In 2020, the Undergraduate College has about 50 academic faculty members and 50 administrative and student support staff. Support teams integral to the model include the following:

~ The enrollment & outreach team works with high school students exploring college options and supports NLU applicants through enrollment and orientation.

~ The student success coaches each have a caseload of students, serving as academic advisor, advocate, and coordinator of academic and social-emotional interventions.

~ The analytics team supports faculty, staff, and students through access to relevant and timely data; tools and reports for data collection and use; and building data capacity.

~ The Instructional Support Leads (ISLs) coach faculty and lead professional development in utilizing instructional best practices, including culturally responsive pedagogy, data-driven instruction, relationship building, etc.

~ The Career Bridge team includes employer relations managers who develop relationships with organizations and connect students to internship and employment opportunities; and career advisors who support their career searches.

The NLU Undergraduate College Pathways program primarily serves first-time college students graduating from the Chicago public school system. The incoming Pathways class of nearly 2000 students had an average high school GPA of 2.7, average ACT score of 17, and average SAT of score of 864. In 2018-19, 83% of Pathways students were Pell Grant-eligible and 80% were first-generation college students; 73% identified as Latinx and 17% as African American. (The Undergraduate College also serves adult transfer students. primarily evening and online.)

To improve accessibility for first-time, full-time recent high school graduates, the program provides:

~ annual tuition cap of $10,000, which can mean zero out-of-pocket expense for students qualifying for full federal and state aid

~ guaranteed admission for students graduating high school with a 2.0 GPA or higher

~ schedule flexibility, consistency, and dependability; students attend classes only two days a week, so they can work part-time

To position students for degree attainment and post-college success, the curriculum features:

~ Personalized, flipped, adaptive instructional model leveraging technology and small class sizes

~ Clear and well-rounded pathway to a degree

~ Embedded career preparation through required curriculum, work-based learning, and career coaching

~ High-touch, supportive environment, with a success coach for every student and collaborative teams of instructors and staff using data to address each student’s needs

Early indicators of success show Pathways students outperforming benchmarks of similar Chicago students at other colleges based on Year 1-2 student retention (66% Pathways vs. 53% of comparable CPS students) and projections to outperform benchmarks for 6-year graduation rates with our first cohort in 2021.

Student Success Collaboration structure
Modeled after secondary education grade-level teams, success coaches and instructors collaboratively support cohorts of 100-125 students. An innovation in higher education, teams meet regularly to discuss students’ progress, perform academic case management, and coordinate interventions for individual students, using a data system (EAB Navigate) that captures student progress reports, individualized alerts, and instructor/coach follow-ups. 

Instructional teams and reporting
Faculty meet in course/department teams to review student success data (attendance, grades, and engagement with assignments and online discussions). Data is updated daily on a user-friendly web-based platform. Faculty and staff also engage in quarterly deep-dives on indicators and academic outcomes.

Career preparation model
In the general education sequence (first two years), students select a track and begin exploring related career options in career development courses. In the junior and senior years, each major course sequence includes a career-focused service project and an internship. A tracking system provides career advisors and coaches with real-time data on students’ progress on required annual career milestones.

Maintaining a mission-driven culture across the entire Undergraduate College team
Faculty and staff must take ownership and responsibility for students’ success, and be transparent about their own practices to drive improvement. Creating and maintaining a culture that facilitates this often difficult and uncomfortable work requires frequent reinforcement of our core vision by continually engaging with it in weekly success collaborations, monthly strategy sessions, and quarterly all-team meetings.

Being responsive to evolving needs and conditions requires open channels for feedback, from students, faculty, staff, partners, and employers. This often involves committing additional resources to collect and analyze data related to strategies, and leads to important course corrections, ranging from the courses offered to the amount of social space on campus.

Innovation in higher education across student success, instruction and career preparation required: 

~ Dedicated staff/faculty taking on unique responsibilities, whether by re-envisioning roles or hiring new positions: Student Success coaches, faculty collaboration leads, analytics staff, career advisors, and department chairs/content team leads 

~ Data system: scalable solutions to track, visualize, and report on program inputs and outcomes

~ Buy-in: a culture of support and a process that helps faculty serve students more effectively in the long run

~ Best practices: documenting procedures and interventions to keep faculty and staff from reinventing the wheel every time a student struggles

The Pathways Program at National Louis University was launched in fall 2015 as a two-year pilot program, including creation of manual tools and processes to support student success. As the program scaled, we began investigating and building scalable digital solutions and systems, automating end-user reporting as much as possible. The Undergraduate College was launched in fall 2018, and student success  systems and processes were gradually institutionalized through documentation of best practices. 

Maintain a spirit of collaboration and frequent communication. In an innovative and fast-changing environment, team members need to stay in frequent contact to make sure their efforts are aligned.

Continually examine results. Our resources are too constrained to pursue every initiative or strategy we might wish to, so it is essential to prioritize. Prioritizing well requires making data-informed judgments on how to use resources.

Make a sustained effort to take plan, implement, and evaluate with the student in mind.

Reinforce and re-engage with your mission, vision, and strategy-level goals frequently at all levels.

Take a user-centered design approach: whether from the standpoint of students when planning our undergraduate experience (for example, having classes only two days a week so students can work part-time), or from that of instructors, coaches, and other end users when designing data systems. 

Integrate data into your approach, not just retrospectively to analyze the past, but proactively to see what is happening right now.

The undergraduate college at NLU aims to be a national leader in closing the opportunity gap in bachelor’s degree attainment and employment. Our graduates will achieve upward mobility, leading to positive outcomes for themselves, their families, and communities.

In the next 5 years, we aim to exceed local and national benchmarks for our target population with an 80% Year 1-2 retention, 43% 6-year graduation rate, and 80% of graduates securing meaningful, sustainable employment or attending graduate school.