One transition all 吃瓜头条 students must make during the Fall 2022 semester is embracing new Student Success Teams.
The operative word is 鈥渢eams.鈥�
The Student Success Teams (SST) are the next iteration for campus student support efforts. No longer will each support area鈥攆inancial aid, basic needs, tutoring, etc.鈥攐perate alone.
Now, members of each support group, led by a dean, are assigned to work with faculty and students from seven different academic meta-majors.
The meta-majors, a.k.a. 鈥渟chools of,鈥� are the School of Industry and Manufacturing; the School of Social Sciences and Education; the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); the School of Health and Public Safety; the School of Agriculture, the School of Humanities, Languages, Fine and Performing Arts; and the School of Business.
Every student can reach out to their specific team, people they will see regularly and come to know, for help.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a different way to structure services, to make sure we have timely communication with students,鈥� Dean of Student Services Brooke Boeding said. 鈥淪tudents will realize they have a team behind them, and we鈥檒l see greater levels of success from them.鈥�
INSPIRATION
Boeding said colleges have historically used the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) model鈥攁 52-year old initiative of the California Community Colleges system鈥攖o reach students who face the most difficulties getting an education.
鈥淓OPS is 鈥榟igh touch鈥� with lots of services and constant communication between the counselors and students to ensure they get through,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e first looked at EOPS to see how we could make it something the entire college population could benefit from.鈥�
吃瓜头条 has been building on the idea of support teams for over three years, starting with defining guided pathways for each school.
鈥淭he state mandated that [in 2015] so all colleges would streamline their services to eliminate confusion and get students on the right path, right away,鈥� Boeding said.
COUNSELING
The college then took steps to embed counseling services鈥攆ollowing the Student Success initiative鈥攊nto the Success Team model, where counselors work with a specific group of students. Counselors gain a more nuanced understanding of students鈥� life experiences and ambitions, and tailor their interventions with those in mind.
The college restructured its counseling operations around three tiers of need:
- high-need students who don鈥檛 have enough services;
- medium-need students with some academic trouble who haven鈥檛 yet asked for tutoring; and
- low-need students who have a good plan, but SST still reaches out so they know their team cares.
Jazmin Serrano, a counselor in Los Banos, said one longstanding issue for students has been meeting a different counselor every time they come in for advice.
A dedicated set of counselors for each school will make students feel more connected. It will be a high-touch approach, sans the handholding.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not chasing information for them, but connecting them with the person they should know and should be working with,鈥� Serrano said.
Counselors are paying close attention right now to making sure multi-major students get placed in the right school for their needs. Counselors are also taking this time to plan workshops and visit classes to introduce themselves, Serrano said.
TECHNOLOGY
The college built a technology hub with an alert system for these interactions throughout 2021. Then faculty were trained on how to use the Early Alert system during the summer of 2022.
Jennifer Edrington, Student Services Area Administrative Coordinator, spearheaded the work to shape the Navigate software for SST purposes.
鈥淲e鈥檝e designed each Early Alert based on what needs to happen, which intervention and which outcome,鈥� Edrington said.
Navigate, first, sorts all students into their respective teams and sets a schedule of emails that remind students, for example, to enroll for the upcoming semester or apply for financial aid. Then, during the semester, faculty can send early alerts asking the team to get a student help with basic needs, tutoring, mental health, etc.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a holistic approach,鈥� Edrington said. 鈥淎nd, at the end, we can measure the effectiveness of the alerts themselves. That鈥檚 the key to the new system鈥攖he alerts plus data.鈥�
Last month, Serrano was already receiving feedback from professors in Los Banos wondering if alerts were reaching their targets and if their students followed up.
鈥淭hey want to know they鈥檙e not just checking a box,鈥� Edrington said. 鈥淭hey ask for updates. We can鈥檛 report back using names [due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act], but the system makes it easy for us to see trends and to report aggregate data.鈥�
Everyone will quickly know what is working.
鈥淎ll of these support services have been here for a long time, but we never had a way to streamline the process, and then look back at it so quickly to see if it鈥檚 working,鈥� Edrington said. 鈥淣avigate will do that for us.鈥�
PROGRESS
Boeding knows the idea behind SST will evolve. She expects team members to do plenty of troubleshooting this semester.
Still, Serrano knows the college is onto something.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had so many students within the learning communities we now use at Los Banos that are doing well,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hey are so effective for first-generation and underrepresented student populations. … Even though we鈥檙e now doing this on a much broader scale, we still hope students take advantage of it and appreciate it. We hope it makes navigating higher education easier.鈥�