GradesFirst

Join us at the American Council on Education’s 92nd Annual Meeting!

Mario — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:36:03 +0000

GradesFirst will be in Phoenix, AZ, at the American Council on Education’s 92nd Annual Meeting on March 7 – 8, 2010. Please stop by Booth 304 in the ACE Executive Campus Exhibit Hall to meet our friendly staff for information on how we can help with your retention efforts.

GradesFirst welcomes new Director of Client Services

Mario — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:14:19 +0000

GradesFirst is proud to announce the hiring of Andy McCarrell as Director of Client Services. Andy comes to GradesFirst with 13 years of management experience in training, QA, and customer support. ”We are delighted to have Andy on our growing team. He brings a wealth of experience and energy to GradesFirst Client Services, an area that we have always taken great pride in providing the best customer support possible,” Mario Moore, CEO.

Assessment for Survival

Mario — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:06:36 +0000

In times of economic downturn, higher education is affected in a few different ways. Enrollments can shift up or down, state-level funding is stagnant or reduced, and generally there is a lot of attention paid to programs that provide service to students rather than teaching.

As a result, those of us in support services need to keep a watchful eye on what we do. Data collection is the first place to start. Numbers of students, courses, contacts and hours of tutoring should be accounted for in routine reports. At times like this, we do assessment for quality assurance, student learning outcomes and goal attainment, but we also need to maintain excellent records on the usage and success of our programs in helping retention of students. It is less expensive to retain a student than to recruit a new one. Therefore, our role is critical to the retention mission at our institution.

Routine reports should be developed in case anyone should ask you how your program is doing. A good data system can generate a report like that in seconds. These are the times to be proactive and have that information on hand, just in case.

Shevawn Eaton, Ph. D.
Director, ACCESS/ESP
Northern Illinois University

The Opportunity of a Lifetime for Student Services Personnel

Mario — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:19:03 +0000

Student retention is on the mind of virtually every college president in America. Heck, President Obama and the Department of Education are talking about retention like no other administration before. Have you heard about Obama’s proposed American Graduation Initiative? Or his proposal to spend $2.5 billion over the next five years on college completion? The reason is simple: for every student that stays in school, it’s a win financially for the student, the school, and society. For the average school, a modest boost in student retention equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased revenues. The current economy is really driving this fact home like never before.

This issue of retention presents the opportunity of a lifetime to anyone working in a student services related role such as advising, counseling, tutoring, and, at a growing number of schools, Retention Services. If you or your department make a positive impact on retention now, when times are tough, your department may never be the same. Help your administration during the tough times, and they will remember your contribution. Help your students when they need help the most, and they will remember too! Not only remember, but those students will more than likely stay at your school. The Golden Rule of Student Retention.

In summary, the issue of student retention is a rare opportunity for student services departments to greatly increase their real and perceived contribution to the institution, especially in the eyes of school administrators. This could mean a number of things for you and your department: a bigger budget, better facilities, or maybe even a boost to your paycheck!

Mario Moore, CEO
GradesFirst

The Golden Rule of Student Retention

Mario — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:16:21 +0000

People often ask, “What is the best tool to improve student retention?” My answer is what I call The Golden Rule of Student Retention: reach out to students when they need your help the most. If you can do this on a consistent basis, your retention numbers will improve dramatically. All the best student retention efforts follow this rule. For instance, First Year Experience programs help students when they are adjusting to college life. An early alert system’s mission is to catch struggling students before it’s too late. Mentoring programs put experienced people in place to help guide students along, especially in times of need.

Is your school following this rule? If so, how efficient are your efforts? Mid-term grades are a great example of an attempt to help students that arrives too late. Here’s an all too common scenario: the mid-term test is given, a week later the grades are recorded, another week later the information gets to student services, and then another week passes before the data is acted upon. After all these delays, the student gets an email or phone call about a test they bombed three or four weeks ago. This is too late! The crisis in the student’s mind is all but over, and the school missed an opportunity to help them manage. Timely intervention would have scored your school major points in the student’s mind and more importantly their heart.

The Golden Rule of Student Retention is real and its power is undeniable. If you doubt, ask someone who recently had a traumatic experience how they feel toward people who helped them in their time of need. Then ask how they feel about people who sent them an email a month later. It’s not the same.

Mario Moore, CEO
GradesFirst