New Directions in Student Development 2016 Ebony Gammon, LMSW Student Navigator Chattahoochee Technical College

Implementing an Early Alert System The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

What’s In It For You?  How do you define at risk ?  What do you need to know ?  What are you willing to invest?  What outcome is necessary?  What other problems can the system address?

Use Data to Get Started!  Enrollment  Current Retention  Desired Outcomes  Program Statistics  Specialized Groups

TEAMS: TCSG Early Alert Management System

From an Implementation Standpoint  The Good, and The Bad are applicable to:  Students  Instructors/ Faculty  Representatives/ Staff  The Ugly is applicable to  Outcomes

The Good – Advantages of Implementation Students  Student- Faculty- Staff Engagement  Improving Retention/ Persistence  Improving the Student – Institution Relationship  Identification of Problem Areas Faculty/ Instructors  Faculty Engagement/ On-campus Resources  Integration between faculty and Student Affairs

The Good- Advantages of Implementation Representatives/ Staff  Staff cohesion, multiplicity/ expansion of duties  Staff engagement with faculty and students

The Bad- Limitations of Implementation Students  Interventions – Available Resources- Infrastructure of Resources  Breadth and Depth of Alerts Faculty/ Instructors  Training of faculty to enter alerts  Faculty buy-in to use the system  Feed back to faculty in a timely manner  Consistent use

The Bad- Limitations of Implementations Representatives/ Staff  Availability of staff to answer alerts  Consistency of information relayed within the system  Availability of necessary resources for student, both on and off campus

The Ugly-Outcomes of an Early Alert System  Does the system expose impasses, weaknesses in how you handle student issues? Is your administration ready for this ?  Does the system give you an accurate understanding of actual student problems?  Is the data derived from the system organized and systematic enough to begin to draw preliminary conclusions?  How do you begin to propose changes that will enhance the student experience, improve the outcomes of the data? When do you do this?  What funding stream will this system tap? How does this affect the outcomes that you’re looking to understand?  How do you change the established mindset about saving/ helping students?

Sneak Peek at TEAMS  Activity  How our system is set up How our system is set up  What are we finding?  What have we changed/ evolved to improve our student outcomes

Fall 2015 Alerts Total alerts1,211 Unduplicated alerts1,074 Attendance Issues297 Academic Concerns379 Personal Hardships23 Alerts by Type Overall Summary Faculty Entered Alerts699 Learning Support Math Alerts440 (Out of 699) Student Navigator Alerts (Complete W/D) 512 Breakdown of TEAMS Alerts

Overall TEAMS Alert Outcomes Fall 2015

Process Improvement  Answering Alerts- Representatives  Standardization  Messaging, Time Frames  Consistent Training  Follow-up and Follow- through  Intervention Management  Electronic Resource Guide  Submitting Alerts  Proactive/ Reactive  System Integration – BBL & TEAMS  Technical Support

Keys to Successful Implementation and Maintenance  Have a master key – One person that truly manages the system  Checks and balances are imperative  Internal review is critical  Convey a consistent message  Provide information to stakeholders – NewsletterNewsletter  Grow at a consistent but manageable pace  Be honest, consistent and real – this system is not going to magically fix every problem

Questions? Ebony Gammon, LMSW Student Navigator Chattahoochee Technical College