What if you could get 30% of your students currently on academic probation off it?

That’s what they did at Chaffey College, a two-year institution in southern California.

Of the 224 students in the college’s Enhanced Opening Doors program, 30% were able to move off academic probation after two semesters – compared to only 16% of the 220 students in the control group.

The three-part program includes: a college-success course focusing on basic study skills and understanding college requirements; extra counseling; and mandatory one-on-one instruction at the college’s Success Centers.

So why does the program work? The key may be the college-success course.

The college originally tried a program where students weren’t required to take a college-success course. But in the new program, students participate in the course.

If it seems too good to be true, look at the numbers. Compared to the control group, students participating in Enhanced Opening Doors:

• earn more credits, and
• have a higher grade-point average.

And while students’ grades in the non-credit success course may account for some of the difference, the numbers are still good even when limiting the results only to courses that apply to students’ degrees: 30% had a 2.0 or higher GPA, compared to 23% in the control group.

As Susan Scrivener, one of the study’s authors, says: the research shows it’s not always the program itself that matters – but how it’s carried out.

How are you helping students get off academic probation? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags: academic probation, Chaffey College, Enhanced Opening Doors