Picking Up the Pace of the Completion Agenda

July/August 2015

By Karla Hignite

Research during the past decade underscores a growing divide in American social strata reflected by, among other measures, critically low college completion rates in the United States, especially among low-income, first-generation, and minority populations. And the warnings of that research are sobering, not only for the individuals whose future earning potential and career advancement are greatly curtailed, but also for our nation’s ability to compete and lead in the global economy.

Even before the Great Recession—which has sharpened the focus on existing income and educational inequality—higher education, nonprofit, and governmental organizations have been pledging their commitment to expand student access and expedite completion of postsecondary degrees and industry credentials. The coalitions, and the reach and results of their endeavors, are impressive:

More than 30 states have joined the Complete College America alliance, with commitments to increase degree completion and job-related credentials among their states’ residents as well as to narrow the college attainment gap for underserved populations.
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities had already paired up for their Project Degree Completion to boost the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by 2025. Last year, on the heels of a White House summit on college opportunity, the two associations joined forces with the American Association of Community Colleges to bolster certificate and degree completion, and strengthen educational pathways for low-income and minority students and adult learners.
The Lumina Foundation has long played an advocacy and partnership role in issues of student access and degree attainment. Among its collaborative efforts are the Adult College Completion Network and the University Innovation Alliance. The latter is aa consortium of 11 public research institutions, all of which are committed to leveraging their experience and best practices to increase educational opportunity for those individuals least likely to earn a degree.

In a statewide initiative intended to bump up the number of students attending the state’s two-year colleges, Tennessee launched Tennessee Promise, which pledges to all eligible Tennessee high school seniors two years of free tuition at any of the state community colleges, colleges of applied technology, or other institutions offering associate degrees. Launched in fall 2014, the program is funded from the state’s lottery reserve fund, currently totaling more than $300 million.

Many more programs and partnerships are focused nationally and locally on not only degree attainment, but also on the underlying barriers that put higher learning out of reach for too many. In the end, individual higher education institutions and systems that are on the front lines of serving students—at whatever level of proficiency they bring with them to the classroom—are the entities that will have the greatest impact on increasing student success and degree completion.

What follows is a sampling of initiatives—broad and granular—that have emerged from the midst of daily administrative challenges and serendipitous opportunities. These examples are neither exhaustive nor isolated, and many more innovative ideas are being tested on campuses across the country. What they collectively represent is leadership that is determined to not only bring students in with the promise of a brighter future, but to keep them moving through the rigors of higher learning and across the finish line.

Streamlined Start, Faster Finish

CUNY’s student success efforts boost confidence and proficiency and keep students on the move.

The City University of New York (CUNY) is making a big impact on degree completion and student success in the Big Apple. Among the programs focused on helping students get off on the right foot are CUNY Start and CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP).

Start Here

CUNY Start is a pre-matriculation program specifically tailored to students with significant developmental education needs in reading and writing and/or math.

Students are provided an opportunity to defer matriculation for one semester to take part in an intensive program geared toward building skills proficiency and conceptual understanding of these core subjects so that they have the confidence and stamina to tackle a broader college-level curriculum, explains Donna Linderman, university dean for student success initiatives and ASAP executive director. Those enrolled in the program full time attend five days a week for a total of 25 hours per week. Students exhibiting significant need in one subject only (reading/writing or math) can attend part time for 12 hours per week.

During the semester, students have two opportunities to test progress by retaking the CUNY assessment test in reading and writing, or taking a standardized exit exam in math. At the 12-week mark, students who require additional improvement return for another three to five weeks of intensive study. “While some students at the end of the semester may still show some remedial need, in every case they have made significant gains and enter their program of study much better prepared to succeed and aware of the level of work required,” says Linderman.

The program has proven highly successful. Of those who have enrolled in CUNY Start, 68 percent had remedial needs in reading and writing and in math, and 31 percent had remedial needs in two skills areas. Yet, 50 percent of all full-time students have completed the program, with no further remedial needs.

Consistency is key, notes Linderman. All those who teach in CUNY Start have spent a semester training under a lead teacher and have participated in extensive programwide professional development. The same highly structured curriculum is used across all nine CUNY colleges that currently offer the program.

Advisement is another essential part of the program and is geared to preparing students to navigate campus culture and helping them think through choices about a degree major and long-term education goals, explains Linderman. “We have been running this program long enough to track the data and see that once CUNY Start students matriculate, they take and earn more credits, hold a higher GPA, and are retained at higher rates compared to CUNY students with similar remedial needs who do not participate in the program.”

Another plus: Because CUNY Start is offered through the system’s continuing education side of the house, students don’t touch their financial aid that first semester. CUNY Start is supported by a combination of state and city funding, which allows CUNY to keep costs to students at a very low fee of $75 for the semester-long program.

Additional support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation funds special projects, such as a new pipeline program to support foster care youth to move through CUNY Start and into ASAP. And, funding from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation is devoted to the development of an eight-week summer math program modeled on the semester-long CUNY Start math course.

CUNY Start classes are capped at 25 students. The program launched in 2009 with a pilot of 150 GED students. For 2014–15, a total of 3,600 students took advantage of the program, which to date has served 10,000 students.

Get There

CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), offered since 2007, grew from an initiative of then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity. He sought partners to address issues of poverty for three specific populations: children under the age of five, adults ages 16 to 24, and the working poor. Then CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein seized on the opportunity to target two of the three populations by addressing one of his primary concerns: low community college graduation rates. Prior to ASAP, only about 24 percent of CUNY’s community college students graduated in three years.

“With the launch of ASAP we aimed to double our three-year graduation rate, and we have,” says Linderman. Data from the first five cohorts reveal that 52 percent of ASAP students are completing their coursework within three years.

In developing the program, CUNY leaders sought to combine proven interventions from across the country known to make a difference in student success and to bundle them together into one comprehensive program, explains Linderman.

Key ASAP features include:

Cost. The program removes barriers to full-time study. ASAP students are provided free textbooks and free unlimited public transportation vouchers (MTA Metrocards) to allow students to travel freely between school, work, and home. The program also waives any balance between financial aid and tuition and fees.
Convenience. The program provides consolidated course scheduling to allow students to pick the time most convenient to them. In addition to morning, afternoon, or evening schedules, at one college (Borough of Manhattan), students can take advantage of weekend programming where all classes are held on Saturdays and Sundays.
Community. To encourage peer support, the program is built around a cohort model. Students take several scheduled classes with fellow students during their first year of study and also participate in a variety of group advisement activities.
Advisement. Each student has an assigned adviser to provide high-touch guidance from start to finish. Advisers—who have maximum caseloads of 150—assist students with their academic concerns and personal growth needs and act as a liaison to connect students with other resources. Career development counseling and tutoring are other embedded components of ASAP.

For their part, students enrolled in the program must attend a summer preparatory institute prior to matriculation. They must agree to study full time, meet regularly with their adviser, participate in career development activities, and speak with an adviser before dropping classes. Students with developmental needs must take any required remedial courses immediately and continuously, as part of their scheduled studies, and attend weekly tutoring.

“We try to highlight these requirements for students as opportunities more so than as obligations, but we do want students to understand their commitment,” says Linderman. Extensive surveying of ASAP students reveals that the financial assistance is critical, and of the services provided, advisement is hands-down identified as the most valuable ASAP service, notes Linderman.

Launched with 1,100 students, the program has expanded to 4,300 students during the 2014–15 academic year, and has served 8,700 students to date. Plans are to expand to 13,000 students by fall 2017, confirms Linderman. The college offers ASAP students regularly scheduled courses and charges normal CUNY tuition, costs of which are first covered by need-based financial aid in the form of federal Pell grants and New York State’s tuition assistance program. “If there is any gap between tuition and fees and a student’s financial aid award, the college waives the balance,” says Linderman. “Most ASAP students are very low-income and receive the full amount of financial aid, which means there is very little tuition waived.” On average only 13 percent of ASAP students have a tuition gap need, and of those who do, the average amount waived is $773, notes Linderman.

“We are very grateful for the funding we receive from the city and state and from generous private funders, as well as incredible support from Chancellor Milliken and our college leadership,” says Linderman. While such a comprehensive program does require significant upfront investment, CUNY’s cost-benefit analysis shows that the program is highly cost-effective, once retention and graduation rates are factored in. “ASAP students are much more likely to graduate, and to graduate with increased earning potential,” argues Linderman. “As we continue to track ASAP graduates, we’re also finding that the vast majority—almost 75 percent—continue their studies toward their bachelor’s degree.”

Linderman believes that CUNY’s nationally recognized model is highly transferable to other institutions and systems. Key to the success of a program such as ASAP are the financial and advisement components, stresses Linderman. “This will require reallocation of existing resources or identification of new monies; but, however you get there, the potential is high for a huge return on investment.” While short-term efforts might provide a bump in student retention and performance, comprehensive long-term interventions are required to move the graduation needle, she argues.

Dovetailing on the success of ASAP, CUNY has plans for a test pilot this fall that will expand the current program to students pursuing a bachelor’s degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The pilot is being supported by the Robin Hood Foundation—New York City’s largest poverty-fighting organization. Another program modeled after ASAP is CUNY’s Graduate Success Initiative (GSI), offered in partnership with the New York City Human Resources Administration and its College Opportunity to Prepare for Employment program.

GSI is a yearlong, structured academic program designed to support public assistance recipients who are within 30 credits of completing their associate’s degree. The program offers services similar to those of ASAP, including consolidated scheduling, advisement, and a peer community connection. To date, about 300 students have enrolled in GSI, with 56 percent of students completing their degree within one year. “This suggests the opportunity to insert a comprehensive program even at the midpoint to help students complete their associate degree,” says Linderman.

Partners in Completion

Starbucks and Arizona State University create a program to remove financial barriers to degree completion.

A new Starbucks–ASU College Achievement Plan is making it easier for employees to work and study. From collaborative discussions between Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Arizona State University President Michael Crow emerged a first-of-its-kind program to remove financial barriers to degree completion. The partnership between ASU and Starbucks provides full tuition reimbursement to eligible Starbucks employees, whom the company calls “partners.”

The Starbucks College Achievement Plan officially launched in mid-October 2014 with the start of ASU’s Fall B session. At present, about 2,000 Starbucks partners are enrolled through the program, and in less than a year, three partners have already earned the remaining credits they needed to graduate.

Program design. Starbucks partners receive a partial tuition scholarship from ASU covering 42 percent of the cost for each credit of coursework, regardless of courseload. Partners are required to pay the remaining tuition balance either out-of-pocket or through the use of federal financial aid. At the conclusion of each semester, Starbucks reimburses partners for their portion of tuition not covered by the scholarship.

As the program was originally conceived and rolled out, focus was placed foremost on students who had already earned 56 or more college credits, placing them at junior or senior standing at ASU. Earlier this year, Starbucks and ASU announced important changes to the plan, including full benefits of the tuition scholarship and reimbursement regardless of prior credits. A second change involved the reimbursement schedule. Originally students would receive reimbursement each time they completed 21 credit hours, which for some students could span several semesters. Partner feedback indicated that the reimbursement cycle was too long. Now all partners are reimbursed, at the end of each semester of completed coursework, the difference in tuition not covered by the ASU scholarship and other need-based assistance.

Among the operational issues to hammer out were program structure and how to introduce the program to ensure it would deliver a great experience for partners, notes Ryan Chase, assistant vice president for ASU Online. “We organized around various work streams, including student experience, financial aid and billing, technology infrastructure and support, and reimbursement reporting.” The latter entailed developing procedures for reporting back to Starbucks the portion of tuition reimbursements due to partners each semester.

Requirements. Starbucks partners are held to the same admission standards of the university and the particular degree program in which they choose to enroll. They may select from any of the 49 undergraduate degree programs currently offered through ASU’s online campus. All Starbucks partners must participate in a weeklong orientation. This includes a self-assessment allowing partners to profile their strengths and identify how they plan to balance their educational goals with work and life. “Early data show that roughly 87 percent of partners complete orientation and that those students earn a GPA one grade point higher than partners who do not complete orientation,” notes Chase. While the orientation isn’t likely the only contributing factor to that difference, the university now has plans to make the orientation available to all incoming ASU online students.
Services. Starbucks partners receive the same level of service that all ASU online students receive. Given the uniqueness of the program, they do have access to a separate enrollment services team that works closely with them to address individual questions and concerns, notes Chase. Once partners enroll in courses, they work with an assigned success coach and academic adviser, mirroring the services ASU provides to all of its online students. These same staff members will work with Starbucks partners as they progress through their coursework until the day they graduate.
Success metrics. One measure ASU is using to gauge success of the Starbucks program is session-to-session retention rates, which currently stand at 89 percent, similar to that of ASU’s general undergraduate online population, says Chase.
Scalability. There is no limit to the number of students who may enroll at ASU through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, notes Chase. Over the next 10 years Starbucks plans to spend $250 million to support 25,000 of its partners in earning their bachelor’s degrees.

KARLA HIGNITE, Ogden, Utah, is a contributing editor for Business Officer.

SECTION II: EXPANDING ACADEMICS

Full-Circle Solutions

Educating a New Generation of Veterans

The plan offers full benefits of tuition scholarship and reimbursement regardless of prior credits.

Resources Available Online

For a full overview of CUNY Start and program results, read the research report CUNY Start: Analysis of Student Outcomes at www.cuny.edu.
For details about how ASAP can be adapted by your institution or system, check out CUNY’s comprehensive guide Inside ASAP at www.cuny.edu.
For an external review of ASAP, visit www.mdrc.org and read Doubling Graduation Rates: Three-Year Effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students.

Second Chance

Delgado Community College’s solution for late registrants helps current students stay on track.

Delgado Community College in New Orleans had a recurring problem. Too many students were showing up too late in the registration process to begin classes on time. By the time they were squared away with financial aid and course materials, several crucial weeks of the semester had already passed, leaving students off to an unequal start and far less likely to succeed. Yet, faculty and administrators knew that turning students away and suggesting they wait until the next semester meant that many of them might not return.

“We needed an opportunity to engage students at the point they made the important decision to pursue higher learning,” says Ashley Chitwood, executive dean at Delgado’s Northshore campus. Second Start emerged from this dilemma. The program allows any student who misses the original course enrollment deadline to enroll in an accelerated eight-week course midway through the semester.

In spring 2014—the first semester the college offered Second Start—169 students signed up. By fall 2014, 347 students enrolled in as least one Second Start class. For spring 2015, the program reached 1,000 participants.

Many Takers

Now that the college has completed several cycles of Second Start, the data are showing some interesting developments, notes Chitwood. “While the program was initially created in response to first-time students who needed a bit more transition time to begin their studies, we noticed that growing numbers of current students were also taking advantage of Second Start courses as a means to add a course to keep on track toward degree completion.” Of the spring 2015 Second Start registrants, approximately 40 percent were current students taking the opportunity to pick up additional classes, says Chitwood.

The original impetus behind Second Start—to ensure students are ready to begin their studies as of Day One—has required working closely with faculty to get course syllabi and supporting materials into the hands of students in advance. “We also send a series of e-mails leading up to the midsemester course to remind students of the start date and to point them to our free developmental content available online that students can use as refresher to brush up on skills prior to the start of their classes,” says Chitwood.

Second Start courses are offered in three formats:

Fully face-to-face, compressed courses are in line with the approach the college uses for summer courses.
Hybrid courses allow students some face-to-face interaction with faculty, but also accommodate students whose work or family schedules don’t allow daily travel to campus.
Fully online courses.

For the spring 2015 semester, the college offered 100 sections of Second Start courses, 50 of which were fully online. “Because not all Second Start courses are offered in all three formats, our advisers work closely with students when they register to ensure that they select the format that best suits them for the particular course they want to take,” says Chitwood. Students are also welcome to enroll in classes at any of the college’s six locations, she adds.

Primary focus to date has been on offering Second Start courses that have the broadest appeal for the majority of students and courses that are required for most programs. For fall 2015, faculty are considering offering developmental courses as part of Second Start. Because of the compressed schedule, these courses would be targeted to first-time students scoring in the upper zone of their placement test who would be more likely to succeed with that faster pace, notes Chitwood. “Through Second Start, we now have a viable alternative for accommodating students who miss registration deadlines, and one more tool for helping students move through their degree curriculum more quickly.”

Early Experience

Harper College combines stackable credentials with employer engagement.

For years, local manufacturing employers had been telling leaders of William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, Ill., that they had difficulty getting as many qualified workers as they needed. Four years ago, the college launched a stackable credential program within its associate’s degree in applied sciences in manufacturing—the result of close collaboration with nearly 100 employers in the college’s district. The program includes industry-endorsed certificates in manufacturing, employer-paid internships, and pathways to bachelor’s degrees. Students are eligible for the 20-hours-per-week internships once they earn their first-level certificate, which can be completed in less than four months.

“The internships are a way for employers to not only have some skin in the game, but [also] to allow students an early opportunity to explore specific areas of interest—whether welding, or supply chain management, or precision machining—and to begin to form relationships with area employers,” explains Provost Judith Marwick. There are no requirements for students in the manufacturing certificate and degree programs to attend full time, as the curriculum was intentionally developed with sequencing that allows for full-time or part-time credit load, she adds.

The early success of the program led to a Department of Labor grant awarded to the college to share program development with 21 other Illinois community colleges. “Most recently we’ve been working with a handful of university partners to develop pathways for students who want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in advanced manufacturing upon completion of their associate’s degree,” says Marwick. To strengthen the pipeline, the college is also working in tandem with area high schools so that interested students can see what classes they should take based on requirements for the certificates and associate’s degree.

While the college has not replicated its manufacturing model of stackable credentials and internships within its other degree programs, the institution is working with industry advisory groups and business partners to identify similar opportunities. College leaders have also put a lot of work in at the state level and with university partners on articulation and dual-degree agreements. One agreement the college has in place with DePaul University, Chicago, allows students to work with a DePaul adviser as early as the second semester of their freshman year at Harper to track the students’ progress in fulfilling degree requirements for both institutions.

Another increasingly popular transfer degree is an engineering pathways program with the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, says Marwick. Harper College students who meet requirements for math and English in addition to completing curriculum requirements and maintaining a 3.3 GPA, are guaranteed admission with junior status into UIUC’s engineering program. According to Marwick, this coming fall semester, 27 students completing Harper’s Engineering Pathways program will enter UIUC, 41 students will begin their second year of the program at Harper, and 50 students have been accepted as program freshmen.

Collaboration with university partners aside, the college’s “Commit to Complete” campaign seeks to hammer home to students the importance of obtaining an associate’s degree. “We know that life often intervenes with plans to pursue additional credentials. We stress to students the value of first earning an associate’s degree before transferring to another institution’s program,” says Marwick. “Then, if for whatever reason students are unable to continue their studies after they transfer, a high school diploma won’t be the only completed credential they can show for their hard work.”

Interim Achievements

Seminole State celebrates completion along the way.

In tackling the issue of completion at Seminole State College of Florida, Sanford, leaders took a step back to first pinpoint pockets of the student population for whom completion rates were consistently lower. They then formed task forces to further research the probable causes. One group looked at developmental education and the number of students who start remedial coursework but then don’t continue. Three other task forces studied nontraditional, minority, and first-generation students.

A fifth task force was formed to scrutinize lower completion rates among students enrolled in the college’s associate of science degree programs. “While the majority of students in our associate of arts programs have plans to transfer to complete their bachelor’s degrees, up to 30 percent of students enroll in [associate of science] career programs with the intention of going directly to work in their field of study,” explains Laura Ross, vice president of academic affairs and chief academic officer. “While a credential would most certainly improve employment opportunities for this group, we found that our completion of degrees for this cohort was lower than the state’s averages.”

Increased Completions

The task force studying this group decided to test the impact of automatic identification—what some refer to as automatic graduation, notes Ross. The college set up a trigger in the course registration system to notify advisers when students were nearing completion of their degree or of any of the various certificates embedded within the applied sciences degree curricula. The adviser for each program could then notify students of their status. “Since implementing this practice we have seen a surge in completion rates among our applied sciences students,” confirms Ross.

As of 2009–10, the number of applied sciences certificates awarded to students each year ranged between 1,300 and 1,500. By the end of 2011–12, after the automatic identification was established, completions rose to 1,700. As of 2013–14, the number of certificate completions has nearly doubled to 2,800 within the span of four years, reports Ross.

The college has likewise witnessed significant increases in the number of students completing their full associate of science degrees—from 450 in 2010–11 to 727 in 2013–14. “While not all of the increase is likely attributable solely to automatic identification, we believe the positive reinforcement regarding progress toward certificate and degree completion has a big impact on students staying motivated to continue,” says Ross.

Another change the college implemented for this cohort was to move to assigned advisers for all students within the applied sciences program so that they have a consistent point of contact throughout their studies. “Having someone who can keep students focused on their end goals even as they celebrate their interim achievements is not only valuable, but critical,” says Ross.

The task force also suggested setting aside some funding from the college’s foundation for completion scholarships. “Some students may have only a handful of classes left but then run out of financial aid, or perhaps lose a job, or experience a family issue that interrupts their schooling,” says Ross. “Providing a scholarship for those students to take their final courses can mean a world of difference.”

Personalized Pathways

The University of Texas System goes all in with competency-based curriculum.

The University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning (ITL), established in 2012 by UT’s board of regents, is an incubator for educational innovation. Its underlying mandate: to make UT-quality education more affordable and accessible, and to dramatically increase the number of Texans with a college degree or other advanced credential.

Among its initiatives, ITL—in partnership with UT institutions and top faculty experts—is developing a robust menu of personalized, competency-based programming. First up, and going live in fall 2015, is a bachelor’s in biomedical sciences degree offered through UT’s Rio Grande Valley campus. “We’ve essentially taken a program that already existed and remapped it for required competencies that align with the first two years of medical school. We then worked backward to redesign the undergraduate curriculum so that students have a clear pathway that addresses all the requirements for further study,” explains Amy Shackelford, ITL’s director of strategic partnerships.

More to Come

On the heels of this program are eight more systemwide competency-based programs planned for rollout by fall 2017 that will provide an accelerated pathway to degree completion for many more Texans. These programs will focus on engineering, computer science, business, and health-care professions and were selected based on market research to determine areas of greatest workforce need, says Shackelford. “What is different about this programming will be the ability for students to move through the subject matter at their own pace.”

Shackelford notes that getting the programs up and running requires a major time commitment because of the need to create significant additional content for each course, so that students can customize how deeply they need to immerse themselves in each topic based on individual learning needs and prior mastery of the subject.

More Programs on the Anvil

While the biomedical sciences program requires a hybrid structure to account for the physical presence of students for labs, ITL aims to develop the next eight programs as fully scalable and online as possible. That said, UT satellite locations around the state will allow students to gather for peer interaction or other required activities. For all these programs, ITL staff and faculty experts also want to design the curriculum to let high school students get an early start in pursuing degree requirements.

While the university will charge standard tuition for the biomedical sciences program, the potential for significant cost savings exists for students who are able to move through the curriculum at an accelerated pace and complete their degree within three years, says Shackelford. For this degree program and the other competency-based programming in the works, most of the content will be open education resources, cutting costs for textbooks and other materials by as much as 80 percent.

Medical school faculty played a key advisory role for the biomedical sciences curriculum. For upcoming competency-based programs, ITL will work closely with industry advisory boards to ensure the curriculum is aligned with workplace competencies. As for a student support structure, ITL is developing TEx (total educational experience), a customized set of platforms, applications, and services for which students can use their mobile devices to access everything they need—course content, advising and coaching, and financial aid and payment services. The pilot for TEx will launch this fall in conjunction with the biomedical sciences degree program.

If this first in a series of UT competency-based programs is any indication, demand should be high going forward, notes Shackelford. With zero marketing effort by the university, more than 600 students applied for the biomedical sciences program for the available 170 seats this fall. Once the program is built to scale, UT’s goal is to graduate 5,000 students within five years. “Once our other competency-based programs launch, there is virtually no limit to the number of students who can be served through this largely online self-paced programming,” says Shackelford. “Students today require maximum flexibility, so we believe a competency-based model will play a huge part in the learning ecosystem going forward.”