University Business June 22, 2015 Colleges use student data to predict future dropouts By Mary Jarvis, Cornell University At the start of this upcoming school year, the U.S. government will roll out its own ranking of national colleges and universities. The framework for this new college rankings system was presented at the end of 2014 at the direction of the Obama administration as a way to confront the growing problems within higher education in America - most notably, the epidemic of student debt. The ratings system is not supposed to be like those made by U.S. News and World Report or similar publications, but is instead described by the department website<http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/public-feedback-college-ratings-framework> as "a ratings system that is clear, fair and focused on a few key critical measures of institutional performance, while accounting for the diversity and complexity of the nation's rich system of higher education." With outcomes being a key component<http://www2.ed.gov/documents/college-affordability/framework-invitation-comment.pdf> of the Department of Education's new rankings framework and states beginning to allot funding based on performance, graduation rates are becoming more important than ever. Even students are considering the implications of a poor graduation rate. Incoming New School<http://www.newschool.edu/> freshman, Graham Cuddy says that he wishes the government rankings had been available when he was applying to schools. Seeing how school outcomes stacked up against each other would have been especially significant when considering where to apply, he says. "If I see a lot of people who either transferred or didn't make it to the end, I would question if I'd be able to." Whether or not a student makes it through college is also a huge factor in the student debt crisis. In 2014, the New York Times reported<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/upshot/the-reality-of-student-debt-is-different-from-the-cliches.html?_r=2&abt=0002&abg=0> that the bigger problem than student debt alone is "the hundreds of thousands of people who emerge from college with a modest amount of debt, yet no degree" and cited college accountability as the main solution the problem. Feeling the pressure of these new government standards, some universities are turning to big data analysis for help. An article published on June 14, 2015 in the Washington Post<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/colleges-are-using-big-data-to-identify-when-students-are-likely-to-flame-out/2015/06/14/b2cc68f8-03e4-11e5-bc72-f3e16bf50bb6_story.html> profiled Virginia Commonwealth University- a university, the Post reported, that struggled with getting students from freshman year to graduation. As a way to combat these less than ideal graduation rates, schools like VCU are turning to technology and their large collection of student data to create criteria that would flag certain students who were most likely to drop out so that the school's advisers could intervene before it was too late. In partnering with the Education Advisory Board, a research and consulting institution for colleges and universities, VCU discovered what they called the "murky middle" - students in the latter part of their college careers with GPAs between 2.0 and 3.0. Sometimes they had waited too long to declare a major and, while they raised no academic red flags, they were still in danger of not graduating. By using the data provided by the EAB, university advisers were able to reach out to those students and provide them with the support they needed. After only one semester of using this new protocol, the Post reported the school experienced a 16% increase in the amount of students who successfully completed their courses. It is still too early to see if this will positively impact graduation rates. VCU isn't alone in using this preemptive advising. Cornell University goes as far as to advise students before they even step on campus. "We feel here that understand[ing]... what the high school environment is like-really informs the advising," says Cornell Arts and Sciences dean, Ray Kim. But some students are worried about the use of big data to track their success. Incoming freshman at Connecticut College, Ben Ynocencio says that it "would feel a little weird to have all [the student data] tracked in a such an organized way" while future Washington and Lee freshman, Faith Isbell called the process "impersonal." Whatever methods advising may use, it remains an important resource for college students hoping to graduate on time and overcome student debt. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.