While I have been highlighting my work helping students and families in recent years, I do work with colleges. I routinely collaborate with various departments at schools to help their students to do well, and I have often served as:
- A key support for keeping students at their school (e.g., student retention).
- A referral source for academic problems, including probation and suspension corrective plans.
- An information source for real-life reasons why students have problems and must leave their school.
Students can often be reluctant to approach college staff when they encounter problems. In fact, the majority of student’s I’ve spoken with said that they did not (and would not) seek help at their school first since they feel it would somehow create a negative view of themselves in their school’s eyes. An advantage that I have is not only do I get to talk to them about the real problems, I get to see how these problems can manifest across college systems. What is unique about my work is that it holds cross-college experience, which can often benefit schools in my work with them.
Services For Colleges
Consultation Services
As a former Director of institutional organization, I’ve developed programs, policies, and procedures personally. What I’ve often come across in my higher education work are programs that are ineffective or poorly implemented, and even policies that represent obstacles to a student remaining at their school. I offer consultation services for schools to:
- Enhance retention programs for students at risk of having to leave due to chronic academic problems.
- Review or develop existing grade-related programs, including probation, suspension, amnesty, forgiveness, programs.
- Review of current policies that can support student academic performance, including disability service requirements. This kind of service is important for schools who do not have dedicated student programs for the above retention areas or a stand-alone department to help students with disabilities.
- Make classroom-side recommendations to improve grades based on what students say, and on what I routinely see in my work.
Student Retention Tools
I have begun to develop practical tools to help students who are at risk of leaving their school because of academic probation or suspension status. These are based on directly working with students who should have done well in college, and are affordably priced. Keep in mind the cost of one college application fee or text ranges from $25 to $70, and these tools are priced for students and families in this range. These resources do not cost a school anything, but are a useful tool to refer students for help.
The first of such tools is:
Improving Academic Underperformance® In College (online book/course). This is available at my Learning At College Strategy Blog section.
- This is a substantial work, at 220 pages with section quizzes and a Student Self-Assessment, totaling 134 questions with answer explanations that students can download and keep.
- It looks at the Academic Underperformance® phenomenon, characteristics of Underperforming students, and contrasts them with those of High Performing students as a teaching tool.
- It gives specific approaches and methods that High Performers use across Five Factors For Academic Performance, including Reading, Studying, Test Preparation but also key concepts for academics like Exerting Control, Being Proactive, and Managing Risk.
- It culminates in the development of a plan of action for students, and talks about barriers that can get in the way of positive change.
For college departments interested in using the online book/course as part of their student retention efforts, such as for students placed on academic probation or suspension, I’d be happy to set up trial free access so you can see it for yourself and discuss it with me. The book is also available in a spiral bound paper format and can be used as a secondary book for remedial grade improvement classes. Please contact me if you would like to have preview access to the electronic version. You can also call me at 724-944-9387. All inquiries are confidential, and there is no charge for an initial consultation.