Is your campus meeting the demand for academic support services?

The above graphic shows assessment data from a set of campuses using the Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory™ and Mid-Year Student Assessment™.

Our 2012 report, The Attitudes and Needs of Freshman at Mid-Year, focused in part on freshman students’ receptivity to academic support on this set of campuses. In addition to students’ receptivity at mid-year, you can also see the level of demand at the start of the year, as well as the percentage of students who had received some assistance in that area by mid-year.

At these institutions, 36.5 percent of all students indicated that they would like to receive help with their math skills at the start of their freshman year in fall 2011. By mid-year of that same year, more than 39 percent of all students reported receiving some assistance with math, and almost 31 percent of students still reported that they would like to receive (further) assistance with math.

Note that in the illustration, the level of demand within each of the three subject areas (math, reading, and writing) remains nearly stable from the start of the year to mid-year. In addition, in each instance, a higher percentage of students reported receiving assistance than those who originally reported they would like help.

These data only represent the institutions that were involved in this study, but looking at the findings for a subset of campuses underscores the importance of continued measurement of students’ needs and receptivity levels to academic support services.

By using incremental assessment data such as these, campuses can understand how demand for various support services changes with time as students use these services.

Send us an e-mail if you’re interested in learning more about our early-alert and motivational assessments. Three of our campus partners will also be discussing our assessment tools in a free one-hour Webinar next month, How We Retain More Students by Intervening Earlier.