agreement was established with Advantage Behavioral Health Systems (ABHS) to provide telephone crisis intervention assistance to faculty and staff on those occasions that the Student Support Services director is not available. ABHS also has local clinics in each of the four counties where Athens Tech has a campus, which allows for students to be referred for counseling on an as-needed basis. The Director of Student Support Services has a list of additional counseling services and agencies in the Athens community that work on a sliding fee scale where students can go for follow-up help after crisis stabilization. their educational success. There are more students with psychological issues attending colleges and universities now than ever before, making counseling services a critical need in the quest for student success. 3) Contract with local therapists to provide group counseling sessions each semester dealing with topics such as anger management, toxic relationships, grief, etc. 4) When current staff positions in the Advisement Center come open, refill those positions with candidates who are licensed therapists so that they might provide both counseling (by appointment) and advising to ATC students. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Curricular Alignment Are there processes in place for working with K-12 and 4-year/university sectors to align curricula and competencies? If so, could the processes be “models” for other programs? The HS coordinator manages curriculum alignment with K-12 sectors. Alignment with colleges and universities sometimes starts with us and sometimes starts with the interested college or university. Degree Auditing Is there a mandatory degree status check after completion of a specified number of hours? At-Risk students may be more likely to feel they are not making progress if they are not receiving 1. Review with program chairs a reasonable number of hours at which students should
There is currently no mandatory degree check after completion of a certain number of hours. A degree check is fairly simple at any time using Degree Works. advising assistance concerning their status. The positive reinforcement of seeing their progress bar in Degree Works would be encouraging. have their degree progress reviewed. 2. Suggest degree progress be monitored via Degree Works. 3. Make Degree Works available to students via their Banner Web accounts (project is currently tabled by TCSG due to funding constraints). Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Developmental Education Is the developmental program centralized or decentralized? Why? Centralized in the Division of General Education. 3/11 FT faculty in Gen Ed are primarily assigned to Learning Support classes. Are student outcome data routinely reviewed for trends? On an informal basis. However, there has not been a regular, systematic review of student outcomes that looks at a combination of the following: student placement test scores, student LS course completion Developmental courses have a direct day-to-day impact on at-risk students. The quality of these courses ensures that at risk students have opportunities to strengthen their foundational academic skill areas and to develop bonds with faculty and among fellow 1. Institutionally gather data on student placement test scores, student LS course completion success, success in subsequent core course, 1-year retention rate, program completion rates
low-income students? Is there an emergency loan fund available? Institutional Organization Is there an identified administrative entity responsible for coordination of student success efforts? Are students and faculty represented? There is no central coordinator for student success efforts. Currently the Director of Student Affairs, the Retention Coordinator, and the College Success Program Coordinator all work at student success Lack of central coordinator means efforts may be duplicated Lack of central coordinator means some area may be overlooked or “fall through the cracks” A student success task force should be created to guide efforts and discuss ideas; Students, staff, and faculty should all be represented on task force. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Institutional Research Capacity Is someone charged with the responsibility for research on student success? Is research conducted and shared w/ others (e.g., longitudinal, disaggregated, cohort research)? Yes. Research on student success is collected by the IE office and distributed through IES reports (by program) and in the college fact book along with other reports available on the IE intranet site. Additonal research is also Our annual special populations data (disabled, economically disadvantaged, limited English Proficient, Nontraditional and Single Parent) is collected and analyzed by category to ensure that we are meeting established benchmarks and compares our performance from one year to the next as well as our performance to other TCSG colleges. Our Perkins data report and plan documents performance and plans for improvement as needed with the following federal core indicators: student success in earning successful grades in technical courses; student success in attaining degrees, diplomas, and certificates; student success in retention or transfer; graduate success in being placed; 1. Recommend that the Communications Coordinator develop a newsletter for ATD and develop spotlights to increase communication of student success research. 2. Additional cohort research projects will need to be conducted.
conducted by Student Affairs personnel on reasons why students withdraw each term. An early alert monitoring system is also in place that allows students to work with an advisor to determine a plan of action. status of the college in enrolling students of underrepresented gender in non-traditional programs; and success of students of underrepresented gender enrolled in non-traditional programs in attaining a credential. These efforts allow us to analyze performance trends and work to increase the likelihood of retention and increase student success for at risk students. The early alert system has had a positive impact on at risk students and this referral system allows the students to determine their own strengths and weaknesses and set goals to help them reach their potential. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Late the procedure for permitting (or denying) late registration for classes. Is it appropriate? If a student is eligible to enroll in classes (they have a complete admissions file, they have no holds, and have not been academically dismissed) they can add classes up until the last day of the drop/add period- which is the first week Our feeling is that "at risk" students who register late may not be fully prepared and may not be successful academically. There may also be issues with a late students ability to pay for classes or be approved for financial aid. Late registration could be divided into 2 separate dates- one for returning ATC students and one for new students. This could allow Student Affairs to spend more time with new ATC students who are not as familiar with the registration process as returning students. L. Reid and W. Hicks
required to have office hours. Beyond that, we could find no policy stmt that underscores the importance of interaction, whether for faculty or staff. willingness or ability to stay in school. In doing so, allay fears about potential misinterpretation of those interactions. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Orientation Does the college have a new-student orientation program? If so, is it regularly evaluated for effectiveness? If there is an online orientation, what does evaluation show about its impact? Orientation at the college is mandatory and provided online. It is currently being studied and evaluated through a project directed and approved by the president. It is regularly updated when changes are made to college catalog, requirements, or procedures. Evaluation of current mandatory online orientation will determine positive and negative impact of orientation, particularly the effects on retention of at-risk students and GPA. Continuously update orientation to reflect findings of evaluation; re-assess regularly to determine areas in need of improvement. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date
Check your ATC student e-mail at least twice per week. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Teaching Practice Describe how faculty engage in continuous quality improvement to address the learning needs of at-risk or under-prepared students. The faculty handbook states that professional development is required for full-time faculty. Such professional development could include improving the quality of instruction to address the learning needs of at-risk or students but faculty are not required to do so. Give examples of active learning. All classes conducted in clinical and lab settings are examples of active learning. Are faculty rewarded for made by low-income or students of color? If so, describe how? No If the learning needs of these students are not directly addressed, they may not succeed in individual classes or persist in a program. Identify the learning needs of at-risk and under-prepared students and allocate funds to provide professional development on how to address these needs. Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date
Policy Area Policies and Procedures Impact on At-Risk Students Recommendations Reviewer and Date Tutoring Does the college have a tutoring program that uses both faculty and peer tutors? If so, describe how it works. The college has Academic Support Centers on all four campuses. Students may access faculty and peer tutors according to the posted schedule. In person and online tutoring are available. Students come to a Center for group or one-on-one assistance, depending on the demand at the time of their session. Instructors and peer tutors answer specific questions and assist students in understanding the material from their classes rather than reviewing entire topics or chapters. Is supplemental instruction embedded in any courses and required? No, supplemental instruction is not embedded in any courses. We do utilize many supplemental materials to aid students. By having free tutoring at the college, at-risk students are more likely to stay in school. In general, tutoring encourages students to both study the material and develop a deeper understanding of the concepts. In this way, learning in one class becomes a building block for the next class. We use online supplemental course materials such as MyMathLab, MyWritingLab, and MyReadingLab. These online materials allow students to review coursework through the use of videos and tutorials. Many instructors create study guides for use via Angel. As become available, expand the following: 1. Add 1/2 time peer for Elbert and Walton County Campuses. 2. Add the equivalent of one tutor for the Athens Campus 3. Add 1/2 time peer tutor for the Greene County Campus if number of students increases. If we expand our efforts to include supplemental instruction, a peer tutor will be assigned a required time to meet with study groups. Jane Brown 02/06/12