Across the country, focused programs and efforts aimed at student success are being implemented at colleges and universities. Despite these efforts, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has reported that there is a lack of evidence that schools are seeing a significant increase in student completion rates, if any increase at all, as a result of these programs.

What’s historically been missing?

Many grant programs are aimed at “first generation” students, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and students needing remedial intervention, but these programs are not impacting overall completion rates in a meaningful way.   And here is why: a singular focus on a few groups of students or programs is not taking into account the ‘big picture’ of student success efforts. In order to widen the scope there needs to be an assessment across the culture and environment of the institution as a whole. This requires taking a holistic approach to examining student success.

A Holistic Model for Student Success

There are four primary dimensions of a healthy environment toward student success that will enable a ‘big picture’ or holistic view:

1. Institutional Culture
2. Institutional Leadership
3. Student Learning
4. Student Engagement

Each of these four dimensions should be included in a holistic environmental assessment of the factors influencing student success at an institution. This paper delves deeper into each of these focus areas and how they contribute to a strong student success environment.