The Summer Success Academy activity is a 6-week residential learning opportunity that provides incoming freshmen with the ability to get a jump start on their ASU experience. Student participants are enrolled in 7-9 credit hours depending on their cohort. Working closely with expert faculty and supported by a network of peer advisors, learning specialists, and tutors, Academy Scholars learn together as a community within and beyond the classroom. Focus of the program is to enable students to develop into owners of their educational experiences and leave strong and ready for the challenges of a first year in college.
Evaluation Plan and measures:
- Survey at the end of the program (August) and survey at the end of the first year of the same cohort (May)
- Review of performance data at end of program (August)
- Review of grades of SSA participants in ENGL 1101, ENGL 1102, MATH 1001, and MATH 1111 the end of the first year (May)
- Review of retention data in Fall of every year (October)
KPIs:
- % of SSA Scholars who agree/strongly agree that SSA sufficiently prepared me to begin my journey as a Golden Ram
- % of SSA Scholars with a GPA of 2.5 or above at the end of the program.
- % of SSA Scholars who complete Area A by end of Spring
- Fall – to Fall Retention
Baseline measure (for each KPI):
- % SSA Scholars who agree/strongly agree that SSA sufficiently prepared me to begin my journey as a Golden Ram
- Summer 2021 cohort: 75% of respondents
- % of SSA Scholars with a GPA of 2.5 or above at the end of the program.
- Summer 2021 cohort: 81% of SSA scholars ended SSA with a G.PA of 2.5 or better
- % of SSA Scholars who complete Area A by end of Spring
- Summer 2021 cohort: 50% of 2021 students completed Area A by Spring 2022
- Fall – to Fall Retention
- Summer 2021 cohort: 71% of 2021 scholars were retained for Fall 2022.
Current/most recent data:
- % SSA Scholars who agree/strongly agree that SSA sufficiently prepared me to begin my journey as a Golden Ram
- 100% of respondents to the 2023 end of the SSA survey indicated they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement
- % of SSA Scholars with a GPA of 2.5 or above at the end of the program
- 83% of the Summer 2023 cohort had a GPA of 2.5 or above at the end of the program
- % of SSA Scholars who complete Area A by end of Spring
- 30% of the Summer 2022 cohort completed Area A by end of Spring 2023
- Fall – to Fall Retention
- 88% of the Summer 2022 cohort were retained for Fall 2023
Goal or targets (for each KPI):
- 80% of SSA Scholars who agree/strongly agree that SSA sufficiently prepared me to begin my journey as a Golden Ram
- 85% of SSA Scholars with a GPA of 2.5 or above at the end of the program.
- 75% of SSA Scholars who complete Area A by end of Spring
- 80% Fall – to Fall Retention
Time period/duration
- Ongoing
We have continued to demonstrate progress in 3 of 4 KPI’s and students perform well during the program. We had a 78% increase (from 40-71) in participation from the 2022 SSA cohort. In addition, the retention rate of the Fall 2022 cohort was nearly 90%. Improved attention on the development of the Fall schedule, combined with a Fall learning community comprised of SSA students (22 students) also contributed to the improvement in retention.
Relationships with Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, and Career Services have been critical in the success of the program. We increased the number of students whose onboarding was complete prior to move-in, including submission of high school transcripts. For the second year in a row students traveled to Montgomery to visit the Civil Rights Museum and participated in an incredible Table Talks session with Career Services, where employers are invited to speak to students in small groups in a speed-dating format. Focus 2 Career was again a major assignment in our first-year experience course, where students were asked to reflect on their choice and analyze their junior-level courses in relation to appropriate career preparation.
Students continue to struggle in Area A courses (which have 40-50% failure rates for the general population) after leaving the program, which has led to too many SSA completers being on probation after Fall and Spring. The percentage of students who were enrolled in required co-requisite courses also dropped (from 93% in 2022 - 82% in 2023), primarily due to space or late registration. We will need to increase the number of Area A sections to decrease class size and increase the number of students who take Area A courses while in the program. The goal is for 100% of all students who require at least one co-requisite course to take the course during SSA.
We are trying to consider ways to balance the intensive support format of Summer Success Academy with the need to position students more for independence. Students seemingly thrive in the 6-week format, where instructors are intentionally recruited based on their previous experience in K-12 environments or with developmental (remedial) students and where students are in a consistent, daily routine. This replicates the high school format they just left. They develop strong relationships with their faculty who get to know them well when they are seeing them every day. In addition, the amount of student leadership support is strong in program. The increase in live-in student leaders was critical to the initiative, providing a strong presence in classes, serving as accountability partners, and leading group sessions as peer leaders.
To improve academic outcomes in the Fall semester after the program, we focused on making sure students were registered for appropriate courses. Summer and fall schedules were audited multiple times for accuracy and alignment with the degree program. In ASU 1101 students met with the instructor twice during the program to discuss major choice and the fall semester.
The Fall 2022 cohort, like Fall 2021, experienced academic difficulties in the following two semesters after the program ended. We observed an alarming decline in the overall GPA of the cohort in the Spring semester.
- Increasing enrollment to 100 students
- Extending strong student leadership support into the first semester
- Extending the faculty-student relationship into the first semester by assigning students with the most challenges to SSA faculty as mentors.
- Intense auditing of Fall and Spring schedules to make sure they position students for success
- Creating mini-communities of 25 or less within the larger 100-student learning community (based on focus areas) to maintain a relationship-building atmosphere.
- Increasing the number of sections of each class to decrease class size in each section.
- Proposing that we have two learning communities in the Fall
- Focus groups comprised of all five SSA cohorts (2019-2023) to get a better understanding of the support systems necessary to sustain satisfactory academic performance after the program has concluded.
- Funding was approved for additional advising and logistical support for the SSA program to provide relief for the SSA Coordinator.
Challenges:
- Staffing: An additional 41% increase in participants (to 100) will require additional full-time, part-time, and student leader support to maintain the strong support base required for success.
- Funding: Despite a positive fundraising from alumni that has yielded over $4000 for experiential learning and personal items for eligible students, and grateful partnerships with Student Engagement and Campus Housing to sponsor specific activities, funding continues to be a primary area of concern. There are currently no scholarships, book vouchers, or completion incentives as part of the program. This makes it difficult to increase the number of participants annually, as it competes with summer income opportunities prior to the start of Fall.
- Community: The increase in the number of students may be leading to a decrease in community among the students. We observed that more students in this cohort than in any other completed the program without having engaged significantly with every other member.
Support needs:
- Reviewing the policy of all students completing Area A within the first 30 hours. This forces advisors to place students in classes with high failure rates and where they may not be developmentally ready to engage with the course. For instance, it may be in the students’ best interest (non-STEM or non-traditional) to take math as a solo course in the summer or when the GPA is higher so that the stress of a potential failure is lessened.
