6R1 Quality Improvement Initiatives

• Outcomes/measures tracked and tools utilized
• Summary results of measures (include tables and figures when possible)
• Comparison of results with internal targets and external benchmarks
• Interpretation of results and insights gained

Outcomes/Measures Tracked and Tools Utilized

Because continuous quality improvement does not occur in and of itself, and because CQI initiatives are frequently tied to specific processes related to other sections of this portfolio, the results of many of these initiatives are provided throughout this portfolio and therefore will not be presented here.  Additionally, due to the number of quality improvement initiatives that have occurred since the last portfolio, the following will provide information from some of the broader initiatives that have impacted a larger part of the Institute. More information on Southeast Tech’s Action Projects may be found on the Higher Learning Commission site at http://apdarchive.hlcommission.org/. Beyond the results of individual action projects, the Institute also measures the impact of continuous quality improvement initiatives through the results of the Institute’s Key Performance Indicators (4R 1 ).

Summary Results of Measures AND Comparison of Results with Internal Targets and External Benchmarks AND Interpretation of Results and Insights Gained

Action Project: Retaining At-Risk Students: Taking the Next Step (5/1/2012 – 10/31/2013)

Purpose:  Enhance Southeast Tech’s previously implemented Student Success Center action project (2010 Systems Portfolio) and the Institute’s retention process (2P 1 ). 

• Developed a required two-credit Academic Recovery course to assist students on Academic Probation and Financial Aid Warning;
• Hired Housing/Retention Coordinators to facilitate the recovery course.

Results: Retained students (to next semester) stayed about the same (37% to 38%). However, the gpa of the returning students improved (0.91 to 1.12) with 26% having a 2.0 gpa or higher compared to 23.8% without the recovery course. Persistence Rates of Academic Recovery students from fall to spring semester have now met the 60% target for the past two measures (Table 6R1.2).

• Developed Attendance Challenge to encourage class attendance (14 day and 30 day), promote student academic success, and retain students.

Results: In fall 2012, 1,384 students (49%) made the 30-day challenge and in fall 2013, 1,425 (51%) made the 30-day challenge. Retention for these two groups was 92% each year compared to 75% and 78%, respectively, for those students not completing the challenge.  The difference has continued at a similar level (Table 6R1.4).

• Implemented Southeast Tech Cares, an internal communication system on student needs and at-risk student identifier software package.

Results: This process is now integrated into, and is a key driver, for our retention process (2P 1 ). Internal communications on student concerns has improved, with 129 employees (45% of those with access to the system) inputting communications, exceeding the original target of 30%. Referrals are now resolved at a 96.5% level within the semester, an accomplishment far above the Institute’s 60% target. The Student Success Team will now determine new target levels in these areas. The Institute has not, however, met its number of actions and referrals target the past two years (Table 6R1.1).  This will be reviewed by the Student Success Team as well in summer 2017.

• Redesigned pre-academic coursework to improve student completion and retention rates through co-requisite Math 099 and English 099 classes. 

Results: The pre-academic course change has significantly impacted our overall success rates in the academically-required courses. Previously, only about 28% of students successfully completed ENGL 098 and then ENGL 101. With the ENGL 099/101 co-requisite, completion rate was 47% for the first cohort group, which rose to 82% for the next. Initial math completion rates, though not has high, moved from 42% for the MATH 098/MATH 101/102 option, to 57% for the first cohort of the MATH 099/MATH 101/102 option.  Fall to Spring persistence rates of co-requisite students has met the 80% target in 2013 and 2015; however, the results have been sporadic, moving above and below target; therefore, the Institute will retain the target at the current level (Table 6R1.6).

Two other processes, JumpStart Days (pre-semester new student orientation to program and preparation for the new semester) and Emergency Loans (up to $500 for student emergencies) have also shown to be effective. JumpStart Day attendee fall-to-spring persistence rates are 23% higher than non-attendees (Table 6R1.3), and students receiving emergency loans have had persistence rates up to 86% (Table 6R1.5). Both have had results above target; however, persistence rates for emergency loan recipients has recently fallen.  The Student Success Team will review this information in summer 2017. 

The overall target of this action project was to help increase student retention, which Southeast Tech has seen rise from 60% (fall to fall) in 2012 to 65% in 2013, and 69.3% in 2015. While the increase cannot be attributed solely to the efforts of this action project, the increased retention rate is significant and points to the success of the project.

Lessons Learned: While the action project proved to be very effective, and the Institute is continuing to use all of the implemented actions, the Institute learned that the scope of the action project was too broad for a single action project. Developing, implementing and measuring the actions simultaneously increased the workload across multiple departments and impaired the ability of the Institute to meet implementation challenges to the level the Institute would have liked. Southeast Tech recognizes the need to limit action project goals and actions to a manageable level in the future.

Action Project: Embrace a Culture of Communication that Values People, Promotes Individual Contributions and Enhances Student Success (12/14/2011 to 10/31/2013)

Purpose: Developing a culture of communication builds a strong campus community and provides the atmosphere necessary to meet the Institute’s mission.

• Created a “cabinet” consisting of a faculty and staff member meeting with administration. The cabinet, however, did not provide the expected results and was discontinued; in January 2017 a faculty and staff member were added as members of Southeast Tech’s Council to provide improved communication to all employees;
• Developed annual internal strategy forums, which have continued since implementation in summer 2012;
• Implemented monthly department and program meetings.  While most areas now hold monthly or more frequent meetings, there are still a few areas where meetings are less frequent;
• Improved the internal STInet site for quicker and easier communications for employees. The new site makes navigating and finding information easier and uses Sharepoint for better data and information access;
• Revised staff evaluation process. The revision has been made, piloted, and is expanding to more areas; 
• Implemented an internal program/department improvement process. The process was piloted but was replaced by a program/department review process that occurs annually as part of the Annual Planning process.

Results:  The improved communication results on the CESS indicate the Institute’s success in this area (4R 3 ); however, the Institute has not met its target levels in these areas and will continue to strive to improve communications. 

Lessons Learned: Just as the scope of an action project can be too large, the timeline for implementation can be too short. Southeast Tech found that its communication action project had several timelines that were not possible and had to make adjustments accordingly. The Institute also learned that communication is a broad subject and one that requires constant attention and adjustment, and has to continually be improved and monitored.

Action Project: Develop a More Comprehensive Entrance Requirement Process (3/9/2015 to 6/30/2016)

Purpose:  To develop a more comprehensive review process for program entrance requirements to assure that the Institute is successfully placing students in programs where they can be successful.

• Developed a specific process for entrance requirement review as well as a scheduled review calendar (1P 4 );

Results:  Reviewed nine programs through Spring 2017. Revised entrance requirements and developed pre-program entrance options.

Lessons Learned: With limited resources, assuring entrance requirements are evaluated across the campus in a timely fashion can be difficult.  Since this process is still fairly new, the Institute has established a review schedule (1P 4 ), which will be re-evaluated for effectiveness after the process has been used for a longer period of time.

Action Project: Improving Efficiencies in Key Student Support Areas (7/2/2012 to 12/26/2014)

Purpose:  To reduce staff time required to complete key processes so that additional time can be spent assisting students and helping them achieve their goals.

• Improved Financial Aid workflow.

Results: Doubled the Financial Aid Office’s ability to effectively provide student notifications on ISIRs in a timely fashion, increased by over 30% the Office’s ability to handle loan disbursements, and reduced the time necessary to process all student aid awards by nearly a month.

• Improved the student enrollment verification process for loan and pell grant disbursements by using the Institute’s Southeast Tech Cares (Jenzabar) software.

Results: While not easily quantifiable, the process has helped achieve the goal described above. 

• Improved student unearned failing grade (unofficial withdraw) process. Using a similar process to the student enrollment verification process, Southeast Tech has been able to effectively implement a process to assure that students with unearned failing grades are documented and the appropriate steps are taken regarding financial aid for these students.

Results:  A reduction in student appeals/complaints regarding course charges as related to discontinuation of attendance (2R 4 ).

• Implemented a stronger transcript and transfer credit work flow through document imaging/work flow software (Nolij)

Results: Reduced transcript and transfer workflow by as much as 75%, resulting in more timely notification to students regarding transfer credits; reduced admissions time spent creating folders and moving folders from location to location.

• Implemented a new process for catalog and systems portfolio development through the implementation of a catalog software system (Acalog). 

Results: Reduced the time it takes to produce the catalog by ½ month to a full month; improved the process of developing the Systems Portfolio by making it more manageable.  

Lessons Learned:  Action projects take time away from regular duties.  Many times projects add more work to already time-strapped employees. This project helped the Institute realize that time spent developing new, more efficient processes, while requiring additional time and effort up front, are worth it in the long run. The efficiencies now gained from this action project have reduced work time on many processes, allowing employees to spend more time assisting students and completing other job responsibilities.

Action Project: Connecting Performance Targets to Planning, Budget and Actions (6/1/2011 to 12/26/2014)

Purpose:  Assuring alignment of Institutional, departmental and program action projects with measurable targets that are integrated into planning and budget is vital to assuring the Institute remains mission focused in all areas.

• Developed the Planning and Assessments database (originally called the Targets, Actions and Assessments Database) to track actions and assure alignment to the strategic plan and mission as well as assure targets are set and results are monitored;
• Integrated targets, actions, and data elements associated with departments and programs into the budgeting process to assure review occurs as part of the Annual Planning process. 

Results: The Planning and Assessments database is currently in use to track information. In 2017-2018, Southeast Tech plans to move from a homemade Access database to a more integrated commercial software package.  The method for integrating action projects, data, assessments, etc. into the budget was developed by 2014, but initial implementation occurred in 2016-2017 and will be expanded in the future.

Lessons Learned: As projects are implemented and used over time, inadequacies in the process often surface.  In this case, the Institute has outgrown the ability of the original Access database to meet Institute needs; therefore, the Institute has made the budget resource commitment to move to a software platform that will not only meet the Institute’s current needs, but future needs as well.

Action Project: Strategic Planning Process (8/4/2015 to 2/27/2016)

Purpose: As the Institute prepared to develop a new strategic plan, developing a repeatable strategic planning process would assure that the Institute could maintain its continuous quality improvement processes effectively.

• Implemented a successful Strategic Planning process.

Results: Southeast Tech has developed a Strategic Planning process that can be replicated for all future strategic plan development (4P 2 ).

Lessons Learned: The use of Southeast Tech’s internal Strategy Forum to develop the first stages of the Strategic Planning process helped the Institute gather internal and external stakeholder perspectives and ideas for both the process and its implementation.  Taking that information and several Forum participants into the Strategic Planning Committee further improved the final process outcome.  Finally, developing a full process that is repeatable and sustainable will make future strategic planning development easier and more effective.