates in the years to come.
Dive Insight:
Student success initiatives have to be based on the unique student populations on individual campuses. At San Jose State, the graduation rates were dismal for black and Latino students. Low-income or part-time students are often expected to do worse, as are those who start off in developmental education courses. But that is not always the case. When Lewis and Clark Community College leaders started tracking data to figure out how best to support students, for example, they found developmental education students had retention rates 10% higher than those who did not take remedial classes.
Data-informed initiatives empower colleges to have significant impacts on their own students. That’s why some campus leaders see data analytics programs as a key element in the future of student success.