George D. Kuh U of Maine System March 20, 2007

1. Student Success in College: Lessons from High Performing Colleges and Universities • George D. Kuh • U of Maine System • March 20, 2007

2. Overview • What educationally effective colleges look like • Lessons from high-performing institutions

3. What does an educationally effective college look like?

4. Project DEEP To discover, document, and describe what high performing institutions do to achieve their notable level of effectiveness.

5. DEEP Selection Criteria • Controlling for student and institutional characteristics (i.e., selectivity, diversity, institutional type), DEEP schools have: • Higher-than-predicted graduation rates • Higher-than-predicted NSSE scores • Region, institutional type, special mission

6. Effective Educational Practices Level of Academic Challenge Active & Collaborative Learning Student Faculty Interaction Supportive Campus Environment Enriching Educational Experiences

7. Project DEEP Schools Liberal Arts California State, Monterey Bay Macalester College Sweet Briar College The Evergreen State College Sewanee: University of the South Ursinus College Wabash College Wheaton College (MA) Wofford College Baccalaureate General Alverno College University of Maine at Farmington Winston-Salem State University Doctoral Extensives University of Kansas University of Michigan Doctoral Intensives George Mason University Miami University (Ohio) University of Texas El Paso Master’s Granting Fayetteville State University Gonzaga University Longwood University

8. DEEP Guiding Questions • What do strong-performing institutions do to promote student success? • What campus features -- policies, programs, and practices – are related to higher-than-predicted graduation rates and student engagement?

9. Research Approach Case study method • Team of 24 researchers review institutional documents and conduct multiple-day site visits • Observe individuals, classes, group meetings, activities, events 2,700+ people, 60 classes, 30 events • Discover and describe effective practices and programs, campus culture

10. What We Learned from Project DEEPJossey-Bass 2005

11. Ponder This • Which of these areas needs attention right now at your institution? • What might you do about it?

12. Hay muchas maneras de matar pulgas There are many ways to kill fleas

13. Worth Noting Many roads to an engaging institution • No one best model • Different combinations of complementary, interactive, synergistic conditions • Anything worth doing is worth doing well at scale

14. Six Shared Conditions • “Living” Mission and “Lived” Educational Philosophy • Unshakeable Focus on Student Learning • Environments Adapted for Educational Enrichment • Clearly Marked Pathways to Student Success • Improvement-Oriented Ethos • Shared Responsibility for Educational Quality

15. Creating Conditions That Matter to Student Success:DEEP Lessons We can’t leave serendipity to chance

16. Living” Mission and “Lived” Educational Philosophy • The mission, values, and aspirations are transparent and understandable. • Widespread understanding and endorsement of educational purposes. • Some deviate little from original mission; others have new missions and expanded educational purposes.

17. Mission and Vision George Mason University: “The Right Place. The Right Time” “[We] will be a magnet for outstanding faculty who will devise new ways to approach problems, invent new ways to teach, and develop new knowledge for the benefit of the region and nation…”

18. Teaching the Culture Macalester College students, faculty and staff understand and articulate the College’s core values of academic excellence, service, multiculturalism and internationalism. These values are enacted in the curriculum and co-curriculum.

19. “Living” Mission and “Lived” Educational Philosophy • Operating philosophy focuses on students and their success. • Complementary policies and practices tailored to the school’s mission and students’ needs and abilities. • Institutional values really do guide many important policy and operation decisions.

20. Academic rigor at Sewanee High challenge, high support • 68% first yr & 70% seniors report “working harder than thought they could” • Cannot miss class (or WF) • Demanding grading scales requires faculty to engage struggling students • Commitment to teaching & availability – enhances mentoring relationships • Comprehensive exam senior year • 10:1 student to faculty ratio • Honor code: Emphasis on academic integrity & strict student enforcement

21. Focus on Student Success “Sea change” at KU to emphasize undergraduate instruction • Experienced instructors teach lower division and introductory courses • Faculty members from each academic unit serve as “Faculty Ambassadors” to the Center for Teaching Excellence • Course enrollments kept low in many undergraduate courses; 80% have 30 or fewer students; 93% 50 or fewer students.

22. Unshakeable Focus on Student Learning • Student learning and personal development are high priorities. • Bent toward engaging pedagogies • “Cool passion” for talent development (students, faculty, staff) • Making time for students • Accommodate students’ preferred learning styles

23. Learning-intensive practices CSUMB and George Mason require every student to take from 1-3 writing-intensive courses. They along with most DEEP schools have strong writing centers to emphasize and support the importance of good writing.

24. Co-curriculum reinforces academic engagement Ursinus College’s Common Intellectual Experience (CIE) is a two-semester course for first-year students. Common readings and “Uncommon Hour” give students a shared intellectual experience outside the classroom that complements class activities.

25. Learning Intensive Practices University of Texas at El Paso uses learning communities and course-based service learning and volunteerism to actively engage its mostly commuter, first-generation students.

26. Cross-cultural experiences George Mason offers shorter study abroad experiences to meet the needs of their large non-traditional population. Similarly, Kansas and UMF arrange class-based trips that are more accessible to their first generation students

27. Environments Adapted for Educational Advantage • DEEP schools make wherever they are “a good place for a college!” • Connected to the local community in mutually beneficial, educationally purposeful ways. • “Place conscious.”

28. Linking campus and community George Mason’s Century Club: Business, professional, and government organizations promote partnerships between the University and the metro area business community. Members volunteer to work with faculty and students in job and internship fairs, resume and interviewing workshops, and networking opportunities.

29. Physical space promotes collaboration Wofford’s Milliken Building -- its science center -- was intentionally designed with plenty of “fishbowls” and other areas for group work space. “Homework lounges,” adjacent to faculty offices, also promote interactive learning.

30. Environments Adapted for Educational Advantage • Buildings, classrooms, and other physical structures are adapted to “human scale.” • Psychological size fosters engagement with peers, faculty and staff.

31. U of Kansas Digital Environments: Technology enriched learning Faculty make large lecture classes engaging via PowerPoint, Blackboard software, and other technology including slides and videos, and “interactive lecturing,” which incorporates various opportunities for students to participate.

32. National Center for Academic Transformation • Course redesign using technology • Demonstrated gains in student performance with reduced costs – biology, math, psychology • Roadmap to Redesign: http://www.thencat.org/R2R/R2R_ProjDiscipline.htm.

33. Clearly Marked Pathways to Student Success • Institutional publications accurately describe what students experience. • Make plain to students the resources and services available to help them succeed. • Some guideposts tied directly to the academic program; others related to student and campus culture.

34. Required Enriching Experiences All Ursinus students complete an Independent Learning Experience (ILE), such as an independent research or creative project, internship, study abroad, student teaching, or summer fellow program or comparable summer research program.

35. Intentional acculturation Miami’s First Year Experience (FYE) brings coherence to the first-year by linking: (1) Miami Plan Foundation courses taught by full-time faculty; (2) optional first-year seminars; (3) community living options that emphasize leadership and service; and (4) cultural, intellectual, and arts events.

36. Intentional acculturation Rituals and traditions connect students to each other and the institution KU’s “Traditions Night.” 3,000+ students gather in the football stadium to rehearse the Rock Chalk Chant, learn “I’m a Jayhawk”, and hear stories intended to instill students’ commitment to graduation

37. Clearly Marked Pathways to Student Success • Efforts tailored to student needs. • Mutually reinforcing student expectations and behavior, institutional expectations, and institutional reward systems. • Redundant early warning systems and safety nets

38. Organized Learning Support POSSE (Pathways to Student Success and Excellence) students at U of Michigan are assigned to a counselor and learn the importance of faculty office hours, study tips and how to connect to tutoring services. “POSSE taught me how to survive the University of Michigan.”

39. “Meet students where they are” Fayetteville State • Faculty members “teach the students they have, not those they wish they had” • Center for Teaching and Learning sponsors development activities on diverse learning needs Cal State Monterey Bay • “Assets” philosophy acknowledges students’ prior knowledge

40. Improvement oriented ethos • Positive restlessness • Self-correcting orientation • Continually question, “are we performing as well as we can?” • Confident, responsive, but never quite satisfied… • “We know who we are and what we aspire to.”

41. Shared responsibility for educational quality • Leaders articulate and use core operating principles in decision making • Supportive educators are everywhere • Student and academic affairs collaboration • Student ownership • A caring, supportive community

42. Student role in campus governance All University of Kansas committees are required to have 20% student representation, including search and screen committees. Therefore, new faculty recruits interact with students from the start.

43. Making “Work” Work for Students University of Maine at Farmington “Student Work Initiative” employs students in meaningful work in student services, laboratories, and field-research. Such experiences provide opportunities to apply what they are learning to practical, real-life situations.

44. Institutional Reflection Areas of Effective Educational Practice Areas of Question or Improvement

45. Lay out the path to student success • Draw a map for student success • Front load resources • Teach newcomers the culture • Create a sense of “specialness” • Emphasize student initiative • If something works, require it? • Focus on at-risk, underengaged students

46. Socialization to academic expectations Wofford first-year students read a common novel and write a short essay connecting it to their own lives. The eight best essays are published and distributed to all new students, creating the first class celebrities.

47. 2. Align initiatives with: • Student preparation, ability, interests • Existing complementary efforts • AAC&U: “Greater Expectations” “Inclusive Excellence” • Gen ed reform • Carnegie SOTL/CASTL • Service learning/Campus Compact • Internationalization and diversity

48. Association of American Colleges and Universities

49. Narrow Learning is Not Enough—The Essential Learning Outcomes • Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical & Natural World • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Personal and Social Responsibility • Integrative Learning

50. What to Do?!? Student success requires that professors explain more things to today’s students that we once took for granted – “You must buy the book, you must read it and come to class, you must observe deadlines or make special arrangements when you miss one” Prof. Richard Turner (1998, p.4)