Follow along as a four-year institution’s student success committee explores the Postsecondary Data Partnership dashboards to learn if the recruitment strategy 6 years ago resulted in a more diverse first-year class.
Transcript
At this week’s Student Success Council meeting, Angela asks if the recruitment strategy they adopted six years ago resulted in a more diverse first-year class.
Sandra replies that the PDP dashboards can answer that question.
Nicole, our institution’s Director of Enrollment Management, logs into the PDP dashboards and clicks on the Enrollment dashboard.
Hovering over the 2015-16 data point in the line chart, they see that their enrollment was 2,043 first-year students that year but climbed to 3,028 first-year students in 2018-19.
Thomas, our institution’s provost, asks if the PDP dashboards could indicate if the student body became more diverse over that time frame. Sandra replies that they can apply the race and ethnicity dimension to find out.
First, they look at the largest population in 2015-16 which were White students. Hovering over that line for 2015-16, they find that 773 students, or 37.8%, of their first-year cohort were White. In 2018-19, that percentage dropped to 27.7%, however, due to the increase in overall enrollment, the number of White students increased to 839 students that year.
Next, they look at the second largest population in 2015-16 which were Black or African American students. Hovering over that line for 2015-16, they find that 475 students or 23.3% of the first-year cohort were Black or African American. By 2018-19, the number of students enrolled grew to 637 but the percentage of the population declined to 21%.
Then, they look at their third largest population in 2015-16 which were Hispanic students. Hovering over that line for 2015-16, they find that 460 students or 22.5% of that first-year cohort were Hispanic. But, by 2018-19, that percentage grew to 32.7% or 989 students. This was the fastest growing population within the first-year student cohort.
Nicole is excited to learn about the increased enrollment of students of color. Over the past several years, her admissions team had actively recruited new students within those communities. Nicole also oversees the institution’s first-year retention programs for students of color.
She wonders if the PDP could tell them if those programs were successful.
She returns to the PDP home page and clicks on the Retention and Persistence Institution-Level dashboard.
Because they are interested in retention, Nicoles keeps the Retention and Persistence filter set to “Retention”. And, because they are interested in retention by race and ethnicity, she applies the race and ethnicity dimension. The resulting line chart is challenging to read so, Nicole applies the race and ethnicity filter to Black or African American students, Hispanic students, and white students since they comprise 85% of the first-year student body.
Now, we can interpret the findings.
Hovering over the line representing White students, they find that this population increased their retention from 74% in 2015-16 to 78% in 2018-19 which is a 4-percent gain. Hovering over the line representing Hispanic students, they find their retention rate increased from 66% to 68% for a 2-percent gain. Then, hovering over the line representing Black or African American students, they see that their retention rate increased from 56% to 60% for a 4-percent gain.
Everyone celebrates the news that, not only did the institution increase the diversity of the first-year cohort, but it also increased student retention rates.
But Sandra has some troubling news. Sandra points once again to the PDP dashboard and focuses on the change in gaps over time.
The equity gap in retention rates between White and Black or African American students from 2015-16 and 2018-19 stayed consistent at 18 percent.
But, the equity gap between White and Hispanic students widened from 8 percent to 10 percent. While the retention rate for Hispanic students improved, that improvement lagged behind White and Black or African American students.
Angela says that while the institution is serving and retaining more students, they did not increase the number of academic advisors needed to mentor those additional students. As a result, advising meetings are much shorter to accommodate larger caseloads.
She wonders if this disproportionally impacted Hispanic students, and what data the Advising office might have to explore this question.
Nicole asks if there is anything else they need to be concerned about.
Sandra goes back to the PDP home page and selects the Gateway Course Completion dashboard.
This dashboard reports the percentage of students who complete their required Gateway math and/or English courses within their first year of college.
Sandra adds the Race and Ethnicity filter to include Black or African American, Hispanic, and White students. She also adds the Race and Ethnicity dimension.
Hovering over the line representing White students, they find that 55% of this population completed their required Gateway Courses in their first year of college in 2015-16 but only 53% completed those courses in 2018-19.
Hovering over the line representing Hispanic students, they find that their Gateway Course completion rate dropped from 42% in 2015-16 to 21.9% in 2018-19.
And, hovering over the line representing Black or African American students, they find that their Gateway Course completion rate dropped from 31.7% in 2015-16 to 24.6% in 2018-19.
Sandra clicks over to the subgroup gap analysis tab to look at the change in gaps over time.
The equity gap in Gateway Course Completion rates between White and Black or African American students widened 5-percent from 23 percent to 28 percent over that time frame while the equity gap between White and Hispanic students widened 18-percent from 13 percent to 31 percent.
Thomas says that based on the PDP data he will meet with Math and English-department heads to discuss the declining Gateway Course Completion rates. Angela says she would submit a formal request to hire additional advisors. And Nicole requests that they should spend time identifying policies or practices that might be contributing to the continuing and growing equity gaps.
While the institution should celebrate the increased diversity and retention of its first-year cohort, it should also work to ensure that students are supported equitably.