Success Coaching Initiative Boosts Student Retention

Onondaga Community College (OCC), a public community college and member of the State University of New York (SUNY) serving a diverse student population of more than 8,500 learners in central New York, today announced results from a five-year initiative focused on boosting student success and persistence through the integration of student coaching into its advising process. In collaboration with the student success nonprofit InsideTrack, the college incorporated one-on-one coaching into its advising programs and generated an impressive improvement in student retention, which increased from 48% in 2020 to 53% in 2022.

“To make good on the promise of higher education for the students we serve, it's critical that we identify and scale support services that help our students achieve their college and career aspirations—and overcome the many obstacles which can interrupt their pathway to finishing their degree,” said Dr. Warren Hilton, President of Onondaga Community College. “These results reflect our long-term commitment to removing barriers to college access, completion and upward mobility for students from underserved backgrounds by ensuring that students feel supported each step of the way.”

At a time when improving student retention and completion has been an ongoing challenge for institutions across the country, the OCC leadership team launched a long-term academic advising initiative focused on more effective approaches to helping its students stay in school and graduate. In 2018, Onondaga launched a five-year initiative primarily focused on Guided Pathways for Success (GPS), which included the creation of program pathway maps to help create clear paths to completion for its diverse student population.

To redesign its coaching and advising supports to help students stay on track to completion, Onondaga engaged student success nonprofit InsideTrack in 2019 through funding from a U.S. Department of Education Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) Grant. The college identified student success coaching as a key strategy to create a personalized support system for all learners with an emphasis on underrepresented student support.

InsideTrack coaches began working with students in January 2020 and produced striking results despite the tumult caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership started as a pilot program to provide coaching to improve retention among 400 students who were academically at-risk, members of historically underserved groups, and were randomly selected to receive coaching.

By 2021, OCC staff received training and certification in coaching and took over the work full-time. With key staff now capable of certifying new coaches and ensuring quality control, OCC has established a sustainable coaching system that will continue to operate after the original grant funding ends.

Onondaga commissioned a longitudinal five-year study conducted by Social Policy Research Associates (SPRA) to evaluate the second half of the grant period. Students who received at least one coaching session successfully completed the English gateway course at a rate of 54% as compared to 46% of those students who did not receive coaching. The personalized success coaching work is a cornerstone strategy within a broader overhaul of student support services with the goal of meeting students where they are and increasing utilization of on-campus services.

The reform efforts have begun to pay off from fall 2020 for fall 2022. Among all first-time, full-time students, completion rates for the English gateway course increased from 59% to 64%. Average total credits earned grew from 14.7 to 15.8, with Black students (from 8.5 to 11.8 credits) and first-generation students (from 12.8 to 13.6 credits) showing noteworthy gains.

• The percentage of first-time full-time students who earned at least 15 credits per semester increased from 50% to 55%.
• Fall-to-fall retention rates for these students who took the English gateway course increased from 48% to 53%.
• For students enrolled in first-year English composition courses, the fall-to-spring retention rate increased by 4 percentage points (from 72% to 76%) while the fall-to-fall retention rate grew by 6 percentage points (from 47% to 53%).

“As a former community college student, I saw firsthand the challenges that many of my fellow students faced as they balanced the complex demands of work, family, financial and academic commitments,” said Ruth Bauer White, president of InsideTrack. “During a period of uncertainty and change for community colleges across the country, forward-thinking institutional leaders can double down on student success by making strategic investments in student support that can meet the needs of the whole student and unlock their full education and career potential.”

The full study can be accessed by clicking on this link.