Measuring Student Success at Massasoit

Massasoit students come to us from all walks of life, whether right out of high school, after a few years out, or at any point later on as they seek retraining or changing career/educational goals. Some start with us for financial reasons while others choose Massasoit for specific programs and for the services we offer. With competing priorities that can include work and family responsibilities, there is no one composite Massasoit student but rather an array of possibilities.

While traditional measures of student success have focused on first time, full time freshmen – only about one-third of our entering class – IR @ Massasoit follows a more comprehensive model including those who start part time (an increasing number of our students) as well as those who transfer into the college. We track all credit students for retention and persistence after one year, including those who transfer out to other institutions, in these measures. Retention results are further disaggregated by demographics (including gender, race/ethnicity, and Pell status) and program affiliation. Academic programs as well as student support programs can readily see how their students compare (or not) to the general student population in terms of background and preparedness and the pathways that their students are more likely to follow. Results can also suggest where/at what point students in certain programs may benefit from additional assistance to persist in their goals.

For example, we have expanded the information provided for academic program review beyond the traditional enrollment and graduation numbers. Retention at one year includes retention in the department as well as to other programs at the college. Programs can review how their students compare to the overall student population. Programs in which students are more likely to be part time or more likely to enroll students in need of developmental coursework may need more time for students to complete their program of study. Some programs may have a proportionally higher rate of students transferring out while others may have a higher rate of completion/persistence.

For student support programs, IR @ Massasoit provides comparative data on the students in the program vs. the general student population, including demographics, preparedness, and other factors. Based on that data, we provide data on how students compare on the traditional success measures and explore any additional metrics that may be more appropriate for students in the particular program.

After three, four, five, and six years, we look at completion/graduation from their Massasoit program; transfer out (before or after graduation); and persistence/still enrolled at Massasoit. For the increasing numbers who attend part time, we have found that their graduation rates are often comparable to those who start full time, when we look out after five or six years. We track students who are new to college (first-time freshmen) as well as those with some experience (internal transfer or transfer ins), especially in programs such as allied health and engineering that require prerequisites prior to admission to the program or introductory courses in the field of study.

In all cases, we are also examining our traditional measures of success in terms of equity, especially disaggregating data for the populations that we seek to serve. Aligned with the DHE’s Equity Agenda and related Performance Measurement Reporting metrics, we review the disaggregated data on each metric by category –

the DHE’s as well as some expanded categories of our own. For example, while the DHE provides data comparing progress of Black students, Latinx students, and White students, internally we dig deeper, disaggregating the Black student group into three subcategories – Black, Cape Verdean, and Haitian. We have also combined some categories, exploring differences among Male and Female Students of Color (SOC) and the groups that make up the SOC, and white males and females. We have also looked at other categories such as income level and first generation status to identify possible differences in progress and pathways that may suggest timing of initiatives focused on improving success for differing groups.

Prepared by the Office of Institutional Research, Massasoit Community College  IR @ Massasoit