Are All Students Ready for College? Student Profiles Can Help You Decide
We spent a good deal of time in 2011 talking about student profiles with our customers, during presentations at conferences and in the media. I thought it was time we revisited the topic as it is still as relevant as ever, especially given some alarming statistics published in a recent US News and World Report article.
- Today, only about 18.7% of full-time and 7.4% of part-time students earn an associate’s degree within four years, according to Complete College America.
- A 2011 report by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) shows that students who drop out of community college before their sophomore year cost taxpayers almost $1 billion every year.
Drop our rates are harmful across the board – when students don’t achieve their educational goals, it has a tremendous impact on themselves and others. They are not ready to be a productive member of the workforce, schools can’t fulfill their educational missions and taxpayer money is wasted.
A recent study by the AIR and Noel-Levitz found that academic preparation is a strong predictor of a student’s likelihood to graduate. And this got me thinking – student profiles are a great tool to measure and assess a lot of things, including a student’s college readiness.
Starting with the first interaction an institution has with a student, the advisor needs to ask the student up front both subjective and objective questions to determine whether or not that student has the foundation and the commitment to graduate. Has the student taken developmental courses? Does he/she have a track record of staying in school? Does the student believe he/she can be successful?
Admitting a student who simply isn’t ready isn’t good for anyone. Determining a student’s preparedness is an important first step in finding a student who fits with your institution – that student, your institution and our taxpayers will thank you.
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