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Access to Success. First-Year Transition Courses Robin Weigert Kelby Spann Jeffrey Merrick. Access to Success Campus Goals. Increase first-year retention rates Eliminate the retention gap between students of color and white students.
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Access to Success First-Year Transition Courses Robin Weigert Kelby Spann Jeffrey Merrick
Access to Success Campus Goals • Increase first-year retention rates • Eliminate the retention gap between students of color and white students. • Eliminate the retention gap between students placing at developmental versus college level math and English
How Freshman Seminars Contribute to A2S Goals • 40+ elective disciplinary seminars (capacity = 20) in the Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences on a wide variety of engaging topics, with emphasis on the academic skills that students need to succeed at UWM
Performance and Retention Impact of Freshman Seminars • %s for participants > %s for non-participants on both satisfactory performance & re-enrollment • %s > average for interventions • and > average for voluntary interventions for target population • but not for all categories of students in all schools/colleges \
continued • Student evaluations show consistently higher scores on challenging and discussion, lower scores on campus resources. • Studies show modest positive impact on retention, more for students with 2-3 point GPA than others.
Continuous Improvement: Aspirational Models • Freshman Seminar Program Advisory Committee work in progress: • Founding documents • Student evaluations • Fall 2008 syllabuses • Performance and retention info • Focus groups • Objectives and options
Focus Question: Perceptions and Value • What is the faculty/instructional staff perception of the intervention? Value? • \What is the student success staff perception of the value of the intervention? Value? • What is the student perception of the value of the intervention? Value?
Focus Question: Increasing Participation Strategies • How do students find out about the service? • How/when are students referred to the service by faculty/instructional staff/student success staff?