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University System of Maryland Analyzing Impact of Student Success Programs

The University System of Maryland is taking a close look at its retention efforts and how interventions impact student success. The system will adopt the PAR Framework Student Success Matrix (SSMx) in an effort to inventory, categorize and explore the returns on investment for student success programs in its institutions.

USM is focusing on innovative student supports and interventions to find unique "points of fit" between students and interventions that achieve essential academic outcomes, according to a press release. The effort will also identify "points in the academic life cycle where interventions are most likely to drive student success, giving academic advisors an opportunity to impact struggling students at optimal points and times of need."

"The University System of Maryland continues its active commitment to improving graduation rates in Maryland to a completion goal of 55 percent," said USM Chancellor Robert Caret in a statement. "We want our citizens to be well prepared and in a strong position to contribute to Maryland's bright future, and having PAR as a common vehicle for intervention measurement across our system will help us stay focused on student success — getting more students through the pipeline and getting them through more quickly."

The system office and four of its institutions have also joined the PAR Framework's predictive analysis and benchmarking collaborative, a group of institutions using PAR predictive analyses to identify students at risk followed by the SSMx to prescribe the most appropriate interventions. "Our institutional research department is already engaged in the pursuit of exploratory insights for supporting data-driven decision-making," observed Doug Nutter, director of institutional research at USM's Bowie State University. "My colleagues and I are pleased we will be actively contributing to these statewide efforts to raise the bar on student success."

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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