In our new senior survey we included two items that serve as useful measures of an Augustana education.

• “If you could relive your college decision, would you choose Augustana again?”  (five response options from “definitely no” to “definitely yes;” scored 1 to 5)
• “I am certain that my post-graduate plans are a good fit for who I am right now and where I want my life to go.”  (five response options from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree;” scored 1 to 5)

While these two items should not be misconstrued (and were not intended to function) as a comprehensive accounting of our success or failure, they do provide some sense of 1) the value our students place on their Augustana experience, and 2) the impact of that experience on their immediate future.  Here are the average scores from our May 2012 graduates.

Question	# of Responses	Mean	Std. Deviation
Certainty of fit regarding post-graduate plans	497	4.06	0.888
Likelihood of choosing Augustana again	491	4.19	0.895

Even though there might be an audience for whom these scores are particularly important (perspective students, board members, accrediting organizations, etc.), for those of us engaged in the rough-and-tumble work of educating, these numbers don’t tell us much about how we might improve what we do.  For this purpose we need a different type of analysis that tests the relationship between experiences and outcomes.  Furthermore, we must keep in mind that the implications of whatever we find are inevitably going to be nuanced, complicated, and potentially booby-trapped.  One of the critical and maddening mistakes that folks often make in translating student-derived data into actionable change is that they too easily succumb to the belief that there exists a magic wand – or worse still, that they are the magician.

It turns out that among this most recent group of graduates there were four specific student experiences that increased the likelihood of a student saying that they “definitely” would choose Augustana again and that they “strongly agree” that their post-graduate plans are a good fit.  I’ll spare the technical stuff for the sake of the statistophobic (you know who you are!); let me just note that we utilized several statistical procedures to give us a legitimate degree of confidence in the validity of our findings.  Of course, if you really want to know all of the gory details, just shoot me an email or post a comment below.

One of those influential experiences involves the role of faculty in helping students achieve their post-graduate plans. Students were asked to respond to this statement:

“Faculty in this major knew how to help me prepare to achieve my post-graduate plans.”  (five response options from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree;” scored 1 to 5)

Students’ responses to this question produced a statistically significant positive effect on both outcome questions.  In other words, as students’ belief that “faculty in their major knew how to help them prepare to achieve their post-graduate plans” increased, the likelihood of 1) definitely choosing Augustana again, and 2) being very certain that their post-graduate plans were a good fit went up.

So how do we translate this into plausible and sustainable improvement?  It would be easy to resort to naive platitudes (“Hey everyone – prepare your students better, ok?”).  Instead, I’d like to suggest three interconnected ideas that might help us deconstruct the nature of faculty influence on students’ post-graduate preparations and maybe identify a few simple ways to enhance your students’ preparation for life after college.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

The lines connecting a given major to a particular career vary and blur considerably across disciplines.  For example, the array of post-graduate plans among humanities majors might seem almost infinite compared to those among business or education majors.  However, we can help students think about connecting their career aspirations to their day-to-day and term-by-term actions so that they are better positioned to seek out the right experiences, ask the right questions, and make the right impression when the opportunity arrives.  Simply asking students to articulate these connections at the very least encourages them to seek their own answers; and in the process increases your impact on their successful preparation.

You Don’t Have to Know Everything Yourself

Just as the message can get lost in the delivery, so too can our delivery accentuate the spirit of our message.  When we take the initiative to direct students to other campus offices that can help them think about and prepare to achieve their post-graduate plans (even when students haven’t overtly asked for help), we express the degree to which we want to help our students succeed.  Not only does this effort help students find practical and individualized information, it also increases the likelihood that students will see faculty as go-to resources for other connections that will help them make the most of their college experience.

From Whence Do Your Students Come?

We all have stories of discovering the extent to which students don’t know what they don’t know.  In many cases, this knowledge gap is shaped by prior assumptions that students bring with them to college.  Maybe they’re from a small town.  Maybe they’re a veteran.  Maybe they’ve just transferred from another school.  Knowing these kinds of details about our students’ background can provide important insights into why someone might not pursue participation in an experience that would seem to be ideal for them.  This knowledge can also help us identify the combination of experiences that best fits each student – but we will never be able to help those students connect the dots if we don’t understand the context from whence they come to college.

As you work with your students this week, remember that they don’t just see you as professor – they see you as a guide.

Make it a good day,

Mark