Tag: graduation

  • Westchester CC Sees 12-Point Growth in Graduation Rate

    Westchester CC Sees 12-Point Growth in Graduation Rate

    Providing students with wraparound support is one evidence-based practice that has demonstrated impact on student credit accumulation, persistence and graduation rates. In the mid-2000s, the City University of New York created a model of student support that has been duplicated at dozens of colleges to improve outcomes; now the State University of New York system hopes to build on this success on its own campuses.

    In 2018, Westchester Community College became the first SUNY campus to adopt CUNY’s initiative, which WCC calls Viking Resources for Obtaining Associate Degrees and Success (Viking ROADS). A March 2025 report from the nonprofit education-research group MDRC highlights the success of Viking ROADS during its initial three years: a 12-percentage-point increase in graduation rates among participants, despite headwinds from remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The background: CUNY created Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) in 2007 as a comprehensive initiative to address barriers to student retention and completion.

    The core components of ASAP are personalized academic advising, specialized enrollment options and financial aid for course material and transportation costs for three years.

    Over the past decade, ASAP-inspired programs have been implemented at over a dozen institutions in seven states. WCC president Belinda Miles was a part of the ASAP replication initiative in Ohio in 2014, so when she began her role at WCC in 2015, “it wasn’t too long before I ran into ASAP,” she said.

    Arnold Ventures and MDRC, along with an anonymous donor to the WCC Foundation, provided financial support for the launch of Viking ROADS.

    In 2023, SUNY chancellor John B. King Jr. announced the system would implement ASAP at 25 of its 64 campuses starting in 2024. Now, results from a three-year MDRC evaluation of Westchester Community College’s program offer guiding principles to peer institutions scaling their own efforts.

    “We’re delighted to be that pivot campus and a leader amongst our peers,” Miles said.

    The study: MDRC’s study followed WCC staff and students from 2018 to 2021.

    Viking ROADS requires WCC students to be enrolled full-time in an eligible major, meet with a dedicated counselor and use college support services monthly, as well as be a New York resident, a first-time college student and only enrolled in one developmental education course.

    A majority of students involved in the Viking ROADS study were traditional college students, with about one in five identifying as a nontraditional student (defined as someone who is older than 24, works full-time, has children or does not have a high school diploma). One adaptation of ASAP that Viking ROADS staff implemented was to offer a transportation stipend, rather than a prepaid MetroCard; WCC is a commuter campus and students utilize both their own cars and public transport to reach campus, so having flexibility in how they addressed transportation barriers was key, Miles said.

    Over all, program participants were more likely to have higher enrollment rates over time and complete more credits, compared to their peers. By their fourth semester, 20 percent of program participants had earned degrees, compared with 13.3 percent of control group students. And by their sixth semester, 35 percent of program participants had completed an associate degree, compared to 23 percent of the control group.

    Researchers theorized this gap could be tied to the specialized course enrollment options and academic advising Viking ROADS participants receive, which could help students meet their course requirements and reduce their risk of earning excess credits that don’t support degree completion.

    “It’s critical that students begin with a person and a plan, or a plan and a person, [so] we can say, ‘Here’s the road map, here’s your guided pathway, here are the steps you take.’ But having a person that’s reliable is something that is critical for students, particularly first-generation students,” Miles said, because some learners may not have supporters at home who understand the bureaucracy of higher education.

    Program staff also reduce barriers to applying for graduation and making degrees official; among nonparticipants who earned 60 or more credits, only 69 percent earned a degree, compared to 83 percent of Viking ROADS students.

    “Despite the challenges that were posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Viking ROADS still had large effects on three-year graduation rates, confirming the strength and adaptability of the ASAP model,” according to the report. “Viking ROADS not only helped students navigate the immediate disruptions that were caused by the pandemic but also supported their continued academic progress and degree attainment.”

    What’s next: In the same way Miles brought her work with ASAP to WCC, she and her staff plan to contribute to a community of practice for the other SUNY campuses joining these efforts.

    “I’m happy to share with colleagues what our story is and how we keep it going and how we keep expanding, albeit incrementally,” Miles said.

    Funding and providing resources for wraparound services can be a barrier to scaling initiatives, but reallocating and redesigning existing services to better address student needs is one way Miles said she is looking to expand student success efforts at WCC.

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    This article has been updated to reflect the correct name of Arnold Ventures.

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  • The Tools Helping University Students Succeed After Graduation (Post College Journey)

    The Tools Helping University Students Succeed After Graduation (Post College Journey)

    Seattle, Wash.– As thousands of university students graduate each year, many find themselves
    facing an unexpected challenge: career uncertainty. Despite earning degrees, a large portion of
    graduates report feeling unprepared to enter the workforce. Post-college career expert Laurie
    Nilo-Klug     is tackling this issue head-on, providing students with the tools they need to build
    confidence and thrive in their careers.

    Ms. Nilo-Klug, an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University and the founder of Post College
    Journey    , has dedicated her work to helping students transition from college to the professional
    world. Through her programs, Laurie has empowered students to take control of their career
    paths, addressing common issues such as imposter syndrome, skill uncertainty, and job market
    navigation.

     

    After implementing her career confidence-building tools in the classroom, Laurie observed a
    remarkable 60% increase in student confidence levels. “Many students leave college with
    impressive degrees but lack the self-assurance to effectively launch their careers. 

    My goal is to bridge that gap with actionable strategies that instill confidence and competence,” says Laurie. Laurie explains, “In a recent assignment, I had students choose two career exploration activities, and their selections revealed a strong drive to connect classroom learning with their post-college goals. 

    Their enthusiasm for hands-on experiences, such as job applications and simulations, highlighted the critical need for practical, real-world learning opportunities. After gathering student feedback and analyzing the data, I found a 60% increase in their career confidence levels. This reinforced my belief that early and direct exposure to career exploration is essential for student success.”

    In this activity, students were tasked with selecting two career exploration activities from the
    following options:

    ● Attending a career development event;
    ● Having an appointment with the career center;
    ● Joining a student club;
    ● Doing a career self-assessment
    ● Applying to a job;
    ● Or completing a job simulation and then reflecting on what they have learned.

    This assignment aimed to show that career development offers many paths, so it’s crucial to
    understand why you choose an activity, what you hope to gain, and reflect on what you learn.
    Laurie expected students to pick low-effort options like self-assessments or joining a club, given
    their frequent concerns about time constraints. Instead, nearly all chose job simulations or
    applied for a job, showing a strong preference for hands-on experience.

    For media inquiries or to schedule an interview with Laurie Nilo-Klug, please contact:
    Marisa Spano
    marisa@elkordyglobal.com

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  • Six-year graduation rates at four-year colleges and universities

    Six-year graduation rates at four-year colleges and universities

    Graduation rates are always a hot topic in higher education, but often for the wrong reason.  To demonstrate, I offer my parents.  Here is a portrait of Agnes and Mark, married May 4, 1946.

    One night while I was talking to my brother, he asked, “Do you think mom was the way she was because dad was the way he was, or do you think dad was the way he was because mom was the way she was?”  To which I replied, “yes.”  My point, of course, is that in complex relationships, it’s always difficult–impossible, actually–to detangle cause and effect.

    And, despite the Student Affairs perspective that graduation rates are a treatment effect, I maintain that they are actually a selection effect.  As I’ve written about before, it’s pretty easy to predict a college’s six-year graduation rate if you know one data point: The mean SAT score of the incoming class.  That’s because the SAT rolls a lot of predictive factors into one index number.  These include academic preparation, parental attainment, ethnicity, and wealth, on the student side, and selectivity, on the college side.

    When a college doesn’t have to–or chooses not to–take many risks in the admissions process, they tend to select those students who are more likely to graduate.  That skews the incoming class wealthier (Asian and Caucasian populations have the highest income levels in America), higher ability (the SAT is a good proxy for some measure of academic achievement, and often measures academic opportunity), and second generation.  And when you combine all those things–or you select so few poor students you can afford to fund them fully–guess what?  Graduation rates go up.

    If this doesn’t make any sense, read the Blueberry Speech.  Or ask yourself this question: If 100 MIT students enrolled at your local community college, what percentage would graduate? 

    But graduation rates are still interesting to look at, once you have that context.  The visualization below contains three views, using the tabs across the top.  You’ll have to make a few clicks to get the information you need.

    The first view (Single Group) starts with a randomly selected institution, Oklahoma State.  Choose your institution of choice by clicking on the box and typing any part of the name, and selecting the institution. 

    On the yellow bars, you see the entering cohorts in yellow, and the number of graduating students on the blue bars.  Note: The blue bars show graduates in the year shown (so, 4,755, which you can see by hovering over the bar) while the yellow bar shows the entering class from six years prior (7,406 in 2019, who entered in 2013).

    The top row shows graduation rates at all institutions nationally, and the second row shows percentages for the selected institution.  You can choose any single ethnicity at the top left, using the filter.

    The second view (Single Institution) shows all ethnicities at a single institution.  The randomly selected demonstration institution is Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, but of course you can choose any institution in the data set.  Highlight a single ethnic group using the highlight function (I know some people are frightened of interacting with these visualizations….you can’t break anything).

    Note: I start with a minimum of 10 students in each year’s cohorts for the sake of clarity.  Small schools in the Northeast, for instance, might enroll one Asian/Pacific Islander in their incoming class, each year, so the graduation rate could swing wildly from 0% to 100%.  You can change this if you want to live dangerously, by pulling the slider downward.

    The final view (Sectors) shows aggregates of institutional types.  It starts with graduation rates for Hispanic/Latino students, but you can change it to any group you want.

    Have fun learning about graduation rates.  Just don’t assume they are mostly driven by what happens at the institution once the admissions office has its say.

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  • The annual graduation rate post

    The annual graduation rate post

    I know I’ve been barking up the tree of “Graduation Rates are inputs, not outputs” for a long time.  And I know no one is listening.  So I do this, just to show you (without the dependent variable) just how unsurprising they are.

    Here are four views of graduation rates at America’s four-year public and private, not-for-profit colleges and universities. And I’ve put them in four views, with several different ways to look at the data.

    The first (using the tabs across the top) shows four-, five-, and six-year graduation rates on the left, and “Chance in four” on the right.  In other words, since everyone pretty much thinks they’re going to graduate from the college they enroll in as a freshman, what are the chances of graduating in four years, rather than six?  There are some surprises there, as you’ll see.

    On all the visualizations, you can apply filters to limit the colleges you’re looking at.  The scroll bar (to move up or down) is on the right but it’s sometimes hard to see.  And the size slider is set to a minimum of 1,000 students, but you can change that; just beware that small colleges often have wonky data, for several reasons.

    The second view shows six-year rates by gender.

    The third view breaks out six-year rates by ethnicity, comparing African-American, Hispanic, and Asian rates (the shapes) to the rate for White students (on the gray bars).

    And the final view breaks out six-year rates by Pell Grant status, then shows the gap between the two on the right. On the gap chart, a negative number shows colleges where Pell graduation rates are higher than non-Pell rates.

    Enjoy! 

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