Veronica Craker, Director of Media Relations, University of Puget Sound 

The University of Puget Sound’s prison education program is making a profound impact, transforming the lives of incarcerated students. The Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) was co-founded by Tanya Erzen, professor of religion, spirituality, and society, and director of crime, law, and justice. It offers higher education to incarcerated women, transgender individuals, and those who are gender-nonconforming. This program takes place at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW), located in Gig Harbor, Washington. The program provides Associate and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Liberal Studies. FEPPS empowers students to break cycles of poverty and build brighter futures. Through rigorous academics, personalized support, and a commitment to equity, FEPPS embodies Puget Sound’s mission of inclusion and social justice. 

Since its founding in 2012, FEPPS has served over 300 students, with 72 earning an AA degree and 10 earning a BA in Liberal Studies. FEPPS students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have faced significant challenges, including poverty, domestic abuse, and limited access to education. Over 85% of FEPPS students report experiencing domestic abuse or sexual assault, and 75% are mothers of children under 18, making their educational achievements even more impactful for their families and communities.   

FEPPS was created to address the unique educational barriers faced by incarcerated women, whose population has more than doubled in the past 40 years, outpacing the rate of incarceration for men. Many FEPPS students enter the program with minimal educational backgrounds and face systemic challenges upon release, including debt, stigma, and limited job opportunities. Education is a proven tool for breaking this cycle, and FEPPS has demonstrated its effectiveness through tangible outcomes. Students have collectively earned over 6,000 college credits, with graduates reporting increased self-efficacy, improved post-release employment rates, and reduced recidivism.   

FEPPS champions academic success through a rigorous curriculum, small class sizes, and faculty engagement. The program’s comprehensive support systems, including tutoring and personalized advising, have significantly contributed to high retention and graduation rates.  

From 2020 to 2023, FEPPS conducted a program evaluation involving surveys, focus groups, and interviews to assess the factors influencing academic success. Key findings highlighted the importance of class discussions, faculty interaction, and tutoring, leading to targeted program enhancements. These efforts have resulted in two publications: “The Well-being Impacts Associated with College in Prison: A Comparison of Incarcerated and Non-Incarcerated Students Who Identify as Women” and “The Relationship between Liberal Arts Classroom Experiences and the Development of Agency and Well-being for Incarcerated Students,” by Erzen and Professor Emerita Sarah Y. Moore.    

In June 2024, FEPPS celebrated its first commencement ceremony honoring the 10 women who earned their bachelor’s degrees. The ceremony was held inside the walls of the WCCW. 

Prof. Erzen praised the graduates for their perseverance. 

“You have practiced care, community, and a commitment to intellectual inquiry,” she said during the ceremony. “You are remaking the world, moving out of the darkness toward the future you want.”   

FEPPS’s innovative model, which includes a student advisory council and leadership by formerly incarcerated individuals, sets a precedent for other prison education programs. The program’s structure and assessment-driven improvements provide a blueprint for delivering higher education in correctional settings, showcasing how education can drive meaningful change and reduce systemic inequities. 

By providing incarcerated individuals with access to rigorous academic programs and comprehensive support, FEPPS not only transforms lives but also challenges societal perceptions of justice and redemption. As the program continues to grow, it remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for students, their families, and their communities.   

For more information about FEPPS, visit pugetsound.edu/FEPPS.

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Nina Cortez, Nightingale College 

Built on the objective to remove unnecessary barriers and provide vital assistance to students, Nightingale College’s Wraparound Support Initiative has gone through several iterations over the years to implement resources that will better serve its student population. By showcasing the organization’s commitment to closing health equity gaps, Nightingale College has been able to prepare a relevantly skilled, readily available nursing workforce, representative of the communities they serve. Through this program, the College has been able to showcase the excellence it provides in academics while highlighting its commitment to progress. 

College History 

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Nightingale College currently offers seven education programs along the nursing continuum. As of 2023, Nightingale College serves under the Nightingale Education Group umbrella, which also encompasses the business units of Nightingale Innovations and EvolvEd. Each division focuses on facilitating learning and professional growth to build generations of competent, confident, and compassionate nurses reshaping healthcare across the United States. 

Established in 2010, Nightingale College remains dedicated to addressing the demand for nurses while implementing strategies to tackle the nursing shortage. Since its establishment, Nightingale College has had one primary objective: to graduate highly skilled and compassionate nurses into the nursing workforce. In the following years, the College recognized that educating students through distance learning in their communities would allow it to sustain a steady supply of nurses. In 2014, Nightingale College tested its program with success. After obtaining the necessary accreditation and expanding beyond Utah, it launched its RN-to-BSN program.  

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the College quickly adapted by transitioning to a fully online educational model. The pandemic allowed the College to make nursing education accessible to all. Following its NWCCU candidacy, Nightingale College introduced innovative programs, achieved enrollment milestones, and established new SOFE (supervised on-ground field experience) sites. These developments have empowered Nightingale College and its dedicated faculty and staff to prepare future nurses to enhance the quality of healthcare in the communities they serve. 

Initiative Emergence and Rationale 

Nightingale College has continually enhanced its Wraparound Support Initiative, transforming it from a smaller program into a comprehensive support system that has evolved and expanded in response to students’ growing needs. The Wraparound Support Initiative is a comprehensive, data-driven system designed to foster student success and well-being, particularly for at-risk nursing students. By integrating tool-based resources with human connections, the initiative offers targeted support that enhances matriculation rates, HESI pass rates, and overall retention rates. This comprehensive approach consists of a cohesive network of foundational support, academic and wellness coaching, and a dynamic student engagement platform. The initiative reflects the College’s commitment to creating a supportive educational environment that addresses the unique challenges nursing students face, leading to improved outcomes and successful program completion.  

By furthering its commitment to closing health equity gaps in nursing education and healthcare, Nightingale College is proud to support underrepresented populations of nursing students throughout the United States. The College has consistently worked to increase opportunities for prospective students and dedicated itself to successfully preparing and progressing students toward program completion. Through a continuous assessment, Nightingale College has intensified its efforts to meet the diverse needs of its students by devoting itself to creating a comprehensive Wraparound Support Initiative.  

Initiative Offerings and Implementations 

To ensure that all students feel valued and supported, Nightingale College launched its Wraparound Support Initiative in 2021. The initiative currently emphasizes the integration of foundational courses, tutoring, a Writing Center and Math Lab, an NCLEX reimbursement program, and a proactive platform of resources (MyNightingale) dedicated to fostering academic excellence and growth. 

When evaluating ways to expand access and facilitate success for students, College leadership conducted a detailed analysis of student performance based on the Accuplacer Entrance Exam and its correlation with students’ success in their coursework. Based on the information gathered, Nightingale College decided that it would be beneficial to offer foundational courses. These courses would enable students who fell slightly short of established benchmarks to enroll at minimal cost. Over time, the implementation of this unique foundational learning experience evolved to include an innovative platform of resources, such as a personalized, one-on-one HESI Success Coaching Program and NCLEX Success Coaching support program. These services have been essential for addressing students’ needs. Since its introduction, the College has seen increased matriculation rates, higher HESI pass rates, and overall retention rates, ensuring students can thrive in their educational pursuits.  

Nightingale College remains dedicated to connecting with its students and believes that facilitating learning by equipping students with the necessary knowledge significantly enhances care outcomes. By integrating human connection with a robust tool-based platform, the College creates an inclusive environment with a focused curriculum that adapts to student progress assessments and helps them feel supported and comfortable in a virtual setting. With master-prepared faculty catering to diverse learning styles and the integration of technology-based learning tools, high-fidelity simulations, interactive learning models, and contemporary learning management systems, faculty and staff are committed to ensuring that each student understands the material. Foundational faculty also collaborate with Student Service Strategists (instructors and mentors) to personalize academic and wellness plans and guide students through any challenges with distance education.  

The comprehensive and dynamic system of MyNightingale has created a centralized hub for various educational support services, facilitating efficient communication, resource access, and academic management. It offers the familiarity of “brick and mortar” services with the convenience and ease of virtual access. Other key components of the initiative include a Writing Center, Math Lab, Library, Technology Center, Tutoring Center, free Webinars, Tutor chat, and resources for those needing assistance with military information, mental health resources, and graduation and career readiness and opportunities. When students are enrolled in foundational courses, they are directed to utilize this platform, however, all students attend a two-week College Readiness Orientation Seminar (CROS) before the start of the first semester for training on the features and benefits of the platform. When a student has an issue that arises while they are at Nightingale College, the goal is to navigate any challenge that may potentially impact them.  

Access to academic management tools, learning resources, communication channels, and support services are assets to student success and promote holistic and inclusive learning opportunities. These attributes are important to a student’s journey at Nightingale because college can be challenging. By assisting students who may need extra help or are unsure about how to navigate their path, these resources reduce stress and offer assistance. The Wraparound Support Initiative exemplifies Nightingale College’s commitment to leveraging technology and improving educational outcomes to continue to support underrepresented and underserved communities.  

Initiative Successes 

Through extensive data and research, Nightingale College has driven continuous improvement to promote student achievement and success. Data has presented continuous user growth and demand for its MyNightingale platform, going from 7,669 users in May 2022 to 63,490 in January 2024. The positive feedback from students about MyNightingale and the properties that make up the Wraparound Support Initiative highlight the impact the College is making on the educational experience.  

With the resources available, students have praised the benefits of paper reviews, a comprehensive library, informational videos, and tutoring, stating that it makes their college experience less intimidating. They also applauded the effective communication, administrative convenience, and availability of specialists and instructors who have supported them through their academic and personal goals. Generating opportunities for its graduates allows the College to address the nursing shortage in communities and beyond.  

When conducting a study to identify at-risk students needing additional support within their courses, data revealed a correlation between low Exit HESI (Health Education Systems Incorporated) scores and course retakers. This then initiated individualized HESI Success Coaching that would be implemented into the initiative to target needed groups. Through its proactive approach that includes regular sessions, personalized mentoring, focused preparation, and success tracking, results showed that of the 82.5% identified at-risk students who volunteered for success coaching, 84.6% successfully passed the Exit HESI. Results also indicated that students who completed all coaching program components increased their HESI scores by an average of 119 points. Moreover, students who had previously failed the Exit HESI and completed the prescribed coaching program boosted their Exit HESI scores by an average of 258 points. Like the HESI program, Nightingale College also offers an NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) program, which has experienced immense success along with the additional properties of the Wraparound Support Initiative.  

Initiative Expansion and Key Takeaways  

Integrating these pillars of assistance opportunities, and as Nightingale College continues to evolve, the organization will adapt its Wraparound Support structure. Enhancing this initiative is crucial to ensuring students have the resources they need to thrive. The College is currently exploring additional resources to implement. This includes providing specialized services for students with similar backgrounds, such as those identifying as military students or first-generation students, etc. Nightingale College is also planning to offer extended student service hours to better serve its students, day or night.  

Programs like Nightingale College’s Wraparound Support Initiative are vital because they allow students to become confident and competent nurses. Allowing students to progress and gain access to essential resources before and during their nursing program is an invaluable asset that reflects the College’s mission. Often, individuals from diverse backgrounds who may not be as academically prepared or who juggle full-time jobs come through Nightingale’s doors, creating barriers not typically found in a traditional nursing school environment. With this understanding, Nightingale College recognizes that it must provide the necessary support for its students to succeed and help them realize their academic goals. By taking a comprehensive approach to supporting students from day one to graduation, it demonstrates a profound commitment to student success, academic outcomes, equity, and inclusion.  

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The Western Success Scholars (WSS) program was first piloted in 2019 with grant funding from the East Seattle Foundation. The initial intent of the program was to expand Western Washington University’s capacity to serve former foster youth and/or unaccompanied homeless youth through a coordinated care management model.  

A number of converging factors made this project particularly relevant for Western Washington University at the time of the initial grant application. A new University strategic plan had been identified with goals that included increasing access to higher education and graduation rates for all students in our region and state, as well as our impact in and service to the state of Washington. The Washington Student Achievement Council had made serving youth from foster care a priority, and the College Success Foundation was expanding the range of youth eligible for the Passport to College program with the addition of unaccompanied homeless youth. Western saw this as an opportunity to be a key partner in this important work in the state, to significantly expand the number of students we could serve, and to broaden the range of services we could provide to ensure students’ academic and personal success at Western.

The WSS program is committed to improving the educational outcomes for students who have experienced foster care or homelessness by providing wraparound services to meet their needs through transition, graduation, and post-graduate planning. As one former student in the program shared, “I think coming to Western has been the first time I’ve really felt such system support and it’s been fantastic to find that there are people here who are willing to offer me a safety net while I sew my parachute in free-fall.”  

Prior to grant funding, there was a staff member with a .25 FTE appointment to serve approximately 20 eligible students per year. This staffing was not sufficient to meet the unique and often complex needs of this group of students or the growing number of students arriving at Western. With grant funding, a full-time program manager was hired to implement the program. With this dedicated staffing, we saw a significant increase in the ability to interact with students, to offer a broader range of programing, and better coordination with a number of key campus resources, including Financial Aid, Career Services, and the Counseling and Wellness Center. In addition to funding already received from the Washington Student Achievement Council’s Passport to Career program, permanent state funding was awarded in 2023 to ensure continuity for the program and a second full-time staff member was hired to meet the growing demand for support. 

The full-time staff are certified through the Fostering Success Coaching Institute and utilize a case management approach in addressing students’ academic, personal, and social support needs. Several students have also been hired to serve as Peer Navigators/Mentors, to manage a small garden plot on campus where students grow their own food, and to serve as front desk staff in the Basic Needs Hub, where the Western Success Scholars office is co-located with Western’s Office of Off-Campus Living and the Basic Needs Resource Navigator.  

The program provides a combination of services and activities that includes (1) monthly dinners and social events to build community and sense of belonging and (2) educational workshops to increase understanding of campus resources and building life skills. Workshop topics have included financial aid completion, financial literacy, career exploration, and academic advising and course planning to name a few.  The WSS team also partners with other campus colleagues to host a full array of events for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in November and Foster Care Awareness Month in May of each year.   

A Career Development Internship initiative supports a handful of students each year to enroll in a career readiness course followed by paid internships. Support funds are used to support basic or unmet needs. Examples of this include grocery store packages, assistance with rent deposits, car repairs and/or medical bills, laptop purchases, winter clothing, and graduation regalia. WSS has also partnered with a local driving school to provide students with access to lessons and an eventual driver’s license.   

“Each day presents new and unique experiences for the students served by this program – experiences that constantly test their resilience. While the work is challenging, it is so heartening to see our students build community, to lean into each other during difficult times, and to celebrate their individual and collective successes”, said Jon Stubblefield, WSS program manager.  

On average, WSS currently supports 100-125 students per year and that number continues to grow each year.   

The retention range of students served by the program ranges in the upper 80th to low 90th percentile. In the past two years, a total of 40 WSS students graduated from Western. In addition, 9 out of 10 students in the program are in good academic standing, and the cumulative GPA on average is 3.0 or better. 

“This program has exceeded the ambitious goals we set when the program began in 2019 with grant funding. We are thrilled that NWCCU chose to shine a light on this work in the hopes that others can replicate this transformational program on their own campuses,” said Melynda Huskey, vice president for student affairs. 

For more information about this program, visit our website (https://wss.wwu.edu) or contact Jon Stubblefield, WSS program manager by email (stubblj@wwu.edu) or phone (360-650-3705).

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Purpose and Description 

The Beacon Award for Excellence in Student Achievement and Success is an annual award to recognize institutional or programmatic accomplishments in student achievement and success at the NWCCU family of institutions. 

Three separate categories of The Beacon Award will be offered, based on unduplicated student enrollment during the most recent fall student headcounts: institutions with fewer than 2,000 students; between 2,000 and 6,000 students; and more than 6,000 students. 

Award winners must demonstrate distinctive, measurable, and replicable innovations that have resulted in student achievement and success at the institutional or programmatic level, including innovations in advising and mentoring, alternative credentialing, experiential learning, learning communities, or other such efforts. Other winning examples may include new curricula, courses, or educational delivery models. The Beacon Award will recognize innovative approaches that have significantly contributed to measurable improvements in completion and/or graduation rates at the institution. 

Award winners will receive a trophy and cash award to be used to further the institution’s efforts to implement the initiative. Additionally, the institution’s name will be inscribed on The NWCCU Beacon Award for Excellence in Student Achievement and Success Wall of Fame at the NWCCU office in Redmond, Washington. 

Awardee institutions will be recognized during the NWCCU Annual Conference, where an institutional representative will have the opportunity to speak on the topic of their award-winning endeavors that are contributing to the success of their students. The winners will also be expected to submit a short article on their initiative for publication in NWCCU’s The Beacon newsletter. 

Eligibility 

All NWCCU member institutions are eligible. Only one nomination per institution per year may be submitted. Beacon Award winners are ineligible to be considered again for a period of three years. 

Nomination Process 

The institution’s leadership must apply for the award along with a short narrative regarding the program and how the award criteria are being demonstrated. The institution must submit a nomination packet of relevant materials, documentation, and evidence that clearly demonstrates the rationale for the nomination. The nomination packet cannot exceed five pages in a portable document file (pdf) format and must be submitted electronically. 

Timeline 

Nominations must be received by the NWCCU no later than August 2, 2024. A review panel of NWCCU commissioners, staff, and representatives from institutions not under consideration will select award winners. 

Criteria 

• Clearly identifiable programmatic efforts that consistently champion student academic success and achievement demonstrated through meaningful student outcome innovation and examples. 
• Evidence of a complete assessment process including assessment collection, analysis, and specifics of how the assessment data analysis led to program improvement.
• Evidence that the program directly led to student success and achievement such as student learning outcomes, increased retention rates, and increased completion or graduation rates.
• Evidence that the innovation is replicable. 

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Gary Hagerty, Retired Director of the Math Learning Center

Tom Bailey, Interim Director of the Math Learning Center

Zeynep Hansen, Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness

Susan Shadle, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies

In 2005, Boise State faced unacceptably low retention and graduation rates; e.g., the Fall 2005 cohort’s first-year retention was 62.7%, 4-year graduation rate was 8.2%, and 6-year graduation rate was 29.2%. Median rates for our peers for the same cohort were at least 7 percentage points higher.  In response, a Freshman Success Task Force was created. The Task Force identified early academic success, quantified as first semester GPA, as the best predictor of first-year retention. And a key contributor to poor early academic success was poor performance in early math. The first three courses in the algebra sequence, (Elementary, Intermediate, and College Algebra) had pass rates of only 40%, 38%, and 47%, respectively. Those low rates had a high impact because nearly half of  incoming first-time full-time freshmen took one of those courses in their first semester; the impact was even greater for underrepresented minority students. 

In response, Boise State’s Math Learning Center (MLC) was given the charge to remedy the situation, and during the next nearly two decades implemented a number of changes under the leadership of its director, Dr. Gary Hagerty.  Five innovations are key in the MLC’s work. The first is based on the belief that success in math classes requires not only successful math content delivery; it also requires self-efficacy: students must believe that they can be successful in mathematics. Therefore, self-efficacy is a focus, especially at the “elementary algebra” level, where poor perception of ability in math is more prevalent. Building self-efficacy begins with mastery experiences using ALEKS software: students progress when they “master” a concept but are not penalized, grade-wise, if they take several tries to get to the correct answer. Students learn that long-term success often involves incorrect answers in the short term.  

The second innovation utilizes the ability of ALEKS software to enable students to proceed at an individually-appropriate pace and to do so in a system that maintains contact with the instructor and structures student time to develop math skills and the academic skills required for the university setting. ALEKS enables struggling students to take the time necessary to master the material whereas students who can progress rapidly are able to do so and may even be able to jump to the next highest course at no additional cost (we call this “adaptive placement”). The flexibility of ALEKS also enables what we call “accelerated placement” based on a “zero-credit corequisite:” the top 50% of students who previously would have placed at the “elementary algebra” level are now placed at the “intermediate” level, and are given the support needed to be successful.  

The third innovation is that the MLC has its own student success advisor, who identifies (via ALEKS) students who are struggling, then alerts instructors to encourage students to get back on track. The advisor contacts those who continue to struggle and works with them throughout the semester to develop a plan for success. The advisor also works with students in all MLC classes needing test extensions (e.g., because of illness) and administers early final exams so students can immediately move to the next class.  

The fourth innovation is that the MLC promotes overall academic success, and, in particular, helps instill in students the academic skills that will aid in the successful transition from a high school student mentality to a college student mentality where self motivation, time management, individual accountability, etc., are necessary. Out-of-class time on ALEKS is required and monitored, thereby promoting time management and self motivation.  Students are coached by instructors and staff regarding the skills and habits necessary for success in college. 

The final innovation is a focus on relevance and problem solving guided by the instructor, utilizing peer learning. One class period a week is devoted to group problem solving, in which students learn how to determine which of their mathematical skills are applicable to a particular problem. To ensure relevance, client departments are consulted as to the sorts of problems that should be used.  

Changes to early math classes began in earnest following the September 2005 Task Force report. By spring of 2008, the MLC had not improved student success; therefore, a new director (Dr. Hagerty) with wider authority was hired, enabling rapid change to the courses the MLC controlled. Over the next 15 years, the MLC worked with partners to implement changes, carefully monitoring the impact of those changes on student success.  

The instructional model was changed from a pure emporium approach (with no scheduled class time) to a structured, scheduled, face-time model with a consistent instructor, an emporium underpinning, and help available from tutors. Beginning in Fall 2009: (i) the focus was changed from simply teaching mathematical content to using mathematical content to help students transition from high school to college, improve academic skills, and increase self-efficacy, (ii) ALEKS software was implemented to deliver content and monitor student progress, (iii) a focus on problem solving was created, (iv) specific math skills that students needed to master were identified. During the 2011 to 2013 period, (i) the MLC took responsibility for College Algebra and Trigonometry in addition to Elementary and Intermediate Algebra, (ii) two academic advisors were hired, and (iii) the process of “adaptive placement” was developed to move high performing students to the next higher course. In 2017, the zero-credit corequisite model for accelerated placement was developed. In 2018, MATH 149 Business Algebra was developed in collaboration with the business college. In Fall 2020, two new courses were launched: (i) MATH 103 Mathematical Transitions for Success replaced MATH 025 Elementary Algebra, and focuses on academic success and self-efficacy, preparing students for success in subsequent coursework. It is especially appropriate for returning students and recognizes that there are students who will not be successful if pushed through a general education math class in a single semester.  (ii) MATH 133 Elementary Models and Functions replaced MATH 108 Intermediate Algebra and, because it is now a general education course, serves as a stepping stone to either a STEM/Business pathway or as the only math class needed for students in other majors. In 2021-22, a new placement tool was developed because standardized test scores are no longer required for admission.   

Much of the above work required collaboration with stakeholders. Adaptive placement depends on a partnership of the MLC with the Registrar’s Office; each switch requires a manual change of student records by the Registrar’s Office.  MLC staff members work closely with new student orientation to ensure correct placement and with academic advising staff to clarify math pathways and strengthen the message of self-efficacy. Collaboration with units that depend on the MLC’s coursework (e.g., engineering) helped ensure the relevance of coursework. In parallel, the Department of Mathematics reformed Calculus I and II with a focus of relevance and problem solving, created a new entry level class for a statistics pathway, revised second-level statistics to focus on team-based learning, and created corequisite sections for entry level statistics and math for liberal arts. 

As a result of the MLC’s efforts, pass rates for Elementary and Intermediate Algebra nearly doubled (increasing from 40%, 38%, and 47% in 2005-06 in Elementary, Intermediate, and College Algebra, respectively, to 75%, 72%, and 75% in 2022-23). Courses that depend on the foundation provided by MLC courses also had increased pass rates: Calculus I increased from 52% to 82%; and Calculus II increased from 52% to 82%.  

What is the scale of impact of these improvements? In 2005-06, nearly half of incoming first-time full-time freshmen took one of the MLC’s courses; that number has now risen to over half, with a greater percentage of URM and first generation students. In 2005-06, the high failure rate in early math and differential impact on URM and first generation students can be argued to have been contributing to inequity. In recent years the high success rate in early math and continued differential impact on those students can be argued to be contributing to an increase in equitable outcomes for students. 

Other indicators of the scale of impact: (i) More than half of recent baccalaureate graduates from first-time-in-college cohorts have taken one or more of the MLC’s courses. (ii) Engineering and Computer Science (Engr/CS) majors rely heavily on math and Engr/CS majors might typically be expected to enter college calculus-ready. Boise State graduates an average of 312 Engr/CS majors per year from our ABET-accredited programs (includes all cohort types). Of those, a third had taken one or more of the MLC’s courses, demonstrating that large numbers of Engr/CS students were able to graduate even though not “calculus-ready.” Furthermore, an average of nearly six Engr/CS graduates a year took the MLC’s Elementary Algebra class.  

University-wide retention and graduation rates (which were below those of peers in 2005-06) are now higher than our peers. First year retention increased from 62.7% for the Fall 2005 cohort to 79.2% for the Fall 2021 cohort. Four year graduation rate quintupled from 8.2% to 41.4% for the Fall 2018 cohort. Six-year graduation rate doubled from 29.2% to 59.1% for the Fall 2016 cohort.  Finally, the number of baccalaureate graduates more than doubled from 2005-06 to 2022-23.  It is important to acknowledge that we undertook a wide range of other initiatives during this period including (i) revision of first year writing, (ii) implementation of Learning Assistants, (iii) creation of a Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, (iv) revision of new student orientation, (v) creation of a new general education program,, (vi) shifts to professional advising staff , and (vii) creation of a new Center for Teaching and Learning. 

The MLC’s program was developed over a decade and a half through the intentional, creative work of the MLC director, staff, and faculty, and with support from key stakeholders. We offer the following recommendations regarding implementation of a similar program. 

• The MLC’s program is centered on student success and self efficacy, going beyond the bounds of what is traditionally taught.  The necessary changes will create resistance in many quarters.  Therefore: (i) Strong central support is critical. (ii) A strong foundation in student success in the institution’s strategic plan is important. (iii) Autonomy in operation is necessary; the director needs to be able to make changes without impediment.  At the same time, connection to a traditional math department is professionally beneficial for the program’s faculty and facilitates curricular alignment, etc. (iv) It must be understood that implementation is a complex and long-term process. (v) Changing campus culture is not easy, and will require a change management strategy. 
• A sustained focus on continuous improvement is critical, with an assessment protocol that includes measuring the success of students in the program’s courses and in courses that rely on the foundation built by the program’s courses. Results should identify areas that need improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of improvements. Also, solid evidence is needed to promote the program’s success and build campus support.  
• Embedded student success advising staff is critical.  
• Providing a strong foundation in math cannot be sacrificed for expedient movement through classes, especially for pathways leading to higher-level STEM coursework.  
• Self-efficacy is as necessary to student success as is math content, and thus must be a focus of the message that students receive from MLC personnel and others.  

• Increased relevance and inclusion of problem solving result in increased engagement.  
• The use of ALEKS software enables many aspects of the MLC’s program: (i) more support for those who struggle, (ii) faster progress for highly successful students (“adaptive placement”), (iii) placement into a higher level class with necessary support (“accelerated placement,” “zero-credit corequisite”), (iv) identification of struggling students for proactive intervention, and (v) monitoring of outside-of-class time promotes accountability. 
• Our successful use of ALEKS results from its integration into a broader instructional system: (i) students spend one class period a week working on ALEKS in a classroom setting and one class period a week engaged in group problem solving and (ii) students are required to complete four hours a week on ALEKS outside of class time.   

The post V6I3: Early Math Reforms as a Cornerstone for Student Success (and Student Success as the Foundation for Early Math Reforms) at Boise State University appeared first on NWCCU.

Rachael Pandzik, Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness, University of Western States  

Dana Sims, Provost, Accreditation Liaison Officer, University of Western States 

In August 2019, NWCCU finalized new requirements for disaggregated indicators of student achievement in the context of and in comparison with regional and national peer institutions (NWCCU 2020 Standards 1.B.2, 1.D.2, and 1.D.3). With a continued commitment to student achievement and a Year Seven comprehensive evaluation report that was due in Spring 2023, institutional effectiveness personnel at University of Western States (UWS) investigated various existing sources of benchmarking data, including IPEDS, the University Benchmark Project (UBP), and the Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP). These metrics focused on undergraduate student populations (IPEDS, PDP) and associated administrative/student services (UBP) rather than the student population UWS required for comparators.  

As a graduate-level health science institution, UWS required comparative data from like institutions. The Council of Graduate Schools and gradSERU offered post-baccalaureate benchmarking focused on traditional academic master’s and PhD programs, rather than clinical programs leading to licensure. In recognition of these limitations and to meaningfully address NWCCU standards 1.B.2, 1.D.2, and 1.D.3, in late 2020 UWS invited four additional graduate-level health science institutions accredited by NWCCU to form a regional benchmarking consortium.  

Phase one, drafting and executing a data sharing agreement among five independent institutions, was no simple task. UWS institutional effectiveness and risk management personnel collaborated internally to develop a template that covered confidentiality, points of contact, and basic data collection and usage procedures. UWS then circulated this draft externally to the stakeholders and signatories of the other four NWCCU institutions for edits and comments on the data sharing agreement. Once all parties agreed to the terms, UWS utilized electronic signature software to fully execute the agreement in March 2021.  

Phase two, the pilot data collection, occurred during the summer and fall of 2021. This labor-intensive process began with the establishment of a common data dictionary to account for differences in each institution’s portfolio of programs. Unable to effectuate meaningful program-to-program comparisons due to disparate academic offerings, the newly formed Graduate Benchmarking Consortium (hereafter referred to as The Consortium) elected to benchmark by degree type. Institutional stakeholders then assigned their programs to one of four categories: Academic Doctorates, Clinical Professional Doctorates, Academic Master’s Degrees, and Professional Master’s Degrees. Academic degrees differed from clinical professional degrees in that clinical degrees provided a pathway to licensure.  

This program identification process led to further conversations surrounding confidentiality/suppression, limitations in data availability due to set configurations in student information systems, and variations in institutional reporting calendars. An overarching concern of The Consortium was student confidentiality, due to relatively small cohorts in certain disaggregated racial/ethnic groups, age ranges, and gender identities. Utilizing a ‘students of color’ designation afforded an opportunity to provide meaningful comparison through re-aggregation rather than data suppression (invoked when any individual category included fewer than five students).  

Disparate student information systems (SIS) and institutional reporting calendars proved challenging, but not insurmountable. As a key repository for matriculant data, an institution’s SIS software generally has fixed parameters to reliably collect and maintain pertinent aspects of academic records. A common example of an SIS limitation is the binary choice of male or female for gender identity. Some members of The Consortium were able to report a broader range of gender identities, while other members were limited to male or female. In this instance, no meaningful comparison could be made beyond male and female gender identities. A further complication related to academic calendars—namely, how to reconcile quarter, trimester, and non-traditional terms. To address this, The Consortium resolved to report data based on a fiscal year, in alignment with IPEDS guidelines.       

Utilizing the shared data dictionary, The Consortium entered data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, and age range for each program’s 100% graduation rate, 150% graduation rate, and 1-year retention rate into a shared Excel spreadsheet maintained by UWS. Each institution benchmarked their individual data against the aggregate peer data provided by the other members of The Consortium. In compliance with NWCCU Standard 1.D.3, which directs institutions to publish benchmarked indicators, UWS created a student achievement website. This dedicated webpage provides transparent, anonymized, contextualized information for university stakeholders, including current and prospective students, senior leadership, and members of the admissions staff. A green check mark indicates areas where UWS outperforms the benchmark; a red downward arrow denotes areas where UWS falls below the benchmark. The full report is reviewed by the UWS Institutional Effectiveness and Planning Committee (IEPC). The committee makes recommendations to executive leadership regarding actions necessary to address equity gaps and improve institutional outcomes. Though this is the strategy employed by UWS, each member of The Consortium is responsible for developing its own strategy for publishing and analyzing and responding to the data.    

In 2022-2023, the universities amended the agreement to include two additional graduate-level health science institutions accredited by NWCCU, and completed a second, more refined round of regional benchmarking. UWS facilitates the regional benchmarking consortium by scheduling meetings, capturing meeting minutes, and coordinating the annual data collection process. As evidence of compliance with NWCCU standards 1.B.2, 1.D.2, and 1.D.3, UWS included copies of the data sharing agreement, meeting minutes, and the benchmarking report with notations from the IEPC review with its Year 7 Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness report. These efforts garnered UWS a commendation in its official Commission letter for “the establishment of a data sharing agreement amongst other NWCCU-accredited peer institutions to develop common benchmarks against which disaggregated data on indicators of student achievement may be assessed to identify and close barriers to academic excellence and success.”  

Regional peer comparison exercises provide accountability and promote self-evaluation toward continuous improvement for student success. Though there are limitations in all benchmarking exercises, the insights provided by this annual data collection cycle assist both UWS and its peers in formulating realistic goals for closing institutional equity gaps. Forming a data sharing consortium comprised of peer institutions represents an innovative approach to attainment of NWCCU standards, and a commitment to analyzing disaggregated graduation and retention rates to inform university planning. 

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BBCC Public Affairs Office 

At Big Bend Community College, Workforce Education Services (WES) provides grants to historically underserved, low-income, and first-generation college students pursuing a workforce education credential through financial assistance, support services, and case management. WES grants help students pay for tuition, books, and program-specific tools, as well as provide access to basic needs such as food, housing, and transportation.  

Just like nearly all other institutions of higher education, in 2020 due to COVID, BBCC moved from in-person to online delivery of instruction and services. WES was one of the departments that suffered from the change. The student populations WES serves are historically underserved students of color (56%), low-income (96%), and first-generation (79%) students as well as parents. *Percentages of the 367 students served during the 2022-23 academic year. 

The impact of the pandemic on students served by WES was particularly hard and many students stopped attending college. WES enrollment was down, the department was not meeting its enrollment goals, and engagement with students was extremely limited. Many students served by WES are tactile learners and enjoy hands-on learning. It was difficult for them to adapt to a new environment of fully online classes or small in-person classes with schedules different from what they had experienced previously.  

WES services moved from in-person to online and the department had to figure out how to change the delivery of services provided and still ensure students continued to have access to WES services. The first step was to convert all eligibility and participation forms to an online format and have them available in different languages. A key form the department digitized was the WES Monthly Check-in Form.  This form facilitates monthly connections between students and department staff and is a way that students can report how they are doing in classes and if they have any needs. 

After making the form available online, WES staff noticed increased student requests for multiple needs including housing assistance, food access, transportation, financial budgeting, utility assistance, and mental health resources. In addition to the check-in form, the department also regularly monitors other indicators of student success including program-unduplicated headcount, student grades, student academic plans, student enrollment status and student financial need.  All these data sources pointed to a need for the department to adjust its services. 

BBCC Director of Workforce Education Services Yolanda Ibarra said their day-to-day work shifted to serving students in a more holistic way. 

“We understood that the success of a student relies on their well-being, securing basic needs, and having a support system,” she said. 

With that new lens, WES got to work expanding its capacity to meet students’ needs by adding additional staff (from three to eight in the last three years), offering services in multiple languages (English, Spanish, and Ukrainian) and increasing funding sources. Since 2020 WES has doubled the amount of grants and contracts (from five funding options to 10 in the last two years) which has led to not only more funding overall for students, but more things WES can help students pay for. 

WES currently oversees nearly $1.8 million in grants and contracts. 

The department is currently able to provide services to the following Big Bend student populations: 

• Low-income 
• Dislocated Workers 
• Displace Homemakers 
• Veterans 
• TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) participants 
• SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients 
• Disaster Impacted Students 
• Early Childhood Education Students 
• Homelessness Students 
• Students suffering from food insecurity 
• First Generation Students 
• Refugee Students  

WES funding allows the department to pay full tuition and fees to all qualifying students.  By doing this, students can use their financial aid to cover other needs related to persisting in school, such as books, housing and transportation.  

WES understands that students often need financial resources to pay for basic needs. Department staff recognized that if students only receive tuition assistance, but their basic needs are not met, it would be unrealistic to expect them to stay in school. 

Many students struggle to persist and complete their college education. In talking with students, staff identified basic needs, secured additional funding to provide financial support and now is able to assist students to address each of the following: 

• Housing 
• Food Access 
• Transportation 
• Medical 
• Utilities 
• Access to Internet 
• Childcare 

Creating a relationship with students is imperative. The WES service model is based on case management where each student enrolled in the WES program has an assigned WES Case Manager who builds individual relationships with students and helps them with the following services:  

• WES Application for Services 
• FAFSA/WASFA Applications 
• College Navigation 
• Connection to Community Resources 
• SNAP Application  
• Application for public benefits 
• Childcare Referrals 
• Mental Health referrals 

• Homelessness  
• Application for food through the Viking Food Pantry 
• Financial Assistance to pay for housing, on-campus and off-campus; transportation including gas, repairs and insurance; medical; utilities; access to internet and computers and childcare 

WES Case Managers track students’ academic enrollment, progress and completion. They contact each student at least once a month to ensure they are participating in classes and their basic needs are met. 

The department also manages and operates the Viking Food Pantry that provides students access to food.  Staff also provide academic advising for workforce programs.   

All the structural and funding changes WES made in the last few years not only allowed the department to meet enrollment goals for its grants, but also increase student retention, persistence and completion.  

WES services are having a positive impact on student success.  In 2022-23, 76 percent of historically marginalized (African American/Black, Hispanic, Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) WES students were retained to the following year or completed a credential at Big Bend. When you look at historically marginalized Workforce students not served by WES, that percentage is 34 percent.  

During the same time period, WES students also had a higher average GPA compared to non-WES students—2.86 and 2.73, respectively. 

Ibarra said she is proud of the work her team has done to help increase student outcomes. 

“WES has been working very hard to change how we approach students’ success, and we have seen the positive effect reflected in the increase in our student’s retention and completion,” said Ibarra. 

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NWCCU is seeking nominations for the Beacon Award for Excellence in Student Achievement and Success. The Beacon Award is an annual award recognizing institutional or programmatic accomplishments in student achievement and success at the NWCCU family of institutions.

Purpose and Description

The Beacon Award for Excellence in Student Achievement and Success is an annual award to recognize institutional or programmatic accomplishments in student achievement and success at the NWCCU family of institutions.

Three separate categories of The Beacon Award will be offered, based on unduplicated student enrollment during the most recent fall student headcounts: institutions with fewer than 2,000 students; between 2,000 and 6,000 students; and more than 6,000 students.

Award winners must demonstrate distinctive, measurable, and replicable innovations that have resulted in student achievement and success at the institutional or programmatic level, including innovations in advising and mentoring, alternative credentialing, experiential learning, learning communities, or other such efforts. Other winning examples may include new curricula, courses, or educational delivery models. The Beacon Award will recognize innovative approaches that have significantly contributed to measurable improvements in completion and/or graduation rates at the institution.

Award winners will receive a trophy and cash award to be used to further the institution’s efforts to implement the initiative. Additionally, the institution’s name will be inscribed on The NWCCU Beacon Award for Excellence in Student Achievement and Success Wall of Fame at the NWCCU office in Redmond, Washington.

Awardee institutions will be recognized during the NWCCU Annual Conference, where an institutional representative will have the opportunity to speak on the topic of their award-winning endeavors that are contributing to the success of their students. The winners will also be expected to submit a short article on their initiative for publication in NWCCU’s The Beacon newsletter.

Eligibility

All NWCCU member institutions are eligible. Only one nomination per institution per year may be submitted. Beacon Award winners are ineligible to be considered again for a period of three years.

Nomination Process

The institution’s leadership must apply for the award along with a short narrative regarding the program and how the award criteria are being demonstrated. The institution must submit a nomination packet of relevant materials, documentation, and evidence that clearly demonstrates the rationale for the nomination. The nomination packet cannot exceed five pages in a portable document file (pdf) format and must be submitted electronically.

Timeline 

Nominations must be received by the NWCCU no later than August 15, 2023. A review panel of NWCCU commissioners, staff, and representatives from institutions not under consideration will select award winners.

Criteria

• Clearly identifiable programmatic efforts that consistently champion student academic success and achievement demonstrated through meaningful student outcome innovation and examples.
• Evidence of a complete assessment process including assessment collection, analysis, and specifics of how the assessment data analysis led to program improvement.
• Evidence that the program directly led to student success and achievement such as student learning outcomes, increased retention rates, and increased completion or graduation rates.
• Evidence that the innovation is replicable.

Submit Nomination Here

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Mindfulness Practices Support Student Wellness in Westminster’s Honors College

Richard Badenhausen

The national mental health crisis among college students has been well-documented. For example, the University of Michigan’s Healthy Minds Network annual survey of student mental health for 2018-19 showed over a third of college students suffer from depression. Westminster Honors College students are no different.

Over the years, Westminster Honors College faculty and staff had been noticing a series of related honors student challenges: problems with perfectionism, tying self-worth to grades, decreasing resilience, and inability to ask for help or seek out resources. In 2018, they decided it was time to act.

At its annual August faculty teaching/learning retreat that year, the honors college faculty dug into the challenges around student wellness, drawing on the expertise of a neuroscience professor who discussed the complexity of the developing adolescent brain and hearing from students themselves about their struggles in a 90-minute “student fishbowl” exercise where student conversation is unmediated.

Around this same time, administrators collected data in an honors college climate survey, a robust instrument which had a return rate of 70%: almost triple the typical rate of such surveys. Clearly students had things on their minds. For example, honors college students were obviously struggling with anxiety and mental health issues, with 35% of respondents indicating they had been diagnosed with some psychological disorder (depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.), a figure that aligned with national data.

A result of that retreat conversation was a charge to the Assistant Dean of the Honors College who oversees much of the student-facing co-curricular programming, to design a wellness thread across the first-year experience that would help mitigate some of these pressures on students, to respond institutionally to the crisis.

After much planning and conversation, an intentional wellness program was instituted in fall 2019 in the honors college first-year seminar (FYS) experience that equipped students with mindfulness practices they could draw on during times of stress. The hope was that in adding resources to their toolbox, students would be able to face challenges better equipped and empowered to overcome them. The new programming-now in its fourth year-has three primary strands: training with mindfulness practitioners; conversations with peers about personal challenges; and in-class discussions of texts that took up issues related to health and wellness.

The first and most extensive part of the programming involves hiring three mindfulness practitioners to train students during weekly 45-minute sessions over the entire fall semester in the “Tuesday Conversation” evening meeting. This 90-minute weekly “lab” attached to the FYS taken by all honors students brings together the entire entering honors cohort for evening conversation with key faculty and staff members from across campus.

The sessions are broken in half so that students work regularly with a yoga teacher, a meditation instructor, or a graduate student with expertise in mindfulness through reflective writing. Students identify their preferred practice so there is buy-in and they “swap” practices at midterm. Importantly, these are not one-off sessions that introduce students to a new skill; instead, they are repeated weekly sessions where they train in a specific practice.

The second piece of the new program consists of “mentoring moments,” brief accounts that follow the 45-minute practitioner sessions where experienced, more senior honors student peer mentors talk about one of their experiences as a student, often a moment of struggle, failure, asking for help, and so on. The goal here is to normalize struggle, demonstrate what discussing problems looks like, and humanize the student leaders in the eyes of the first-year students so they are more likely to reach out to their peer mentors for help.

A favorite slogan repeated by Honors College Dean Richard Badenhausen is “don’t be a duck” – in other words, don’t walk around with a placid exterior while you are furiously padding underneath the (hidden) water trying to keep up. The “mentor moment” uses displays of student vulnerability to help first-year students better understand the power of sharing your struggles.

At the end of the session, students write down a “wellness reflection” or takeaway from the evening, in effect solidifying the lesson but in a way that gives students ownership over the insight. For example, one student’s takeaway in an end-of-session reflection during COVID was, “we may not be able to go outside, but we can go inside” through reflection. Importantly, while the world seemed overrun with chaos and people felt powerless, this student still felt a sense of agency in their ability to turn inward to reflective practices.

The third piece of the program was developed after Dean Badenhausen attended an AAC&U diversity conference in 2019 where representatives from Georgetown University discussed their Engelhardt program, a donor-inspired initiative in which FYSs explicitly took up issues of health and wellness. The honors college adapted the approach for the FYS by asking faculty to include one reading on their syllabi that fit with the course theme – there is a common theme annually for all sections – while also investigating an issue of health and wellness.

For example, one class took up Plath’s Bell Jar, which contains characters beset by suicidal ideation, while another explored an essay by Rebecca Solnit that examines sexual assault. In conjunction with those discussions led by the honors college faculty, visitors with expertise on the topics join the conversation, for example a member of the college’s counseling office or a member of the Title IX office.

Finally, students perform an anonymous written reflection at the end of these sessions, thus developing their reflective capacities around mental health issues. According to Badenhausen, “the explicit goals of this third piece are to normalize conversations about mental health struggles; to bridge the curriculum and co-curriculum by signaling to students that the classroom is an acceptable place to have such conversations that are typically sloughed off on Student Affairs; to put students in touch with different offices on campus who can help them; and finally, to position faculty members as allies in students’ journey to health and wellness.”

Importantly, this has been a program-wide effort that first started with faculty and staff wanting to help students, but which has expanded to bring in other members of our community. For example, to underwrite ongoing costs for the new program, the honors college identified it as the focal point of its annual Giving Day effort in winter 2021, which allowed students to see how much value was placed on this work. That campaign also raised awareness of mental wellness across campus and folded in alums and other donors into the effort. Fundraising efforts were very successful, resulting in $50,000 specifically for the new wellness initiatives, which has underwritten the cost of mindfulness trainers.

Student wellness is a complicated matter and there is no magic bullet to solving some of these intractable problems. Students bring many histories, experiences, and health challenges into their university communities. Likewise, there is no single measure that captures the effect of broad, multi-pronged programming like this. Having said that, the data are encouraging, as first-year retention improved significantly the year after the program was instituted.

Qualitative data are also encouraging, as captured in the following representative anonymous student comment written at the end of the Tuesday Conversation program: “The meditations helped me feel more present and in-tune with myself and my emotions.” Another student noted, “Feeling at peace can allow other things to fall into place.”

The impacts mentioned above are no small matter, given that the honors college first-year student population has made up 20-25% of Westminster’s incoming class during the past few years. And it is important to note that Westminster’s honors college is made up of many students from underserved populations, which is unusual nationally in honors education. For example, during the 2020-21 academic year, 26.6% of honors college students were students of color compared to 22.4% of the overall Westminster student population. During the 2021-22 year, those figures were separated by less than one percentage point.

According to Provost Debbie Tahmassebi, who nominated the program for the Beacon Award, the honors college’s innovative approach to wellness “is distinctive, has led to measurable success, and is an important part of our approach to supporting student health and wellness at Westminster College.”

Also important is the fact that this programming has demonstrated that Westminster can make a difference in student wellness and this work has also helped give energy to other efforts across campus. The honors college’s success was often mentioned in planning discussions of recent larger wellness efforts at Westminster, which will culminate in a new campus wellness center supported by gifts of $7 million, almost all of which has been raised.

To reiterate the key takeaways from this story: the mental health challenges of college students are real, but they are not insurmountable. Westminster’s honors college adopted a distinctive approach that aligned the curriculum and co-curriculum in ways that resulted in measurable success. Mental health challenges are addressed across the full spectrum of the first-year student experience. The programming described above is targeted, manageable, and replicable in many different settings and could be used with a variety of different cohorts.

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