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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Retention Impact Example at Northwest

9. 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;

10. Tuition Calculation Example at Northwest

11. 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.)

12. Cost of Investment Example at Northwest

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

14. Return on Investment Example at Northwest

15. Questions?

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

17. 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),
Bowles, T. J., McCoy, A. C., & Bates, S. (2008). The effect of Supplemental Instruction on timely graduation. College Student Journal, 42(3),
Congos, D. (2001). How supplemental instruction (SI) generates revenue for colleges and universities. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 3(3),
Etter, E. R., Burmeister, S. L., & Elder, R. J. (2001). Improving student performance and retention via supplemental instruction. Journal of Accounting Education, 18(4),
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),
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.