Student Success Project Archive

Here you can view the work completed by our Student Success teams and partners as of Winter 2024. These accomplishments show the capabilities and expertise of our valued teams.

Advising Assessment

In an effort to improve the advising structure and services at PSU, Advising and Career Services (ACS) is engaging in an external program review led by fellows from the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) to ensure that ACS meets the needs of students and the institution.

Aleks Pilot

In an effort to place students more appropriately into introductory level Chemistry courses, the department implemented the ALEKS placement test and remediation tool. In addition to improving placement, the goal of the project is to improve the success of students in CHEM 221 and thereby also improve persistence. Students who do not meet the minimum score for placement into 221 are given the opportunity to complete a series of learning units in order to improve their score. As of spring 2023, the test has launched and is currently in use.

Classroom Experience Project

The purpose of this project was to develop and implement a holistic classroom evaluation process that is used consistently and broadly across PSU with the goal that each department would adopt and leverage this new classroom experience process. The project piloted an updated classroom experience instrument and assessed the results. The project is closed with recommendations made to senior leadership that outline what is needed to fully realize an updated course evaluation process at PSU.

Data Sharing with PCC

This discovery project aims to discover a sustainable mechanism to share data and applications between Portland Community College (PCC) and Portland State University (PSU) in an attempt to increase our transfer population and gain actionable insights. Through a unified gathering of stakeholders we aim to design a solid, feasible, maintainable and effective solution that meets broad PSU needs, hitting on recruitment, admission, co-admission, transfer transition, and continued PSU enrollment/degree progress -- and most importantly - an ability to strengthen the advising partnership so our academic advisors can work more closely on a given students situation and pathway. Additionally, this project aligns with and supports all of the HECC work related to the Major Transfer Maps and improved transfer pathway.

EPIC@PSU

As part of the EPIC@PSU initiatives through the Student Success division, this project will develop and host Professional Development (PD) workshops for faculty and graduate students to increase best practices in inclusive pedagogy. The structure of the proposed project is partly in response to requests by previous faculty participants to learn about additional strategies designed to promote belonging and increase inclusivity in classrooms. This includes evidence-based strategies such as opportunities for syllabus revisions to promote growth mindset, as well as small, immediately implementable strategies. Participants will continue engagement and reflection, and share lessons learned with peers through Community of Practice (CoP) meetings.

Finish Line

The Last Mile initiative that began in 2010 was very successful in helping over 1,000 students who left PSU without their degree return and graduate. There are many students that have stopped out as a result of the pandemic for a myriad of reasons, and we worked to build on the Last Mile initiative to be a true "last mile" program and help the students who were either at risk of stopping out due to financial reasons or that stopped out as a result of the pandemic. This project supported students' return with academic and financial planning support.

Pedagogical Innovation

Under the joint leadership of Professor Erin Shortlidge and Vice Provost Erica Wagner, this Inclusive Pedagogy and Curricular Innovation project aims to support faculty in evidence-based, culturally relevant, inclusive curriculum development in order to improve faculty experiences of teaching and students' learning experiences. The second phase of this project is called EPIC@PSU.

Students First Resilience Fund

At PSU, 43% of students who were unable to resolve all of their holds left, many of whom left with a financial hold. In partnership with the Office of Student Success, PSU's Division of Enrollment Management initiated a pilot program designed to predict students at risk of receiving a financial hold and proactively provide them with financial support. The Student’s First Resilience Fund provides $500 a term for three terms to a group of students identified as being likely to have a financial hold placed on their account. The program is expected to help increase retention rates on campus.

Student Success Data Champions

The Data Champions program will bring together selected faculty, staff, and administrators from across our campus to build data literacy, empower data users, deepen our understanding of equity-minded data analysis, and ultimately expand the data-informed student-success decision-making capacity at PSU. Participants will gather in cross-functional teams to answer questions about student success, supported by a series of two-hour learning/workshop sessions, and with the help of expert coaches. After completing the program, the Data Champions will return their skills and knowledge to their units to support strategic decision-making.

Transfer Partnerships

Enhancing the transfer student experience is a priority at PSU. The Transfer & Returning Student Resource Center focuses on helping transfer students transition smoothly to PSU, and is a primary university resource for developing and maintaining transfer articulation agreements and partnership programs.

WICHE No Holding Back

The goal of this project was to give institutions tools to (re)evaluate our administrative and/or student success and hold policies to improve student success and to better use our data in policy formation. We participated in a community of practice over the course of 15 months and received support from WICHE and AACRAO as we went through the exercise of collecting, cleaning, and analyzing administrative hold data and revising policies based on those findings.