Early Alert™ Retention Software

Is student retention a major issue on your campus?  For years we were successful in recruiting a diverse population, but we paid little attention to keeping these and other students until graduation.  With Early Alert, retention starts the first day of college.  Utilizing the CSFI scores, an institution can discover its areas of strengths and weaknesses in terms of retention.  Further, individual students who take the CSFI are able to pinpoint where they need improvement in eight aptitudes that lead to success.  After analyses, interventions are offered so students can increase their foundational aptitudes, and stay in school. 

These eight foundational aptitudes have been empirically shown over 15 years of research to correlate with college GPA scores, and are represented in the Octagon Learning System.  These factors are:

      Responsibility/Control                        Family Involvement

      Competition/Collaboration                 College Involvement

      Task Precision                                     Time Management

      Expectations                                        Wellness

How would Early Alert work on your campus? Students would be given the CSFI--in the last year of high school, in orientation programs upon entry to college, in FYE classes, or in counseling sessions. Scores would be interpreted by college professionals with the data provided by the Early Alert software. The software will give you data which can help you improve the retention rates of students in the following ways:

Mean, total scores on the CSFI of your students are compared to a national norm group of over 20,000 from 150 colleges and universities.

Eight mean, sub-set, factor scores of the Octagon Learning System are also shown so that you can compare how your students rank with those from the 150 colleges mentioned above.

Percentages of those below the "watch line" are given by each of the eight factors.  (The watch line constitutes one standard deviation below the mean.)  These are students we feel need some immediate attention to insure their retention.  They are noted by name and by area that needs improvement.  These percentage breakdowns are helpful for the institution to shape its curriculum and programs, as well as assisting individual students.

The CSFI software presents mean, high scores by factor.  This report points out where the institution seems to be the strongest in terms of foundational aptitudes for college success.

The lowest mean factor scores are given, and point to areas that may need institutional improvement to increase retention.

An alpha list of students' total scores, and eight factor's scores are reported, indicating by student name and by factor which of those are strong, and which need to be improved for future retention.

Students identified at the highest risk level of not being retained the second year, are reported by the software in early fall of the freshman year, allowing for sufficient time for intervention.

The Early Alert software is leased to you to act as a retention watchdog.  Also, the Octagon Learning System curriculum (which is presented in our book, Making the Dean's List) is a 16-week curriculum that can be used by your institution, either as a special course, or as a supplement to your academic courses, study skills, FYE, or Summer Bridge programs.

This software also can be utilized by small campus subsets, such as academic schools or departments where retention is an issue.  It is also useful with special populations of students, such as those on probation, in educational opportunity programs, in athletics, disabled students, or trio programs.  Further, the software may also be used in conjunction with your feeder high schools' efforts with "Gear-Up" or "No Child Left Behind" programs.