SI Programs & Retention: A Return on Investment Kirk Skoglund Northwest Missouri State University (Northwest) Talent Development Center kskog@nwmissouri.edu

Outline Overview of Northwest and SI Program Goal Background Research Return on Investment Process with an Example Gain from Investment Cost of Investment Questions

About Northwest Four year public university 6,800 students SI Program Approximately 30 years old 23 SI leaders 3 SI Mentors 1 Graduate Assistant Need for Expansion

Goal Walk through a method of calculating a return on investment for an SI program, particularly expanding an SI program Why is this important? Increasing Accountability in Higher Education Performance Funding from the State Competition for Funding within the university

Research SI positively influences retention (Ramirez, 1997; Blanc, DeBuhr, & Martin,1983; Kochenour et al., 1997; Etter, Burmeister, & Elder, 2001; Bowles, McCoy, & Bates, 2008) Congos (2001) shows a model of generating revenue with SI by looking at the recruitment costs v. retaining students. Academic Success Coaching Program at Northwest Northwest Research Fall to Fall retention of Freshmen that used SI Freshmen with less than a 3.5 High School Grade Point Average retained at approximately 20% higher if they attended SI sessions versus their non-attending peers Recruitment costs of replacing students lost with new students v. retaining students already at the institution

Return on Investment “Return on investment is a management tool that systematically measures both past performance and future investment decisions” (Rachlin, 1997). Investopedia Not a scholar on business investments I wanted to consider this without the recruitment costs model…say we

Gain from Investment Tuition (or Fees) Items to Consider Retention impact Average enrolled hours Duplication of students In-state v. out-of-state tuition Scholarships and discounting

Retention Impact Example at Northwest

Assumptions for Tuition Example at Northwest 75% in-state, 25% out-of-state figures are rounded down 90% Sophomore-Junior retention and 97% Junior-Senior retention. All figures are rounded down. Assumes discount rate of 17% in tuition costs through scholarships, etc. Assumes SI impact for only fall term, but costs are associated with both terms Retention research found approximately 50% of FR in an SI course had less than 3.5 HS GPA Assumes no impact on Freshmen with HS GPA of 3.5 or greater Assumes a normal load is 27 credit hours per year Assumes no increase in tuition and fees;

Tuition Calculation Example at Northwest

Cost of the Investment Items to consider Costs of SI leaders Costs of staff or additional staff Office expenses (copies, supplies, training costs, professional development, technology, etc.)

Cost of Investment Example at Northwest

Calculating the Return on Investment Consistently so that the models are comparable

Return on Investment Example at Northwest

Questions?

For access to templates and other documents please email requests to: kskog@nwmissouri.edu

References Blanc, R.A, DeBuhr, L.E., & Martin, D. C. (1983). Breaking the attrition cycle: The effects of Supplemental Instruction on undergraduate performance and attrition. The Journal of Higher Education, 54(1), 80-90. Bowles, T. J., McCoy, A. C., & Bates, S. (2008). The effect of Supplemental Instruction on timely graduation. College Student Journal, 42(3), 853-859. Congos, D. (2001). How supplemental instruction (SI) generates revenue for colleges and universities. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 3(3), 301-309. Etter, E. R., Burmeister, S. L., & Elder, R. J. (2001). Improving student performance and retention via supplemental instruction. Journal of Accounting Education, 18(4), 355-368. Kochenour, E.O., Jolley, D.S., Kaup, J.G., Patrick, D.L., Roach, K. D., & Wenzler, L. A. (1997). Supplemental Instruction: An effective component of student affairs programming. Journal of College Student Development, 38(6), 577-586. Rachlin, R. (1997). Return on investment manual: Tools and applications for managing financial results. ME Sharpe. Ramirez, G. M. (1997). Supplemental Instruction: The long-term impact. Journal of Developmental Education, 21(1), 2-10.