Transcript Applying First-Year “Lessons Learned” to the Transfer

The New Normal:
Transfer Students in the Majority
JOHN N. GARDNER
CREDIT TRANSFER CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE ORONO
April 19, 2013
COPYRIGHT, JOHN N. GARDNER 2013
I am “from away”.
Connecticut
But at least from New England.
And I have visited these Maine campuses
College of the Atlantic
 Northern Maine Community College
 University of Maine at Augusta
 University of Maine at Farmington
 University of Maine at Fort Kent
 University of New England
 University of Southern Maine

And I have worked in my signature initiative
known as Foundations of Excellence® with
Central Maine Community College (07/08)
 Kennebec Valley Community College (05/06)
 University of Maine at Fort Kent (11/12)
 University of Southern Maine (11/12 – present)

And my most sustained work
for the citizens of Maine has
been with my wife,
Dr. Betsy O. Barefoot
for your MELMAC
Educational Foundation
The New Normal
Inviting you to imagine how you
could increase the success of
your transfer students.
In 1987 The Chronicle described me as a
“self- appointed spokesman” for the nation’s
“freshman” students
Now I would describe myself as being in
that same role for the “other” new students:
Transfers
What I know about transfer is based
on lessons learned especially from:
Serving as CAO for five two-year regional campuses of a
public university system
USC
Beaufort
USC
Lancaster
USC
Salkehatchie
USC
Sumter
USC
Union
What I know about transfer is based
on lessons learned especially from:
Assisting 46 two- and four-year institutions in
developing and implementing action plans to improve
transfer sending rates through a process known as
Foundations of Excellence® (FoE) Transfer Focus
What is FoE Transfer Focus?
An externally guided, comprehensive, institutionwide self study of the transfer experience…
resulting in a strategic action plan to improve
transfer student success
Foundations of Excellence® Transfer Focus Schools
 American Public University System
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(2012)
CUNY Brooklyn College (2009)
CUNY Lehman College(2010)
CUNY Queens College (2011)
East Carolina University (2010)
Georgia Gwinnett College (2009)
Illinois State University (2012)
Indiana University Kokomo (2009)
Kean University (2009)
Kennesaw State University (2010)
 Lourdes College (2010)
 Northwood University (2010)
 Shenandoah University (2010)
 State University of New York at

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Oswego (2009)
State University of New York
College at Brockport (2009)
University of Northern Iowa
(2009)
University of Southern Maine
(2011)
University of Texas Brownsville
(2009)
FOUR-YEAR INSTITUTIONS
Foundations of Excellence® Transfer Focus Schools
 Ashland Community and Technical



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

College (2011)
Big Sandy Community and Technical
College (2011)
Bluegrass Community and Technical
College (2011)
Bossier Parish Community College
(2010)
Bowling Green Technical College
(2011)
City Colleges of Chicago, Harry S.
Truman College (2010)
Columbus State Community
College (2010)
 Elizabethtown Community College


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(2011)
Gateway Community and Technical
College (2011)
Hazard Community and Technical
College (2011)
Henderson Community College
(2011)
Hopkinsville Community College
(2011)
Jefferson Community and
Technical College District (2011)
Lone Star College-Montgomery
(2010)
TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS
Foundations of Excellence® Transfer Focus Schools
 Madisonville Community College







(2011)
Malcolm X College (2010)
Massachusetts Bay Community
College (2010)
Maysville Community and Technical
College (2011)
Mercer County Community College
(2010)
Minnesota State Community and
Technical College (2010)
North West Arkansas Community
College (2010)
Olive-Harvey College (2010)
 Owensboro Community and
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
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Technical College (2011)
Palo Alto College (2010)
San Antonio College (2012)
Somerset Community College
(2011)
Southeast Kentucky Community
and Technical College (2011)
St. Cloud Technical & Community
College (2010)
Waubonsee Community College
(2011)
Waycross College (2010)
West Kentucky Community and
Technical College (2011)
TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS
And one entire state system:
Let’s start with the most basic
question: What is transfer?
It is the action or process of
“moving” as an articulated student
from one post-secondar y
institution to another, which may
or may not mean “moving” to a
different location!
Instead,
transfer is…
…the totality of the educationally
purposeful experiences which we
intentionally provide our students to
enable them to pursue their educational
and personal aspirations for academic
movement from one post secondary
institution to some other learning
environment that enables students to
pursue a form of educational
credentialing which may or not be
provided by the sending institution; and
in which the student is academically
successful after the actual “transfer”
Transfer includes everything we do for our students
At point of
initial entry
In the curriculum
and co-curriculum
The support we
can provide
Proper testing
Placement
Orientation
Advising
Up to and beyond the point
of entry into an educational
credentialing process not
offered by our institution
Information
Counseling
Advising
Encouragement
The first year experience
and beyond
For the entire period of
their enrollment with us.
Another way of stating this is
that the transfer experience
begins with a successful
first-year experience.
Unlike this former transfer
student, YOUR students
are THE NEW NORMAL
WICHE’s Knocking at the College Door
 High School Graduating
Class Sizes Are Shrinking
 When They Return to
Previous Sizes


Increased Growth in Racial
Diversity
Increased Growth in First
Generation College Student
Status
Transfer matters:
 Critical for your campus strategic interests to help



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draw, retain, and make more students successful
For community colleges which can help offset some
of enrollment loss due to economic recovery
Very important for your citizens
Very important for our country (national 2020
completion goals)
Has become the US public policy default route to the
BA (see National Clearinghouse Signature report # 2)
Transfer matters:
It may be the only way to make up for impact of
decline in numbers of high school graduates.
Maine’s peaked in 2007 – 2008 at 17,000 graduates
2019 – 20 projection is 13, 521 (21% decrease)
National Student Clearinghouse
Signature Report #2
 1/3 of all students in the
2006 cohort transferred
 Adding Associate Degree
holders, this comes to
almost 40%
 These numbers of students
accumulate across cohorts
 Transfer is the norm, not
the anomaly
Transfer is now normative, but…
…the amount and quality of attention
we pay transfers is about what we paid
to first-year students 30 years ago!
Some things we know:
 Transfer students are now in the majority
 Our institutions were not designed primarily to send or
receive them
Some things we know:
 There is much we don’t know about them
 There is much prejudice and discrimination against them
 We are more dependent on them than ever (all sectors)
Some things we know: Multiple kinds of transfer
 two-year to two-year
 military to civilian
 two-year to four-year
 ground to on-line
 four-year to four-year
 on-line to ground
 four-year to two-year
 non-profit to for-profit
 public to private
 for profit to non-profit
 private to public
 multiple models
simultaneously=swirling
Some things we know:
 Addressing transfers is a cottage industry=highly decentralized
 Transfers lack an institutionalized advocate beyond the
hand off from Admissions/Enrollment Management
 Transfers are hard to recruit for optional programs of
support—they think they don’t need it. We know this so
we don’t make much of an effort.
Some things we know:
 Transfers need and deserve “justice”
 “Justice” for transfers is next step on US higher education
journey for social justice
 Transfers are a cash cow that don’t count in the rankings race
Fundamental questions:
 Besides the money they generate and appearance they provide
for inflated total enrollments, why should we care about them?
 We know what our value added proposition is for them, but
what value(s) do they bring us?
 What is the impact of their presence on our curriculum, co-
curricular activities, learning environment, demographic
characteristics, generation spanning?
Stated conversely:
What would we be like without them?
The Big Idea: three components:
“Programs”
(necessary, but not sufficient)
A Plan
(necessary)
Plan Implementation
(necessary)
Here is an example of
a planning process:
Defined
Foundations of Excellence
Voluntary
Comprehensive
Institution-wide
Self-study
Task force-based assessment
Planning process
Foundations of Excellence produces:
An action plan
which must be executed
A new strategic vision
for the first-year/transfer
student experience
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
Foundations of Excellence® Institutions: 2003 - 2013
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
Principle: Once you have a plan,
you have to execute the plan!
Look at what happens when you do/do not
implement aspirational plans:
Retention
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
Retention
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
Retention: Private Institutions
Private Institutions’ Change in 1-yr Retention Rates
Post FoE Plan Implementation by Level of Implementation
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
high degree
medium degree
limited degree
Implement
Year
1yr post
2yr post
3yr post
4yr post
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
5yr post
Retention: Two-Year Institutions
Institutions’ Change in Part-Time 1-yr Retention Rates
by Length of Time Post Self-Study
2.25
2
1.75
1.5
1.25
1
0.75
0.5
0.25
0
1-year post
2-years post
3-years post
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
4-years post
Retention: 2-Year Institutions
Institutions’ Change in Full-Time 1-yr Retention Rates
by Length of Time Post Self-Study
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2
1-year post
2-years post
3-years post
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
4-years post
Revenue
©John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Education
Some places to start moving forward:
Create an institution wide task force of stakeholders
Charge this group to conduct a study to produce an
action plan for improvement
• Next, what do you offer them in terms of support?
• Conduct an inventory of your targeted programs which
support transfer?
• What do you know about who participates and
with what effectiveness?
• What are the common experiences of transfer students?
• What are the experiences of transfer students that are
more unique, and a function of which academic units
they end up in?
Organizational structures and cultures:
 What are your centralized approaches to successfully
assimilate transfer students?
 Vs what are your decentralized approaches?
 Who (individuals and units) “own” your transfer students?
 Who (individuals and units) are the “advocates” for these
students?
 What do you know about the different cultures transfer
students encounter in terms of their treatment in and by
academic units?
Policies
How are these similar/different from “native” students,
with respect to:
 Admissions
 Evaluation of credit
 Housing eligibility and deadlines
 Financial aid (institutional/merit)
 Orientation
 Advising
 Registration
 Eligibility for student organizations/activities
Most common recommendations
from FOUR-year institutions
which have developed
action plans for improvement:
Improve and increase assessment and data sharing
• Transfer student progression, retention,
and graduation rates
• Developing and disseminating transfer student
profile data
• Assessment of transfer programming - e.g.
orientation, student success seminars, advising
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Increase and improve communication
to transfer students:
• Most frequently referenced was by means of
institutional and departmental web pages
• Communications about policies
• Communications about opportunities for
student engagement
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Improve advising for transfer students
• Greatest emphasis was on improving advisor training
• Incorporating more attention to transfers in
new faculty orientation
• Improving advising handbooks
• Improving advisor/advisee ratios
• Assigning more experienced advisors to transfers
• Assigning advisors at point of first entry
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Make changes in organizational structures
to improve services to transfer students
• very common approach to create a council/standing
group to coordinate transfer student programming
and support
• most far reaching was establishing dedicated office
for support with designated head and staff
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Provide on-going professional development
related to transfer students
• For both faculty and staff
• Jointly coordinated by offices of chief academic and
student affairs officers
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Develop an explicit institutional
philosophy statement
• That acknowledges importance of transfer students
and widely disseminate
• Also use for assessment and accountability purposes
FOUR-YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Concluding Recommendations
Recommendations
• Do whatever you can to own this issue,
make it yours
• Develop a plan
• Support an institution-wide task force charged
with implementation of the plan
• Talk about transfer often-especially in every
big message
Recommendations
• Embed your transfer student commitment into
your institution’s strategic plan.
• Collaborate with institutions in your service area
to support student transfer.
• Organize your campus to support transfers
(e.g., “transfer centers”).
• Establish a standing committee to oversee the
transfer experience.
Recommendations
• Consider offering transfer-bound student sections
of college success courses
• Make orientation a requirement for both first-year
and transfer students.
• Create regional, discipline-based faculty
collaboratives to bring together two- and fouryear faculty.
Final Recommendations
• Share and celebrate best practices in your service area
– state, region
• Conduct an institutional self-study of the transfer
experience (e.g., Foundations of Excellence®)
Final Recommendations
Use NEASC reaffirmation of accreditation
as an opportunity to focus on transfers.
Recommendations
Participate in national professional organizations
whose work relates to student transfer.
And the New England Transfer Association
Conclusion:
The big take away ideas
Transfer students need
and deserve justice.
You need a plan.
You need to implement that plan.
Contact Information
John N. Gardner
[email protected]
828-885-6014