Category: Student Success

2011, Advising, Student Success

How Honest Should we be to College Students?

By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International This week at EPI’s International Conference on Student Success (Retention 2011), I attended a session by Tom Mortenson, Senior Scholar at The Pell Institute and editor of Postsecondary Opportunity. Tom looked at the issue of predicted versus actual persistence and graduation rates at US four-year colleges and universities. Interesting stuff. The data launched us … Continue reading How Honest Should we be to College Students?

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2011, Research/Policy, Student Success

The Passing of a Student Aid Giant: Remembering Lutz Berkner

By Dr. Watson Scott Swail, CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International As many people know, I am passionate about the pathways to and through higher education, and I follow the data with excruciating detail. Three letters—BPS—mean more to me than most people: Beginning Postsecondary Student. This is the name of the US Department of Education survey of 19,000 students attending mostly US institutions who are followed … Continue reading The Passing of a Student Aid Giant: Remembering Lutz Berkner

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2010, Retention, Student Success

Postsecondary Persistence and Graduating Rates: A Little Insanity Can Go a Long, Long Way

by Watson Scott Swail, CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International Last week was a big week for student retention and persistence aficionados. The Educational Policy Institute held its 2010 Retention 101 workshop in Dallas, Texas, complete with participants from across Canada and the United States. Coincidentally, the US Department of Education released two important data reports documenting graduation and persistence rates at institutions of higher education in … Continue reading Postsecondary Persistence and Graduating Rates: A Little Insanity Can Go a Long, Long Way

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2010, Politics, Student Success

Being Thankful

by Watson Scott Swail, CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International In the United States, Americans will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, which is basically an opportunity to watch football, eat and drink too much, and spend time with relatives that you have desperately tried to avoid for the previous 364 days. Okay, not always true: sometimes you don’t eat too much. Thanksgiving has traditionally been held … Continue reading Being Thankful

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2010, Student Success

Bounce!

My summer reading thus far has included the book Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (a novel about the painting of the Sistine Chapel) and Bounce, a story of “the science of success.” The first one was simply to impress (not true; great book!!). The second has significant meaning to what we do in education. Today’s commentary focuses on some of the tenets of Matthew Syed’s Bounce. Continue reading Bounce!

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