Powered by Public’s (PxP) Cluster 13, the Data Integration Cluster, developed a Data Maturity Index (DMI) to assess institutions’ data culture and readiness for strategic data use by identifying both strengths and areas in need of improvement.

Data Maturity Definition

The DMI is an assessment tool for users to evaluate their institution’s data capacity and support a learning community for improving the use of data across campus. The DMI defines Data Maturity as:

“The ability of an institution to improve the organizational, procedural, and technical levels of its data ecosystem to leverage institutional data to produce insights that inform strategic initiatives that meet institutional goals and support student success.”[1]

The DMI assesses stakeholder perceptions of institutional data capacity on 31 items across a number of dimensions, including data governance, collection, quality, dissemination, analysis, culture, and evaluation.

DMI Implementation

Cluster 13 members distributed the DMI to stakeholders at their institutions, and Cluster 14 teams that participated in the Data Literacy Institute (DLI) also took the assessment. The five institutions participating in Cohort 1 of the DLI completed the DMI both before and after participation, and 5 institutions in Cohort 2 took the DMI before participating. Taken together, a total of 200 individuals have completed the DMI.

DMI Findings

Strengths. Across all respondents from 15 institutions, the highest rated item was about the extent to which the institution has identified key stakeholders who will transform the data culture. This item, within the Data Governance topic, received an average of 4.1 out of 5.

Areas of Need. Specific areas of need that emerged based on relatively low average scores include:

1. A central repository for data storage;
2. Staff data training; and
3. Access to reports from a central platform for individual departments.

The two questions about overall data maturity were among the lowest scores, pointing to a need for initiatives such as DLI to improve data usage across institutions. These scores could be indicative of all the different aspects of data maturity – governance, collection, analysis, etc. – being considered together, and reflective of overall data culture.

Pre/Post-DLI 1 Findings

With the first Cohort of DLI institutions, the DMI had the opportunity to track progress on data maturity indicators before and after participation, reflecting increased knowledge and awareness from the program. Of the 91 Cohort 1 participants who responded to the DMI before participating, 37 responded to the post-survey. Across the 29 topic-specific items on the DMI questionnaire (excluding overall questions), participants indicated an average of a one-point increase on a scale of one to five, from 2.7 to 3.9.

Future DMI Use

Cohort 1 institutions are planning to build their own data literacy programs, which may include the use of DMI. The DMI results will inform action plans to build on strengths identified and address the primary areas of need.

The DMI is available to all institutions in the PxP network and APLU will offer support for any institution wanting to implement the DMI on their campus. Please reach out to CDM@aplu.org or dnadasen@aplu.org to learn more.

Cluster 13 Institutions

• George Mason University
• Ohio University
• Tennessee State University
• Texas Tech University
• University of New Hampshire

Cluster 14 – DLI Cohort 1

• Kent State University
• Montclair University
• Oakland University
• University of Minnesota-Duluth
• Wright State University

Cluster 14 – DLI Cohort 2

• Bowling Green State University
• Illinois State University
• Miami University - Ohio
• Tennessee State University
• University of Maine

[1] Powered by Publics. The Data Maturity Index. November 2021. Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). https://www.aplu.org/news-and-...-integration-cluster

This blog originally appeared at: https://www.aplu.org/news-and-...-black-history-month

Last month, APLU hosted a Black History Month Celebration Webinar, focusing on Black leadership in higher education. Our esteemed panel of senior leaders at APLU member institutions consisted of Dr. Luke Wood, Vice President for Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer at San Diego State University; Dr. Tabbetha Dobbins, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Rowan University; Dr. Alisa Mosley, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Jackson State University; and Dr. Harold Martin Sr., Chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.

The panelists discussed a variety of topics related to Black leadership, including their respective pathways to leadership, strategies for overcoming systemic barriers and discrimination, and ways that institutions can foster more inclusive and equitable environments for Black leaders. They also provided advice for young Black colleagues in academia and emphasized the importance of professional development resources for leadership development.

Chancellor Martin emphasized that while higher education has always been a leader in creating opportunities for Black leaders, there is still much work to be done. Provost Mosely highlighted that the academy can be an important site of resistance and change as well as a site of complicity and perpetuation of oppression. Dr. Dobbins added that black leadership in higher education requires courage, persistence, and a willingness to speak truth to power. Dr. Wood acknowledged the unique psychological and physiological impacts of being a Black person in these roles.

The panelists encouraged aspiring Black leaders to find mentors and communities, inject diversity into coursework and curriculum, work collaboratively, and give back to inspire the next generation to pursue opportunities and grow professionally. The panelists institutional calls to action, including: diversifying the faculty, implementing policy change mechanisms, and giving Black leaders equal mentoring and support opportunities.

The discussion provided valuable insights and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for Black leadership in academia. As higher education continues to grapple with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the voices and experiences of Black leaders are essential to shaping a more equitable and just future for all students and faculty.

Some of the resources identified throughout the panel discussion included:

• Whitford, Emma. “There Are So Few That Have Made Their Way.” The Black Experience in Higher Education, 28 October 2020, Inside Higher Ed, 10 March 2023.
• The PhD Project
• Provost Fellows programs at the University of Oregon, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and University of Vermont
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Advancing
  Antiracism, Diversity, and Equity Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening
  Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
• NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance
• Smith, William A., et al. “Racial Battle Fatigue and the MisEducation of Black Men: Racial Microaggressions, Societal Problems, and Environmental Stress.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 80, no. 1, 2011, pp. 63–82. JSTOR.
• Black Doctoral Network
• Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program

It is not only tuition but the total student budget – including fees, room and board, and books and supplies – that can serve as a barrier to low-income student enrollment and success. One area that many institutions have recently focused on to help alleviate this burden is providing Affordable Learning Materials (ALM). Open Educational Resources (OER) is an increasingly popular form of ALM where learning materials are copyrighted to be available in the public domain.

The APLU Powered by Publics High Pell Cluster (Cluster 11) consists of eight institutions enrolling large numbers of Pell recipients that share a commitment to increasing the success of under-resourced students. Within this cluster, the Affordable Learning Materials (ALM) subgroup focuses on developing scalable practices that ensure students have equitable access to learning materials needed for academic success (the cluster’s other two core priorities are financial wellness and gateway course success).

The ALM subgroup of four institutions has met regularly since 2018 to identify promising Open Educational Resources (OER) practices, both at their own institutions and in the literature, to “ensure students have equitable access to learning materials that are needed for them to succeed in their academic pursuits.”

This brief summarizes activities from the ALM subgroup, including findings from a faculty survey distributed to the subgroup of institutions, examples of ALM practices on each campus, considerations for ALM moving forward as identified through subgroup meetings, and finally, resources compiled by the institutions.

Student Belonging has come to the forefront as a critical topic to understand in the retention and success of historically underserved students, and in closing their equity gaps.

Multiple Powered by Publics initiative (PxP) clusters have incorporated the topic of student belonging into their efforts, and APLU members came together to discuss the topic of belongingness at an annual meeting discussion session, Strengthening Student Belonging: A Strategy for Retention, in fall 2022.

This brief highlights recent literature on Student Belonging in postsecondary education, followed by a summary of the session discussion, including effective ways to engage, support, and connect with students.

Hi everyone, I’m passing the pen this month to my colleague Greg Thornton, Associate Director in APLU’s Center for Public University Transformation, to reflect on PxP’s progress in the context of Black History Month. Enjoy! – Julia Michaels, Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Center for Public University Transformation.

By Gregory Thornton

At the Center for Public University Transformation, we see the pursuit of equity at the heart of our work. Despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, our members have made progress in promoting equitable outcomes for students from historically underrepresented groups. Preliminary data presented at the PxP Annual Meeting showed that 6-year graduation outcomes are steadily increasing with the gap between Black students and all undergraduates decreasing. The data have been published to our interactive VSA Analytics platform and are accessible to subscribers. While the data are encouraging and demonstrate our members’ diligence and dedication, we recognize that much work remains to be done to ensure all students have an equal chance at success.

A sampling of our collective 2022 accomplishments includes:

• Held four regional Equity Roundtable events that engaged students, alumni, and administrators from multiple universities in candid discussions of barriers to equitable student success.
• Launched the second cohort of the pilot Data Literacy Institute with five institutions.
• Published multiple reports summarizing the results of the clusters’ activities and lessons learned on the PxP Learning Exchange.
• Connected the 16 Intermediaries for Scale institutions with expert technical assistance to build their capacity for holistic advising, digital learning, data literacy, equitable design, integrating the student voice, and strategic finance.

As we reflect on our accomplishments, it is particularly important to recognize the challenges and oppression faced by Black people in academia during this Black History Month. Despite systemic barriers and discrimination, Black people have made significant contributions to research, teaching, and scholarship. We all must continue to work towards creating a more inclusive and equitable higher education system that recognizes and values the diversity of our students and faculty. The national theme for Black History Month 2023 is “Black Resistance,” which speaks to the ongoing struggle for racial justice and equality in our society. So, let us not forget the resilience, courage, and strength of Black people in the face of adversity.

In honor of Black History Month, APLU will host our annual Black History Month Celebration Webinar, Black Resistance: Leadership in Academe, on February 28, 3-4 PM EST. This is an excellent opportunity to come together as a community to celebrate and learn from the unique experiences and perspectives of our Black colleagues and peers. We encourage everyone to participate in this event and join the conversation about how we can work towards creating a more inclusive and equitable higher education system that recognizes and values diversity in our student bodies, faculty, and administration.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) awarded $4.5 million in Postsecondary Student Success Grant (PSSG) Program to five institutions in January, including APLU member Florida International University (FIU). These five grants represent the first awards under this new program, announced in August 2022.

FIU received funding for its Scaling Completion Initiative, which will provide outreach, coaching, and financial assistance to students at risk of dropping out or to those who stopped out with over 90 credits during COVID. The initiative will employ rigorous evaluation methods to produce evidence about effective practices for scaling. The majority of FIU students (76 percent) are historically underserved students of color.

In December, Congress appropriated an additional $45 million in funding for the PSSG program for Fiscal Year 2023.  ED shared that the next round of awards would continue to support institutions advance student success and completion, specifically to “help institutions invest in data-driven and evidence-based reforms to encourage postsecondary retention, transfer, and completion among students who are close to graduation, as well as those who temporarily withdrew from school because of challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic” (see ED announcement).

APLU will provide guidance to its members to help them apply for funding once additional information from ED becomes available this summer.

The 12 institutions in the PxP Metropolitan Cluster (see the Institution list, below) recently released the Student Employment Resources for Practitioners online toolkit.

Members of the cluster with interest and expertise in student employment convened a subcommittee to explore how on-campus student employment can be used as a high-impact practice for increasing equitable student success. The toolkit is intended to maximize the effectiveness of on-campus employment in particular, which “…is correlated with student retention and success when crafted to advance the academic enrichment, social engagement, and financial capabilities of students.”

The toolkit provides resources for students, supervisors and administrators:

• For students, the website provides links to tools at member institutions, including a professional development plan, transferable skills worksheet, and guidance for conversations with supervisors.
• For supervisors, resources include hiring, onboarding, development, and offboarding practices such as guidance for inclusive hiring, training, coaching conversations, evaluations, and exit interviews.
• Administrator resources include an example of an internship program, an annotated bibliography about student employment, and an example of how to document students’ experiences and related learnings.

The toolkit also provides examples of student employment participation and outcomes data.

Below is a list of the institutions that developed this toolkit:

• Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
• Old Dominion University
• Portland State University
• The University of Texas at Arlington
• University at Albany
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Houston
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Louisville
• University of Missouri-Kansas City
• University of New Mexico
• Wichita State University

APLU partnered with the Association of Institutional Research (AIR) to pilot a Data Literacy Institute (DLI) program to improve data literacy among faculty and staff at 10 institutions with the broader goal of improving student success outcomes. Central to this goal is increasing skills and knowledge in the use of data to inform strategic, tactical, and operational decisions related to student success. The 24-week program launched in two cohorts.

APLU hired independent evaluator ASA Research to examine the implementation and early outcomes of the first cohort of five institutions which launched in August 2021. Approximately 20 faculty and staff from each institution in the Northern Cluster of APLU’s Powered by Publics effort participated.

Through interviews, an online focus group, a survey, document review, and classroom observations, findings were identified regarding participants’ experiences, satisfaction levels, outcomes, and suggestions for program improvement.

Findings

• The survey revealed overall satisfaction with the DLI program; over 80 percent of respondents would recommend the program to their colleagues and found the capstone work valuable to their institutions.
• Importantly, the majority feel equipped and plan to apply the lessons learned through the program to their work on campus.
• While respondents understood that the online program format was necessary due to the constraints of COVID, they expressed a clear preference for an in-person program.
• Focus group and interview participants suggested shortening the program length.
• While content, capstone projects, and tutorials were the most highly rated program components, the participants acknowledged the difficulty of catering to varying levels of data expertise.

Recommendations

The following recommendations based on participant feedback can guide program replication for future cohorts:

• Shorten the length of the program,
• Provide transparent, common language around expectations for time commitment, roles, and responsibilities,
• Incorporate expertise into participant roles, and
• Incorporate more practical opportunities for hands-on activities and the use of institutional data.

This first DLI cohort benefited from the program’s content, networking, and group project work. Participants plan to apply strategic data use to their jobs and to continue engaging with their cohorts. Ideally, future cohorts will help increase campus-wide data literacy, collaboration, and ultimately, successful student outcomes.

Data literacy and the strategic application of data to policy and program implementation and refinement are critical skills needed not only by institutional research staff but by all institutional administrators, staff, and faculty. A better understanding of student experiences and outcomes can help an institution shape the supports needed to ensure successful completion.

Read the full report

Happy new year to all our Powered by Publics members! As we enter the fifth and final year of Powered by Publics, I’m reflecting on all we have accomplished as a network, and the challenges yet to overcome. We’ve created spaces where hundreds of individuals from our 127 member institutions and systems can find community, learn new knowledge and skills, and problem-solve together. We have also produced valuable resources for the field, including:

• New research and publications on transfer student success, affordability solutions beyond financial aid, reducing DFW rate equity gaps, and how to engage students as campus change agents.
• A Data Literacy Institute and Data Maturity Index tool to help student success practitioners use data more effectively in their daily work.
• A website of resources on expanding and improving on-campus student employment opportunities (which, research shows, is associated with better academic outcomes than off-campus student employment).
• New approaches for advancing equity including a cross-campus, virtual faculty learning community; equity roundtables with students and alumni; optimizing degree pathways with Curricular Analytics; and a winner-take-all equity challenge.

The challenge at hand is how to apply this knowledge – and the powerful network we’ve fostered – toward making necessary changes at universities. How do you change a complex system, comprised of thousands of individuals, subject to volatile political and economic forces as well as the shifting sands of leadership changes? Some research suggests there are three drivers: structural change (policies and practices), relational change (relationships, connections, and power dynamics), and transformative change (habits of thought that influence what we think, do, and say).

Powered by Publics has dipped into all three, while leaving substantial room for improvement. The individuals in your clusters may have influenced how you see your work, and how you seek out relationships and connections across your campus. Structural change is possible when leaders are at the table and committed to improvement. We’ve heard anecdotally about policy and practice changes happening on a number of campuses, sometimes as a result of lessons learned through our network.

As we build a new future together, we hope to strengthen those individual connections through communities of practice, while influencing the field through our events, publications, and thought leadership. Engaging a coalition of committed leaders is the next step toward catalyzing tangible, structural changes at universities. We’re up for the challenge and look forward to working with you, our members, to make necessary changes that will eliminate race and class as predictors of academic success.

As the field of higher education continues responding to the catalytic events of 2020, higher education organizations like APLU have gained momentum as critical change agents in the work of institutional transformation at scale.

National collaborations, such as APLU’s Intermediary for Scale (IFS) initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), have yielded critical lessons learned about how organizations can directly contribute to accelerating equitable outcomes for postsecondary student success.  

For many colleges, universities, and state systems, the challenge is not what to do but how to do it.  As an Intermediary, APLU is well-positioned to liaise with critical funders, partners in the field, and content experts to streamline support and disseminate promising practices to membership networks that are contributing to better outcomes for our nation’s most vulnerable student populations. 

Intermediary Role

APLU has served in an Intermediary role since 2017. In 2020, APLU partnered with a select group of 16 universities from across the Powered by Publics network of clusters to implement evidence-based practices designed to increase equitable student success outcomes and degree completion.  Organizing discourse and creating conditions for learning, APLU leveraged a facilitated approach to conduct rigorous institutional needs assessments, collect disaggregated student data, cultivate a peer learning agenda, and broker technical assistance in advising, digital learning, data literacy, strategic finance, equity, and integrating the student voice.  

Lessons Learned

Each intermediary has a unique role to play to meet the needs of its distinct network. However, the following observations are necessary considerations to optimize a structure of support that leads to sustainable change, both for APLU IFS and more universally to any institutional engagement strategy:

• Transformation begins with equity.
• • Operationalizing equity as an explicit priority focused on the voice of faculty, staff, and students is critical to defining the institutional experience.
• Transformation takes time.
• • Understanding the unique DNA of network institutions, and the students they serve, to structure a comprehensive and integrated engagement model is critical to meeting them where they are, aligning with their priorities, and building a meaningful institutional experience.
• Transformation is an adaptive challenge.
• • Providing clear and articulated expectations for engaging cross-functional campus stakeholders is critical to a cohesive institutional experience.  
• Transformation requires capacity.
• • Building institutional capacity for data literacy and strategic finance is critical to a sustainable institutional experience.
• Transformation isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.
• • Establishing trusted relationships across campus that catalyze interpersonal connections is critical to the success of the institutional experience.

Participating Institutions

1. University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
2. Clemson University
3. Illinois State University
4. Middle Tennessee State University
5. Montana State University
6. New Mexico State University
7. University of New Orleans
8. New Jersey Institute of Technology
9. Ohio University
10. Rutgers University-Newark
11. University of South Alabama
12. Texas Tech University
13. Tuskegee University
14. Virginia Commonwealth University
15. Western Michigan University
16. University of Wyoming

Hi everyone, I’m passing the pen this month to my colleague Alcioné Frederick to share what we have learned from our Powered by Publics Equity Roundtables. Enjoy! – Julia Michaels, Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Center for Public University Transformation.

By Alcioné Frederick

Having students’ experiences reflected in institutional policies and procedures is key to achieving equity. That’s why Powered by Publics partnered with 20 institutions to convene students, administrators, and alumni to identify barriers to college access, success, and career pathways that students from underrepresented backgrounds face.

Utilizing our equity framework and the principles of conversational leadership, the roundtables were intentionally designed to provide member institutions a collaborative space and place to center student voices in their efforts to advance student success. The roundtable format provided a creative, conversational architecture by: asking critical questions, using trauma-informed facilitation to maintain psychological and emotional safety, building trust, equalizing power dynamics, and utilizing student-led reflections to capture the collective wisdom of the students and alumni within and across member institutions.

Hosted by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Colorado Denver, the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, the University of Texas at Arlington and engaging students, administrators, and alumni from 20 institutions, the roundtables provided critical insights into the student experience and how institutions can better address students’ needs through institutional policies.

I encourage you to review the full report and watch the accompanying webinar, which featured students and administrators. Some key student-identified insights from the report include:

• Institutions had resources for students to take advantage of, but those students bore most of the responsibility for finding these resources and establishing a comprehensive support system for themselves.
• Traditional hours of operation for student support services create barriers to access for non-traditional students who may commute, be enrolled part-time, and take evening classes.
• Finances continue to be a significant barrier to college access and student success.
• Orientation and transition programs did not sufficiently reach every type of student, suggesting a need for more targeted supports.
• Students often experience student support services as siloed.
• Career services often focuses attention on traditional and STEM students, which may disadvantage non-traditional students as well as those studying social sciences and the humanities.

Crucially, the work has not ended with the roundtables we hosted in 2022. APLU is creating an equity roundtable guidebook to provide public research universities with a framework for engaging students, administrators, alumni, faculty, and staff in meaningful dialogues around these issues. We’ll be releasing the guide in the New Year and we hope you’ll find this resource valuable in sparking dialogue on your own campuses.

On Saturday, November 5^th, 2022, Powered by Publics hosted their annual convening, “Future Forward”, in Denver, Colorado. During this all-day event, members of the Powered by Publics clusters met to share   what they have learned through their collaboration and efforts to improve their universities. The agenda for the day centered around three main topics: advising, student belonging, and data integration.

Student Success through Advising,

Advising is critical to student success. Many participants characterized successful advising programs as relational rather than transactional and impersonal. Although this is something many wanted, they also expressed concern about overworked advising staff with high caseloads. Those who made the greatest progress looked at data from champion advisors and analyzed them to build a case for effective practices that should be scaled.  Finally, learning loss caused by the pandemic is a top concern for advisors and those who manage them.

Student Belonging

Student belonging is an essential prerequisite for retention. In exploring the root causes of student belonging, attendees identified feelings of isolation that were exacerbated for minoritized students. Financial stress was another determinant of student attrition. Students’ concerns about finances stemmed from multiple causes, including lack of transparency around financial aid packages and lack of knowledge of available resources beyond financial aid.

Proposed solutions included providing better access to financial resources, simplifying communications around financial aid, and creating opportunities for students to feel incorporated into the campus culture. Participants reported that their students felt unseen and unrepresented on campus, particularly in the classroom.  Diversifying the faculty continues to be a top priority to ensure students can find faculty with similar backgrounds and experiences. In addition, when faculty and staff are empowered with data and knowledge about student perspectives, they are better placed to help students feel integrated into campus life.

Connecting Data with Strategies for Change.

The importance of data integration was a recurring theme throughout the day. Most attendees accessed their data through an institutional dashboard, and data are framed for campus leaders (e.g.  presidents and provosts). Attendees discussed how to broaden access and improve data presentation. Some attendees questioned which data were most helpful and thought that better training would improve data access and use.

Attendees also prioritized classroom success and curriculum redesign as important topics for future inquiry. Some themes from those conversations included identifying what good teaching looks like, providing faculty with professional development to strengthen inclusive and culturally responsive teaching skills, and identifying a "coalition of the willing" of motivated faculty to lead change efforts with their peers."

This year's conference brought together many individuals who were enthusiastic about student success. Participants had numerous opportunities to make connections with their peers across clusters.   As Powered by Publics enters a new phase of collaboration around topic-based communities of practice, APLU intends to hold more convenings like this one to engage members around critical student success issues.

Transferring between institutions has become more common, yet the successful completion of a four-year degree has not improved for transfer students – particularly for those from underserved populations. For this reason, the Southeastern Cluster (Cluster 5) of PxP collaborated on a report, “A Focus on Transfer Student Success Programs and Best Practices” to examine transfer-specific state policies, institutional partnerships and practices, and key metrics for assessment, all with a focus on equitable outcomes. In addition, the cluster leads who authored the report collected and analyzed institutional data comparing the graduation rates of transfer students to students who began at the institution.

Promising Transfer Practices

Examples of particularly effective policies and practices summarized in the report follow (for additional examples see the report):

State policies

• Florida has had a comprehensive statewide articulation policy in place since 1971. Successful components of this policy cited in the report include guaranteeing transfer of credit via the Statewide Course Numbering System, guaranteeing transfer of the general education block of credit, establishing a list of statewide common prerequisite courses, establishing a process for determining statewide credit-by-examination equivalencies, and a common college transcript. The state further cements these guarantees through documented Transfer Student Rights.
• North Carolina also has a Comprehensive Articulation Agreement guaranteeing credit transfer for specific academic programs. The University of North Carolina System has a robust public data dashboard that includes transfer benchmarks.
• The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) launched TransferVA in 2019, which includes “a 16-credit hour Passport and a 30-credit Uniform Certificate of General Studies to fulfill lower-division general education requirements at any public institution," two-to-four-year course alignment, transfer program maps, specialized transfer agreements, and an online transfer portal.

Institutional practices

• Clemson University offers the Transfer 2 Tiger Mentor Program (T2T), among other transfer supports. This peer mentoring program connects new transfer students with upperclassmen transfer students “to help cultivate a support system within the transfer community...”
• Florida State University evaluated the impact of a mandatory academic success course for transfer students and found that this required course had significant positive effects on transfer student success. The course not only helped transfer students develop academic skills but also fostered a sense of belonging and community among transfer students.
• East Carolina University offers Pirate Promise, where students who complete an associate degree at a partnering community college are guaranteed admission, have their application fee waived, and have access to specialized support services, including a transfer coach who maintains regular contact with students in the program.

Findings

Authors of the report made the following observations based on the quantitative analysis and qualitative evidence from the literature and a scan of state policies and transfer practices at each institution:

• The data collected show that the four-year graduation rate is lower for transfer students than for first-time, full-time freshmen across the institutions, however caution should be exercised in interpreting these data due to lack of common definitions, including the number of incoming credits of transfer students.
• Transfer student experiences vary by characteristics of the institution. For example, transfer students make up 43% of the student population at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (a larger share compared to other institutions) and the institution offers transfer-specific orientations and targeted first-year seminar sections. Perhaps as a result, the graduation rate gap for transfer and first-time students is smaller than at other institutions.
• Anecdotally, it seems that both breadth and depth of transfer practices matter: “Institutions with robust, embedded supports for transfer students had higher rates of retention and graduation than institutions with fewer or less extensive embedded support programs.”
• State systems to which these institutions belong “vary in the degree to which they have championed, resourced, and held accountable the respective universities” to transfer student success.
• Transfer support does not become successful overnight: “Some of the most successful programs catalogued in this paper are the result of many years and even decades of development, implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement.”

Limitations

It should be noted that data for the transfer student population did not have any parameters around number of incoming credits, and the institutions faced challenges developing a common, statewide transfer student success data set due to variance between institutions in definitions and assessment metrics.

Recommendations

The institutions in this cluster recommended further study including looking beyond retention and graduation to socioeconomic indicators of success such as the mobility and productivity of their graduates. In additional, several of the institutions in this cluster have begun using Curricular Analytics to identify potential barriers for transfer students, and three institutions in the cluster are collaborating on a transfer model specific to STEM pipelines.

The report can be found at https://acrobat.adobe.com/link...73-9ead-b9843dfd4b07.

List of institutions in the Southeastern Cluster

• Clemson University
• East Carolina University
• Florida State University
• North Carolina A&T State University
• North Carolina State University at Raleigh
• South Carolina State University
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
• University of North Carolina System
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Virginia State University

Five institutions in the University of North Carolina (UNC) System (see below) and a research team at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (Belk Center) at the NC State University College of Education examined the relationship between transfer credit applicability and student outcomes. In 2014, the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) and the UNC system overhauled their Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) to include Baccalaureate Degree Plans (BDPs) that provide guidance both at the institution- and major-level. The Belk Center found that the CAA increased degree completion and decreased excess credit accumulation among community college transfer students, but recommended further evaluation to better understand the impact of BDPs.

This study used descriptive analyses to determine whether community college transfer students who enrolled at the five participating institutions in the fall of 2017 graduated within four years, completed the BDP before enrolling at the four-year institution, and/or changed majors after enrolling at the four-year institution. The study also employed logistic regression techniques to examine the relationship between BDP credit applicability and graduation, and whether this varies by race and socioeconomic factors.

Findings

Major findings are highlighted below (for additional detail please see the report):

• Although the majority (nearly 70%) of students in this sample graduated within four years of transferring to the university, the graduation rates were lower for students of color and Pell-eligible students.
• Students completed the majority (72%) of BDP courses before transferring, on average, but did not complete over one-quarter of the courses that were recommended before enrolling in the university.
• Completing a greater percentage of the BDP before transferring to the four-year institution did not increase the likelihood of BA graduation both overall and among students of color.

One potential factor to consider is whether students were aware of the BDP while enrolled at the community college. This study did not include surveys or interviews with students; further qualitative research would allow for the analysis of students’ perceptions and experiences, including awareness levels. The research team noted that the BDPs vary across institutions in their content, format, and online location – all factors that could affect accessibility and awareness levels for both students and advisors.

Recommendations

The research team recommended the following future practice and research to improve the effectiveness of BDPs:

• Standardize the BDP template across institutions and provide it in a centralized, searchable database.
• Replicate the BDP credit alignment analysis at the institutional level to determine specific courses that present barriers to transfer students.

Better understanding the relationship between course transferability and successful outcomes is critical, particularly for the low-income and Black, LatinX, and Indigenous students who are more likely to begin postsecondary education at the community college.

Participating institutions

• North Carolina A&T State University
• North Carolina State University
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• University of North Carolina Wilmington

North Carolina has robust systems of higher education, including 16 four-year public universities and 58 community colleges, supporting over 10,000 students as they pursue a bachelor’s degree through transfer each year (UNC System Interactive Data Dashboard). The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) partnered with five institutions in the University of North Carolina System - North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University,  University of North Carolina Charlotte, University of North Carolina Greensboro, University of North Carolina Wilmington - and an evaluation team to examine credit applicability and student outcomes.

The purpose of this multi-institution study was to better understand the relationship between credit alignment based on Baccalaureate Degree Plans, and success outcomes for transfer students, particularly those who earned an Associate in Arts (AA) or Associate in Science (AS) degree before transferring to the 4-year institution.

The structure of this report offers an introduction to transfer articulation within the context of North Carolina, describes the project and key points of the study, offers details about the findings and their implications on practice and policy, then provides a set of recommendations.

The data used in this report was developed by a task force of professionals representing the five university participants, including:

• Dr. Samantha Raynor, (Chair) Assistant Vice Provost for Strategic Student Success Initiatives at UNC-Greensboro
• Dr. Jess Boersma, Associate Dean for Student Success & Applied Learning at UNC-Wilmington
• Dr. Charles Clift, Assistant Vice Provost and University Registrar, NC State University
• Amanda Fleming, University Registrar, UNC-Wilmington
• Dr. John Smail, Dean of University College, UNC-Charlotte
• Dr. Regina Williams Davis, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, NC A&T State University
• Dr. Carrie Zelna, Associate Vice Chancellor, NC State University

The report is attached to this blog, but can also be found here.

Blog originally appeared at:

https://www.aplu.org/news-and-...ve-directors-note-15

As we approach the 2022 Powered by Publics Convening in Denver on November 5, it’s worth taking stock of all we’ve accomplished through Powered by Publics since our work began in earnest four years ago. If you have not yet registered for the Powered by Publics convening, please do so. We’re so looking forward to gathering in person around issues such as advising, connecting data with strategies for institutional change, strengthening student belonging, and much more.

Together, the Powered by Publics community has made important strides toward addressing the root causes of inequitable student outcomes. Our work has spanned the breadth of promising solutions to student success barriers, including enhancing affordability, creating holistic student support services, and strengthening teaching and learning.

Start with affordability. Powered by Publics worked with nine institutions across four clusters to undertake an in-depth look at campus-based innovations for promoting college affordability and reducing student debt. The original research outlined the state of college affordability with attention to the experiences of minoritized and low-income student groups, preliminary insights into the results of emergency student aid delivered during the pandemic, and innovations to strengthen affordability and mitigate student debt.

We also made important progress in teaching and learning. For example, the Western Coalition led a cross-institutional faculty learning community to help scale simple but impactful changes to instruction to boost students’ sense of belonging, increase their success, and help close equity gaps at the course level (learn more about this important work here).

Developing holistic, wraparound student supports has been a priority for many Powered by Publics institutions. We looked at these supports with an eye to the experiences of students who are underserved. We know, for example, that transferring to a new college can be cumbersome and challenging for students, too often leading to lost credits and increased time in, and money spent on, school. Recognizing this challenge, the Southeastern Cluster has undertaken a thorough examination of transfer credit efficiency across several institutions with different approaches to transfer student support. The cluster will share the results of its work at the APLU Annual Meeting.

We’ve also worked hard to center the student experience with equity in mind. This summer and fall, Powered by Publics held four cross-institutional “equity roundtables” convening students, alumni, and administrators. The events were hosted by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Colorado Denver, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Texas at Arlington. The roundtables were extremely successful and resonated with students and alumni (several of whom asked when the next roundtable would be on their campus!) We’re excited to share insights they uncovered in a forthcoming report and webinar on November 29 – more details coming soon.

Of course, this is just a small sampling of the work we’ve accomplished together. For a more detailed recap, I encourage you to read the Powered by Publics progress report we published late last year. We’re looking forward to building on these accomplishments when we gather in person in a few short weeks!

Hi everyone, I’m passing the pen this month to my colleague Gregory Thornton to share what we have learned from the Intermediaries for Scale experience. Enjoy! – Julia Michaels, Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Center for Public University Transformation.

By Gregory Thornton

Although institutional transformation is a goal for many institutions, getting there can be a daunting challenge. Adding to the difficulty, each institution has a unique set of assets, needs, and characteristics that inform its journey.

In 2021, we launched an application for Powered by Publics institutions to participate in the Intermediaries for Scale (IFS) cohort learning experience, an investment program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Sixteen universities from eight different clusters were selected to collectively transform policies and practices on their campuses to increase equitable student success. Since the project’s inception, IFS institutions participated in an in-depth assessment of their student success needs, met monthly as a peer learning community, and shared data through the Postsecondary Data Partnership. For the next 15 months, the cohort will receive customized technical assistance in advising, digital learning, equitable design, data literacy, and/or strategic finance to support their institution’s transformation efforts.

With the project recently transitioning from the cohort-based work to the individually focused service delivery phase, we have learned some important lessons about the transformation process at various levels. One important lesson is that a carefully structured peer team-based cohort can help institutions throughout the process and share learning along the way. Transformation also takes time. It takes a shared leadership vision communicated with the campus community, backed with dedicated resources and the strategic use of data.

Institutions shared various lessons from the project as well. They noted excitement for additional resources to support transformation, but particularly amid a pandemic-constrained environment, they faced barriers from limited capacity to identify, communicate, and organize large cross-functional teams, difficulty getting buy-in, and initiative fatigue. Institutions also found value in connecting with peers in their “mini-service cohorts” and building a longer-term network focused on sharing ideas and learning about best practices from like-minded institutions.

Dr. @Samaad Keys, a program officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who led the Foundation’s involvement in the APLU Intermediaries for Scale investment, also shared insights gleaned from the project. Dr. Keys shared that true transformation requires that equity be explicit and prioritized in all transformation efforts. He also shared that transformation is people-reliant and process-heavy and that capturing faculty, staff, and particularly student voice is key. Finally, he said transformation takes time, resources, and evidence-based interventions to be successful.

We look forward to taking a deeper dive into these insights – and more – at our Powered by Publics convening on November 5 in Denver, CO. Register here!

On August 11, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a notice inviting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 “Postsecondary Success Program.” There is approximately $5 million in funding available, and ED expects to make between 5-8 two-year awards of between $600,000 to $1 million.  Applications are due October 11, 2022.

In the initial pilot, eligible institutions include those that are currently eligible for Ed funding through its Title III and V programs—this includes Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and colleges eligible for the Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP). (For current eligibility, see the 2022 Title III and V program eligibility matrix here.) All institutions of higher education are eligible to apply as a consortium, however, so long as the lead applicant is eligible to participate in Title III or V programs.

The federal register notice includes a significant amount of explanatory detail if your institution is interested in applying, including requirements about levels of evidence; requirement to submit a logic model (ED suggests this as a resource); and application instructions. The application itself is available at grants.gov; you will need to register a login to access the digital application.

Please feel free to share this opportunity with colleagues who might be interested.

How do we help students stay engaged, enrolled, and on track toward a degree? These are questions every institution grapples with as they seek to improve equity and student success on campus. The Western Land-grant Cluster in Powered by Publics is currently exploring steps institutions can take to improve the student experience.

Retaining students starts in gateway, general education courses – which not only provide foundational knowledge for subsequent classes, but also set the tone of the overall educational experience on campus. Even if students are succeeding academically, they can still feel disconnected from the university community. This means that at some institutions as much as half of students stopping out are actually in good academic standing.

Overhauling gateway courses with an eye toward cultivating student belonging can help. Syllabi, for example, can set expectations for students and instructors before a course begins. A good syllabus is warm and inviting, reinforcing to students that they belong in the course and at the university. The syllabus also provides an opportunity to make clear to students that academic challenges are universal and that the instructor and institution are there to help ensure every student succeeds. As institutions work to increase student belonging in entry-level courses, peer-led focus groups offer one path for institutions to better gauge students’ sense of belonging. The APLU co-led Student Experience Project recently released a host of resources to help faculty cultivate students’ sense of belonging from day one and support for institutions to help more instructors on campus learn about resources to bolster student belonging.

Yet even students who know about resources available for help can feel ashamed using them. Words such as academic probation can add to students’ sense that they’re outliers and struggling academically. To address this, some institutions have shifted to using framing such as academic warnings or making clear whether students are still in “good academic standing.”

Using communications framed with a growth mindset is key to helping students feel that academic setbacks are normal and that the institution stands ready to help them address challenges they’re facing. Instructors speaking about academic hurdles in their own educational journey or even challenges they’ve faced with mental health can help students can help students understand that they belong on campus and have tools to help them succeed.

Then there’s the challenge of re-engaging students who are no longer in good academic standing. Institutions have taken a variety of approaches to better serve these students and get them back on track toward a degree:

• New Mexico State University’s Aggies Back on Track program employs graduate students who can proactively reach out to students facing suspension and conduct outreach to suspended students with an explanation of how to return from a suspension and resources to help them do so.
• Montana State University has a “Second Wind” program allowing suspended students to bypass the reinstatement process so long as they take a course on growth mindset and how to succeed academically. All told, the program has helped roughly half of students facing suspension return.
• Oklahoma State University has been looking at administrative processes relating to suspension and reinstatement to find areas in which students may be getting lost, focusing especially on first-year students. The university provided additional time for suspended students to appeal their suspension, extending the window beyond the usual short time between the spring and summer terms. OSU is providing additional advising support to help these students reengage during the summer and recover academically in time for the fall.

Data has been at the heart of the Powered by Publics initiative since we launched. To help measure our network’s progress on equity and degree completion goals, we collect data annually through our Core Data Metrics process. On Monday, we launched the 2022 collection period, which will be open through September 30.

The Core Data Metrics track institution-level data for eight measures, disaggregated by 15 student subgroups, that contribute to the analysis of our collective progress in supporting student success. This has allowed us to report progress for the entire network as we did late last year. Among other things, our report showed retention at Powered by Publics members increased by 2 percent for all undergraduates, by 4 percent for Black students, and by 3 percent for Latinx students from Fall 2018-Fall 2019. However, we still have more work to do in closing equity gaps for completion, which widened by 1 and 2 percentage points respectively for Black and Latinx students.

In addition to reporting progress, we want to put this data to work for your universities. Your cluster manager has shared PDFs of the Core Data Metrics for your individual institution and cluster alongside the national benchmark. Additionally, if your institution is a subscriber to VSA Analytics, you’ll be able to actively interact with the data, including creating custom peer groups for benchmarking with other institutions. If your university is not a subscriber but wants to become one, please let us know by emailing CDM@aplu.org.

On the topic of data, last month I participated in a Chronicle of Higher Education panel alongside Matthew Rust of IUPUI and Dhanfu E. Elston of College Complete America exploring how institutions can better leverage their data to advance equity and student success. Making data actionable is increasingly important to institutions and requires digging deep into course level data, as well as disaggregating by racial and ethnic groups.

As we know, higher education is awash in data, but institutions need new approaches to help better use it. A lack of data literacy across all parts of campus is one significant barrier to more effective use. That’s why early this week we announced five new institutions will join our Data Literacy Institute, a collaboration between Powered by Publics and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), to convene cross-functional teams in learning to better use data to improve student outcomes. We hope the Data Literacy Institute will be a sustainable resource we can scale; this is just a pilot.

I’m delighted to highlight some of the other updates in our newsletter this week:

• APLU & AIR Announce a New Data Literacy Institute Cohort to Advance Data Capacity and Student Success on Campus
• A learning exchange post on how the Western Coalition’s Faculty Learning Community is Advancing Equity.
• A recording of a Chronicle of Higher Education Webinar featuring me, IUPUI’s Matthew Rust, and other higher education leaders.
• And a host of new resources for supporting student belonging and success in the classroom from the Student Experience Project.