How to help students succeed

There is much hand wringing in higher education these days. Leaders across our nation widely agree that increasing college opportunity for students from all social and economic backgrounds is a national priority. But who graduates from college in America, and at what rate, is a complex, seemingly intractable problem.

At Georgia State, we’re working on the solution. We have invested significantly in several areas – student advising, predictive analytics, and strategic deployment of financial aid and support services – and we’re seeing extraordinary results.

In the last decade, Georgia State has raised its graduation rate by 22 percentage points, the most dramatic increase of any national university. With the university’s early warning tracking system, struggling students get help when it still makes a difference— before their problems mount to the point where recovery is extremely difficult or unlikely. The university has increased semester-to-semester retention rates by more than 4 percentage points and has reduced time-to-degree for students by half a semester in the past year alone.

At a university where more than 55 percent of undergraduates are eligible for Pell grants, we have eliminated a number of graduation rate gaps that plague the vast majority of universities. Georgia State students across all races and socioeconomic strata graduate at similar rates. Instead of singling out solutions for particular groups, we have raised the level of support and guidance for all.

There is no magic bullet to solving the complex and challenging problem of driving graduation rates significantly higher, especially for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Baby Boomers remember all too well the mantra of “look to your left, look to your right, in four years one of you will not be here” (to graduate). The sink or swim mentality of the past is no longer acceptable. I believe every student admitted to Georgia State should graduate. We must have programs in place to steer students in the right direction when they first start to deviate off course, rather than waiting for them to crash and then trying to get them out of the ditch and back on the road to success.

The transition from high school to a college or university is a big and sometimes difficult step. We expect students to work harder and smarter once they enroll at Georgia State. Some make that transition seamlessly, while others struggle. The university’s responsibility is to identify where students are struggling, then provide them with the support they need.

Through a set of programs and services tailored to meet the empirically identified needs of our students, including our Summer Success Academy, peer-tutoring programs, Keep Hope Alive program, Panther Retention Grants, redesigned courses and proactive advising, we are doing a better job of personalizing our large, complex university. It is the responsibility of students to take advantage of the help offered to lift themselves up through improved planning, working skills and habits. This is a formula for success for more and more Georgia Stage students every year. We are graduating 1,700 more students every year than we were just five years ago.

Together, we are creating a model where student success is the expected outcome, not a game of chance, and no longer a product of family economic status.

Published in collaboration with Impatient Optimists

Author: Mark Becker is the president of Georgia State University.

Image: Students sit for an exam at the French Louis Pasteur Lycee in Strasbourg, June 18, 2012. REUTERS/Vincent Kessle.