1. Retention and Graduation Rates at the Program Level - Part II Emma Gyasi, Mary Meier, and Robert M. Roe Central Michigan University

2. Outline History of issue Importance Difficulties to overcome Solution
Examples
Rollout and next steps

3. History
At the Port Huron MIAIR conference, Mary and Robert led a discussion about ways to measure retention and graduation by program
Some issues addressed:

4. Some Issues Discussed
People who do not work with cohorts have difficulty understanding them
Why you can’t work backwards from graduates
Other cohorts of interest (other than First Time at Any College (FTIAC))
Transfer Cohorts
Major Cohorts
Fiscal Year Cohorts

5. Some Issues Discussed
How to interpret data - signed major cohort different than FTIAC cohort
FTIAC definition of returned is enrolled fall of next year
Other cohorts definition is returned in time frame that defines the cohort (e.g. FY)
Majors can be signed at any time from first term to last term
Students have multiple majors and change majors multiple times
Unlike FTIAC no standard definition across institutions

6. Why We Need a Solution
Program accrediting bodies often require persistence and graduation rates for students in program
For example Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) requires data regarding persistence and graduation rates
However, they do not clearly define how to calculate those numbers

7. Why We Need a Solution
Schools accredited by ACEJMC publish a wide range of measures to meet the requirement
Some schools report years to graduation (e.g. of all journalism graduates, what is the average number of years to graduation)
Some schools report the number of current and prior year majors and define retention as current divided by prior year

8. CMU’s Solution
Define cohort as all students who signed major within fiscal year
Define persist as returned at any time in the next fiscal year or previously graduated
Defined graduation rate as the proportion of graduates in a FY divided by the number in the appropriate entry FY cohort

9. First Step
The initial attempt at a solution was a pdf with persistence and graduation by program

10. Original Display of Data

11. Issues Persistence and graduation rates vary dramatically by program
Some majors have early signers (in first year) while some much later (in third year)
Therefore must include proportion of class level of students in each cohort

12. Variables Needed to Report and Understand Data
Number of signed majors
Class Level of signed majors
Sex and ethnicity
Graduation and persistence
Current and historic data
Need some way to display data efficiently (without using Tableau)

13. Data Display: MS Excel dashboard
Used what we learned from Rueben’s preconference workshop last year on excel slicers and dashboards
And excel macros

14. Cohort file for each FY(July 1-June 30)
All students who signed a major in that FY and enrolled within the FY (some students sign major in the summer semester and do not enroll for class, hence they become part of the next FY cohort)
If student changes major the student remains in the cohort of the initial major and also included in a new cohort for the FY in which a new major is signed
Duplicates within cohort year (student signed multiple majors in the same FY are in multiple cohorts)
Duplicates between cohort years (student signed multiple majors in different FY’s, or student changed major in another FY)
Once cohort is defined it does not change for each FY

15. Data (Cohort file) Development
Identify class standing at the time of signing major
Track subsequent year enrollment for each cohort
Track graduation in major within FY after signing major
Calculate: Retention, Graduation and Persistence rate within Major for each cohort
New Dashboard

16. Dashboard

17. Development of Excel Dashboard
Export data to Excel
Features Use
Pivot tables (Insert/Pivot table tools tab)
Slicers (Insert tab)
Graphs (Insert tab)
Buttons and macros (Developer tab)

18. Dashboard Buttons: Macros Pivot Tables Aggregate Data Behind Graphs
Slicers

19. How it Works Demo of Dashboard
Can look at persistence and graduation by:
University (signed majors)
College
Department
Major/Program

20. All of This Data! What Does it Mean?
Interpreting data is difficult if no thought given to what the numbers represent
For example, graduation rates reflect the rate of graduation at 1 through 8 years FROM TIME OF SIGNING MAJOR
Around 60% of CBA students graduate in 4 years from signing a major
This number should not be confused with the 4 year FTIAC cohort graduation rate of around 25% for CMU
Why?

24. Data Comparison Over Time Within College or Major
Can’t compare across colleges, departments, or programs as the class standing at which students sign majors varies across those factors
Example:

26. Department Comparison

27. Comparison Within Program Across Years
CSE

28. 4 Years from Signing Major

29. Rollout and Reception Council of Deans and Deans Retreat
Asked for feedback and received very little
Multiple programs have used data for accreditation (Journalism)
Overall reception has been positive but still working on informing programs of its existence