Compliance Certification Rationale for Judgment of Compliance

Southwest Texas Junior College engages in ongoing, integrated, and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that (1) incorporate a systematic review of institutional mission, goals, and outcomes; (2) result in continuing improvement in institutional quality; and (3) demonstrate the institution is effectively accomplishing its mission.
Academic and Student Support Services are clearly driven by expected outcomes in measurable terms for each unit.  Unit Action Plans are completed annually by each service unit to continuously evaluate and improve support services and programs to effectively meet the needs of students of all types and promote student learning and development.
Click here to see a three year cycle sample of a Unit Action Plan report produced by SWTJC assessment software.

Advising/Counseling:

2011-2012
Expected Outcome No. 1:  New students attending the New Orientation course will be aware of and be able to access SWTJC Student Services.
Intervention:  Conduct break-out sessions and tours with individual student service area directors (e.g. Financial Aid, Counseling, Library); coordinate with College Success Skills Committee to identify and assess student learning outcomes.  First time students will be more successful if they are aware of and can access student services.  Informal assessments indicated that workshops/breakout sessions would engage participants more effectively than one general session. 
Assessment:  Participants will complete weekly exam over services with a mastery of 70% or higher, attend seminars, review their degree plan with an academic advisor, and pre-register for the next coming semesters.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  After attending a new student orientation course, 71% of students had a basic understanding of the student services offered through this division as evidenced by students scoring 70% or higher on 15 weekly exams during the fall semester and 78% during the spring semester.

2012-2013
Expected Outcome No. 1:  Student retention for the at-risk population of students on probation will improve.
Intervention: Students on probation are most at risk for dropping out.  An at-risk student on probation will be referred to student success center for tutoring within their needed area.  When tutors are not available in an area, faculty will be asked to provide tutoring services.  Students will be placed on an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) at the college success center and will be monitored the rest of the semester.
Assessment:  Mail all students on probation a letter informing them about their academic standing and encourage them to seek help from their academic advisor.  Advisors track students through Estudias and document how many come in and make referrals to the SWTJC college success center.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  During the fall 2012 semester, 495 students were on academic probation and 179 came in to seek services.  During the spring 2013 semester, 467 were on academic probation and 198 students came in to seek services.  This will be a continuous process every semester to improve retention rates.  Our goal is to implement new initiatives and be proactive to collaborate with instructors to identify those who might be at-risk. 

Expected Outcome No. 2:  Increase the enrollment of TSI complete students by allowing them to register on-line using E-Advising.
Intervention:  Staff in Registrar’s office will refer students to E-Advising.  Currently most students are advised face to face or they register online with little or no advising.  The result is that many students take the wrong courses and consequently take longer to graduate than necessary and graduate with more hours than necessary.
Assessment:  Compare the number of cohort students using E-Advising to register versus registering on-line and advisor assisted registration.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Total enrollment for fall 2012 was 5960 and total enrollment for spring 2013 was 5631.  During the fall 2012 semester 3823 students enrolled face to face with an advisor and 2137 registered on-line through web-advisor.  During the spring 2013 semester 3385 students enrolled face to face with an advisor and 2246 registered on-line through web-advisor.  Our goal was to have 25% of our students enroll on-line using E-advising, 25% web-advisor on-line registration, and 50% advisor assisted registration.  Advisors were not able to utilize the E-advising due to technical issues with the software.  Since then, SWTJC has upgraded to student planning and we are testing it out with certain cohorts.  The goal is to continue to promote and encourage students to use this feature for upcoming semesters through advertisements and social media.  Since then SWTJC has upgraded to Student Planning

2013-2014
Expected Outcome No. 1:  More students will enroll in MATH 1314 directly after completing MATH 0303
Intervention:  Many students are delaying enrolling in MATH 1314 after completing MATH 0303 with the result that they retain less content and are not as successful.  Multiple steps will be taken which include the following: (1) at midterm, students who have a “B” or better in MATH 0303 are sent an email that MATH 1314 will be the next sequential course the following semester.  (2)  Set up E-Advising so that the identified students must register in MATH 1314.  Students will complete MATH 1314 with A, B, or C in a year. 
Assessment:  The comparison baseline is the percent of students who completed MATH 0303 in fall 2012, came back in spring 2013, and who enrolled in MATH 1314.  The same data will be obtained for fall 2013 and spring 2014 comparison.  All students were assisted in course and degree planning in person and using E-Advising.  37% of the students were identified and successfully registered for MATH 1314 the following semester after completing MATH 0303.  The 50% target was not accomplished. 
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  The goal was to transition at least 50% of students completing MATH 0303 to take MATH 1314.  Different approaches will be implemented to target students sooner.  For example, student planning will be a new module that will help plan courses for the next 2 years.  In addition, advisors will collaborate with instructors to promote, encourage and motivate students to register for a college level math during early registration. 

Expected Outcome No. 2- More students will enroll in ENGL 1301 directly after completing ENGL 0302
Intervention:  Many students are delaying enrolling in ENGL 1301 after completing ENGL 0302.  Multiple steps will be taken which include the following:  (1) at midterm, students who have a “B” or better in ENGL 0302 are sent an email that ENGL 1301 will be their sequential course the next semester.  (2) Set up E-Advising so that the students above must register in ENGL 1301.  Students will complete ENGL 1301 with A, B, or C in a year.
Assessment:  The comparison baseline is the percent of students who completed ENGL 0302 in fall 2013, came back in spring 2014, and who enrolled in ENGL 1301.  The same data will be obtained for fall 2014 and spring 2015 for comparison.  All students were assisted with course and degree planning in person and using E-Advising.  37% were identified and successfully registered for ENGL 1301 the following semester after completing ENGL 0302.  The 50% target was not accomplished. 
Analysis/Improvement Plan: The goal was to transition at least 50% of students completing ENGL 0302 to take ENGL 1301.  Different approaches will be implemented to target students sooner.  For example, student planning will be a new module that will help plan courses for the next 2 years.  In addition, advisors will collaborate with instructors to promote, encourage and motivate students to register for ENGL 1301 during early registration. 

Student Success Center
2011-2012
Expected Outcome No. 1:  Increase the engagement behaviors of students with faculty. 
Intervention:  Many students do not interact with faculty.  Engagement benchmark data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) 2010 shows that SWTJC’s student-faculty interaction compares unfavorably with that of other community colleges in the cohort.  Student Success Centers offer seminars for students introducing techniques, skills, tips to encourage them to interact with faculty both in and out of the classroom. 
Assessment:  Documentation of seminars and attendance.  
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Faculty collaborated with the Student Success Center to offer more seminars than originally planned.  Seminars were well attended and some faculty partnerships to offer extra credit for attendance were also formed.  Student Success seminars will continue. 

2012-2013
Expected Outcome No. 1:  Increase preparation and commitment for the fall to spring retention period.  Increase FAFSA completion in the spring semester. 
Intervention:  Assessments show that retention from the fall to spring semester needs improvement.  Assessments indicate that students are not aware that they can complete the FAFSA in the spring semester.  They generally complete their prep and commit to attending in the fall just before the fall semester begins.  Student Success Center will conduct a preparation and commitment fair at each major campus for the fall (Fall Fiesta) and spring (College Crossroads) semesters.  FAFSA completion and registration are the major goals of the events.  Both events will include collaborations between the Student Success Center, all other service units, clubs and organizations, and faculty.
Assessment:  Fall to spring retention rates.  Number of students who complete a FAFSA during the promotion period.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Retention increased to just above the target for the fall to spring semester (Fall Fiesta).  Targets were exceeded for the number of students who completed FAFSAs during the promotion period (College Crossroads).  Both events will continue.  Plans to include the Crystal City campus are in the works. 

Expected Outcome No. 2:  Provide individual academic advising and tutoring services to students on financial aid appeal. 
Intervention:  Assessments indicate that when students appeal their financial aid suspension most appeals are granted, but there is little to no monitoring or students’ progress.  As a result, there are a high number of repeat appeals.  Student Success Centers will provide a formal monitoring process (Individual Academic Plan-IAP) for financial aid appeals.  It will include individual and periodic academic advising and tutoring services. 
Assessment:  Compliance/success rates of students participating in the IAP process.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Individual Academic Plan (IAP) monitoring for financial aid appeals students was found to be successful.  The process will be expanded to include academic appeals. 

2013-2014
Expected Outcome No. 1:  Students who regularly visit the Student Success Center will be better able to navigate educational resources.
Intervention:  A common problem among new students who come to the Student Success Centers is they are not fully aware of the educational resources available to them.  Even when aware of resources, they are not good at selecting and using the resources.  SSC will develop and distribute a new student resource guide to a cohort consisting of all IAP students.  
Assessment:   Compare course success rates of previous IAP students who have visited at least three times.  
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Based in IAP students established for success measures:  Total # of students from all campus was 362.  Total # Successful was 265.  Overall:  73% Success.  73% of the students in the IAP cohort were successful in achieving established IAP for student success.  Students were introduced to services and resources offered at the college.  Students were placed on an Individual Academic Plan that required them to attend a specified 3hrs per week of tutoring and monthly advisor visits.  This requires students to utilize resources from Student Success Center/Writing Center/Student Support/Library and other resources available on campus.  Due to limited funding and transition of personnel, new resource guides were not implemented.

Expected Outcome No. 2: The students engaged by the Student Success Center graduation activities will have a higher graduation rate.
Intervention:  SSC wants to actively plan for and participate in initiatives increasing graduation rates.  Graduation activities include:  contact students nearing graduation, conduct graduation campaigns, and one-on-one advising sessions.
Assessment:  Based on a comparison of increased graduation applications from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014.
Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Due to limitations in assessments we found it was challenging to measure the direct impact of our interventions.  Measures for 2013-2013 to compare 2013-2014 are pending from Registrar’s Office.  Changes observed from interventions were that students graduation awareness increased; therefore, a greater result in students reaching out to student success center advisors for graduation advising.

Expected Outcome No. 3:  Improve the number of students who successfully complete Math 0303 and enroll in Math 1314.
Intervention:  Success Center staff has observed that students avoid enrolling in Math 1314.  SSC staff will assign tutors to Math 0303 labs. 
Assessment:  Tutors will be assigned to some math labs.  Use of a control group will help determine if the tutors had an effect on math learning outcomes.

Analysis/Improvement Plan:  Intervention was implemented on Del Rio campus for fall 2013 semester.  The mean final grade average of the intervention group was 1.80.  The mean final grade average for the non-intervention group was 1.70.  The difference from the intervention group to non-intervention was 0.10%.  Due to this small difference, the intervention was not continued to the next semester.  Eagle Pass campus began the intervention but due to scheduling issues in the classroom, intervention was not applicable.  Due to the transitioning of personnel and budget cuts in Uvalde, planning outcome was unable to be implemented.

Off-Site Committee Judgment and Commentary: Non-Compliance

A review of the organizational chart shows eight distinct units that are associated with academic and student support services. Departments listed include Academic Advising, Financial Aid, Library, Outreach, Registrar, Educational Opportunity Center, Off Campus Sites, and Student Engagement and Success. Two departmental examples were provided for review: Advising- Counseling and Student Success Center. The institution uses a proprietary accountability management system to develop Unit Action Plans. A sample Unit Action Plan for Advising-Counseling was provided that showed planning for 2013-2014. Outcomes listed were to increase math course sequence enrollments from Math 0303 into Math 1314. A second outcome dealt with English and improving course sequences. The example cited for the English outcome was not met (37% of a 50% target registered for ENGL1301 after completing ENGL 0302. The institution listed integrating a technology solution in the form of a student planning module. Additional narrative for Advising-Counseling was provided from 2011-2012 (1 outcome), and 2013-2013 (2 outcomes). One example cited from 2012-2013 was to improve student retention for at risk students. An improvement plan was developed to increase the number of students from this population using the Student Success Center. Data demonstrated a slight increase in the use of services in the center. It was learned that this project “will be a continuous process every semester to improve retention rates.” A review of the 2013-2014 Unit action plan did not provide any evidence to follow up to show improvement based on analysis of results. Taken as a whole, the committee found inconsistent application of planning and improvement for the departments associated with academic and student support services. The absence of a systematic outline showing how all academic and student support services participate in assessment and improvement was not evident to the committee.

Institutional Response

Southwest Texas Junior College engages in ongoing, integrated, and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that (1) incorporate a systematic review of institutional mission, goals, and outcomes; (2) result in continuing improvement in institutional quality; and (3) demonstrate the institution is effectively accomplishing its mission.

Academic and Student Support Services are driven by expected outcomes in measurable terms for each unit.  Unit Action Plans (UAP’s) are completed annually by each service unit to continuously evaluate and improve support services and programs to effectively meet the needs of students of all types and promote student learning and development.

In response to the Off-Site Committee’s finding of “inconsistent application of planning and improvement for the departments associated with academic and student support services,” SWTJC has prepared a summary of Unit Action Plans. To view the Student Support Services Unit Action Plan Summary, please click here. The Summary presents a 2013-2015 chronology of a Service unit’s expected outcomes, interventions/activities, assessment methods, findings, and use of findings to inform subsequent planning for unit improvement.