Concierge Coaching is a model to help at-risk students in their journey while at SGSC. It provides an additional layer of support and connection for these students by assigning them to a “coach” which may be a faculty or staff member
We have seen small but positive increases in every area with students that actively participate in the program. Moving forward we need to address the lack of engagement by a number of students placed in the program.
Evaluation Plan and measures:
- Satisfaction Surveys (Students and Coaches)
- Retention & GPA data
Baseline measure: Still in progress
Goal or targets
- Students Indicate that they feel that SGSC cares about them and their success.
- Express satisfaction with the ability to access needed services at the College.
- Have a highly favorable view of the coaching program.
- Have a higher retention rate than that of comparable peers.
- Have a higher GPA than that of comparable peers.
Time period/duration - ongoing
As reported in the two past years’ annual college completion reports, the SGSC “Big Idea” resulting from a USG Momentum Summit is the development of a “Concierge Coaching” model to help at-risk students in their journey while at SGSC, thereby providing an additional layer of support and connection for these students. The College launched a pilot of the Concierge Coaching program during summer semester 2021, targeting 21 first-time matriculating students with high school GPAs of 2.5 or below and assigning each student to one of 22 coaches. We understood from the outset that high school GPA may no longer be a good predictor of student success, but we have chosen it as a starting point and anticipate that going above 2.5 would create a coaching availability issue. The initial coaching program outcomes have remained the same during the past academic year and are as follows:
Students in the Concierge Coaching program will--
- Indicate that they feel that SGSC cares about them and their success.
- Express satisfaction with the ability to access needed services at the College.
- Have a highly favorable view of the coaching program.
- Have a higher retention rate than that of comparable peers.
- Have a higher GPA than that of comparable peers.
Accomplishments during academic year 2022-2023:
- We sent out coaching surveys fall 2022
- We held a coaches’ meeting at the beginning of the spring semester 2023 to exchange ideas and talk about best practices. One of the main concerns expressed in the survey was the lack of responses from students, so coaches who had better response rates shared some of their strategies.
- We held a spring 2023 meet and greet for students and coaches on the Douglas Campus and had high expectations for the event. It was developed because some coaches who responded to the fall 2022 coaching survey said that they felt the connection with students would be better if they were able to meet students face to face. No students attended the meet and greet, and only three coaches attended. We are examining planning and recruitment for the event and hope to be able to create and implement a successful event during the current academic year.
- We implemented coaching in spring 2023 only, due to low participation going into fall 2022.
Concierge Coaching and Retention Rates
No concierge coaching was implemented in fall semester 2022 due to coaches reporting poor student communication and subsequent delibertions among Academic Affairs administrators on whether or not to continue the coaching initiative. A survey then completed by coaches led to a decision to continue the program with attention to strengthening communication between coaches and students. Coaching resumed in spring semester 2023. The fall 2022 hiatus may have contributed to a spring 2023 to fall 2023 retention rate for first-time freshmen student participants of 35.8% contrasted with a first-time non-participant freshmen rate of 37.9%, although the two rates are close and both are above a targeted 20% participant rate.
Concierge coaching and GPA
It is not surprising that the students retained after participating in the Concierge Coaching program had higher Spring term GPAs than those who did not. Appendix Table G shows that the spring term 2022 average GPA of program participants retained is 2.01, compared to an average GPA of 1.48 for non-participants, and that the spring 2023 average GPA of program participants retained is 1.45, while the lower average for non-participants retained is 1.10. Our target is a 2.0 GPA average for participants retained through spring.
Student surveys
A survey of students engaged in the academic year 2022-2023 concierge coaching program addresses the first three bulleted coaching program outcomes above. Appendix Table H contains survey questions and average student rating responses for each question for spring semesters 2022 and 2023. Overall, the survey response data shows that participating student satisfaction rates were lower by at least one point for each of the survey questions. This decline in student satisfaction rates is being analyzed by the SGSC Student Success staff.
Coach surveys
In addition to the student satisfaction survey, a survey of coach perceptions of the program was also administered fall semester 2022. Coaches responded to the following six open-ended questions:
- What have you liked best about the Concierge Coaching program?
- What roadblocks have you encountered while participating in the Concierge Coaching program?
- How can we improve the Concierge Coaching program for students?
- How can we improve the Concierge Coaching program for coaches?
- How do you think students would respond to peer coaches?
- Please share any other comments you have about the Concierge Coaching model.
Coach responses to the survey were very positive in terms of satisfaction derived from helping students identify and make progress toward academic goals, identifying campus resources providing academic assistance and career information, and helping students understand that their instructors are here to help them achieve success. With regard to introducing student peer coaching, responses were both positive and negative—positive in terms of helping to relieve faculty workload and in promoting sharing/communicating with peers, as well as negative in terms of student privacy, embarrassment, and awkwardness. The chief thought on improving the concierge coaching program relates to encouraging students to reach out to their coaches and faculty in general.
- During the current academic year, we are continuing to explore the idea of using peer coaching due to staff shortages and budget constraints, to explore expanding the numbers of students participating in the program, and to improve all aspects of communication among students, faculty, and Student Success staff involved in the program.
- The main challenges are enrollment, budget reductions, and concomitant staff reductions, all of which have an adverse effect on all of our operations.
- The challenge of getting students to respond to outreach has been difficult. Emails, texts, and phone calls are often met with no response. Consequently, we plan to continue the development of a meet and greet ice-breaker activity to introduce students to coaches to assist in developing relationships. We also want to develop a guide for coaches, but that will be very time-intensive for extremely busy staff and faculty.
