JOHN N. GARDNER CREDIT TRANSFER CONFERENCE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE ORONO April 19, 2013 COPYRIGHT, JOHN N. GARDNER 2013 The New Normal: Transfer Students in

J O H N N . G A R D N E R

C R E D I T T R A N S F E R C O N F E R E N C E

U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A I N E O R O N O

A p r i l 1 9 , 2 0 1 3

C O P Y R I G H T , J O H N N . G A R D N E R 2 0 1 3

The New Normal:Transfer Students in the Majority

I am “from away”.

But at least from New England.

Connecticut

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 workfor the citizens of Maine hasbeen with my wife,Dr. Betsy O. Barefootfor your MELMAC Educational Foundation

Inviting you to imagine how you could increase the

success of your transfer students.

The New Normal

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 Lancaster

USC Beaufort

USC Sumter

USC Salkehatchie

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,

institution-wide 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 (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 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


Ashland Community and Technical 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 (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


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 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:

It is the action or process of “moving” as an articulated

student from one post-secondary institution to another, which may or may not mean “moving” to a

diff erent location!

Let’s start with the most basic question: What is transfer?

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

Proper testingPlacementOrientationAdvising

In the curriculum and co-curriculum

Up to and beyond the point of entry into an educational credentialing process not offered by our institution

The support we can provide

InformationCounselingAdvisingEncouragement

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

Critical for your campus strategic interests to help 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 citizensVery 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)

Transfer matters:

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 fi rst-year students 30 years ago!

Some things we know:

Transfer students are now in the majorityOur institutions were not designed primarily to

send or receive them


There is much we don’t know about themThere is much prejudice and discrimination

against themWe are more dependent on them than ever (all

sectors)

Some things we know: Multiple kinds of transfer

two-year to two-yeartwo-year to four-yearfour-year to four-yearfour-year to two-yearpublic to privateprivate to public

military to civilianground to on-lineon-line to groundnon-profit to for-profitfor profit to non-profitmultiple models

simultaneously=swirling


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.


Transfers need and deserve “justice”“Justice” for transfers is next step on US higher

education journey for social justiceTransfers 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:

Foundations of Excellence

VoluntaryComprehensiveInstitution-wide Self-studyTask force-based assessmentPlanning process

Def

ined

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

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


Ret

enti

on


Ret

enti

on

: P

riva

te In

stit

uti

on

s

Im-ple-

ment Year

1yr post 2yr post 3yr post 4yr post 5yr post-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Private Institutions’ Change in 1-yr Retention Rates Post FoE Plan Implementation by Level of Implementation

high degreemedium degreelimited degree


Retention: Two-Year Institutions

1-year post 2-years post 3-years post 4-years post 0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1.25

1.5

1.75

2

2.25

Institutions’ Change in Part-Time 1-yr Retention Rates

by Length of Time Post Self-Study


Retention: 2-Year Institutions

1-year post 2-years post 3-years post 4-years post -2

-1.5-1

-0.50

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

Institutions’ Change in Full-Time 1-yr Retention Rates

by Length of Time Post Self-Study


Rev

enu

e


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 whichsupport 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:

AdmissionsEvaluation of creditHousing eligibility and deadlinesFinancial aid (institutional/merit)OrientationAdvisingRegistrationEligibility for student organizations/activities

which have developed action plans for

improvement:

Most common recommendations from FOUR-year institutions

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


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


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


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


Develop an explicit institutional philosophy statement

• That acknowledges importance of transfer students and widely disseminate

• Also use for assessment and accountability purposes


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 four-year 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

Transfer students need and deserve justice.

You need a plan.

You need to implement that plan.

Conclusion:The big take away ideas

John N. Gardner

[email protected]

828-885-6014

Contact Information

Documents

JOHN N. GARDNER CREDIT TRANSFER CONFERENCE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE ORONO April 19, 2013 COPYRIGHT, JOHN N. GARDNER 2013 The New Normal: Transfer Students in