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CU Boulder staff members lead effort to refine, expand and replicate the developing field of academic coaching

While universities grapple with the growing problem of , CU Boulder has found a way to help them stay.

Students counseled by arts and sciences鈥� 鈥渁cademic coaches鈥� for one semester see their GPAs rise 0.35 points on average and are 12% less likely to drop out of the University of Colorado Boulder, a university study has found.

Academic coaches provide free one-on-one support for struggling students on academic alert or academic probation that they might otherwise not receive at CU Boulder. By meeting with academic coaches several times in the semester, students rapidly gain skills needed to stay in college and improve their overall strength and talent as learners.

As a result, students engage in their academics with stronger critical thinking and problem solving, attributes built into CU Boulder鈥檚 strategic imperative to 鈥渟hape tomorrow鈥檚 leaders.鈥�

To better understand why the program is successful, a study conducted by the CU Boulder Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) offers insight about the degree to which their program helps students raise GPAs and the facets of the program that most support students鈥� progress.

鈥淲e are very fortunate to have the opportunity to engage in a research partnership with CADRE,鈥� says Lily Board, the college鈥檚 assistant dean for academic advising and student success. 鈥淭his research study is providing us with a deeper understanding of the program鈥檚 efficacy and will help position CU as an emerging thought leader in the field.鈥�

Building on their momentum, the coaching program鈥檚 staff are leading an effort to organize and host a national summit at CU Boulder to explore innovative approaches to academic coaching and envision the field鈥檚 future.

Academic coaching鈥檚 specialized听approach

While academic advising has been established on university campuses for decades, academic coaching is young.

Many programs came into being over the last decade as students from wider varieties of educational backgrounds began attending universities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a wonderful turn over the last handful of years,鈥� says Jessica Kerr, managing director of academic coaching at Kansas State University. 鈥淲e know that (students) are arriving with varying skills and tools and resources and experiences. Academic coaching is, I think, the answer to that.鈥�

Academic coaches鈥� responsibilities and approaches can vary and often depend on the identified need that led to the creation of a program at their institution. As a result, there exists tremendous nuance and few defined best practices.

At CU Boulder, the College of Arts and Sciences launched the campus鈥� first academic coaching program in spring 2016. Academic advising leadership hoped to help students who struggled early in their college careers while adapting to the rigors of an arts and sciences鈥� education.

By boosting grades early, students could look forward to research, internships, study abroad and other enrichment opportunities otherwise limited by a low GPA.

Eryn Elder, assistant director of the program, created a framework that defines its highly individualized approach. What sets the program apart is that it blends study-strategies education with intensive self-reflection on each student鈥檚 particular strengths and background.

An academic coach might approach goal setting by asking the student to reflect on their values and how they define success. They then collaborate to identify skills that build on the student鈥檚 strengths and lifestyle, mutually determining if the strategy is likely to be adopted.

In follow-up meetings, the student reflects on the strategy鈥檚 effectiveness and work through changes to improve. In doing so, students begin to feel that they have the skills to succeed in a particular class and at CU Boulder.

鈥淲e help shape our students to see themselves as leaders, despite the challenges they face academically,鈥� says academic coach Alicia Sepulveda. 鈥淪tudents see that one semester or one year does not shape who they are and who they become.鈥�

Testing their approach

Despite seeing immediate results of improved GPA and retention, the academic coaching team wondered if there were ways to improve.

鈥淭he impetus for partnering with CADRE was not only to improve our programming and student outcomes,鈥� says Elder. Her team also wanted 鈥渢o be a leader in the field and share this knowledge with other folks with as much open access as a way to further the profession.鈥�

CADRE鈥檚 staff of researchers help university departments, state agencies and K-12 schools improve their programming through strong assessment design and investigation.

鈥淥ur work is to advance research as well as to conduct evaluations to understand the impacts of programs, research, evaluation and interventions on teaching and learning,鈥� says Elena Diaz-Bilello, associate director of CADRE. 鈥淎ll of the work that we do is within the context of education.鈥�

Since the research team was unfamiliar with academic coaching, Jessica Alzen, research associate with CADRE, began by reviewing previous studies on the profession. She was surprised to find few existed.

鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 find a single study that had a good description of what coaching actually was,鈥� says Alzen. They realized their study could be a way to help the field better understand itself. 鈥淪omething meaningful from this work is to provide a clear and thick description of what coaching looks like for traditional students at a large public university.鈥�

Using a mixed-methods approach that analyzed quantitative outcomes and qualitative interviews, the study finds that students on academic alert who complete the program have second semester GPAs that are 0.35 points above uncoached students on academic alert. Participants also have a 12% increased likelihood of returning for a second year of college.

The study also suggests that students show behaviors indicative of greater self-awareness. They regularly reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and they gain the ability to determine the skills and resources that work best for specific problems. Students鈥� ability to take control of their academics is largely built through the intentional establishment of trust between the student and academic coach.

Although the researchers are quick to point out that the results from year one of this two-year study are descriptive at this time and they cannot prove with certainty that the program is exclusively responsible for increased GPAs, the initial findings are encouraging.

Alzen and Diaz-Bilello plan to publish their findings in two articles. They also plan to continue a second year of assessment of the program鈥檚 outcomes using new student populations and exploring how students, academic coaches and other university staff distinguish the profession from other similar fields. The researchers hope that creating contrast with other programs like academic advising encourages academic coaching to focus on its unique services, which ideally results in better practices and stronger student outcomes.

For Elder, the research continues to point them in the right direction.

鈥淏ecause we鈥檙e able to paint a clear picture of what we鈥檙e doing, we can now better train our coaches. We can better serve students. We can better map assessment to what we鈥檙e trying to accomplish.鈥�

Organizing a national summit

With this recent success, the academic coaching team is turning their attention to sharing their experience at a national summit, which occurs July 28-30.

Roughly 50 academic coaches from across the United States will gather at CU Boulder for this invitation-only event. Over three days, they will discuss a unified vision for academic coaching and begin to define best practices.

The idea for the summit originated with Sepulveda, who saw a lack of academic coaching-specific conferences. 鈥淧eople would tell me we need our own (coaching) conference. We need to talk about these things.鈥�

Rather than following a traditional, speaker-driven conference model, Sepulveda and Elder worked with academic coaching teams from KSU and CU Boulder鈥檚 University Exploration and Advising Center to organize collaborative ideation workshops.

Their goal is for attendees to have a larger number of resources on which they can draw and a stronger sense of the ways each person can push the field.

鈥淭he more and deeper we understand what we do, the clearer we can get about how we better support students,鈥� says Elder.

Sepulveda agrees. 鈥淭his summit can help us get closer to providing resources that are affordable and accessible to (other coaches), so that they can do their jobs better, work with students better and ultimately transform students.鈥�

Becoming a 'national leader'

For Elder, organizing the summit and encouraging researchers to ask difficult questions about their work has the added benefit of positioning the college鈥檚 academic coaching as an innovator in the field.

鈥淟ast summer, I said 鈥榃e can be a national leader in this.鈥� Somebody needs to be. What if CU Boulder becomes the hub for academic coaching?鈥�

Elder hopes a bolstered reputation would lead to a larger staff and more student access to the program.

鈥淩ight now, we have three full-time academic coaches supporting students on academic alert and probation. In arts and sciences alone, we can鈥檛 serve students on probation in (spring semester) due to the high number of students on alert.鈥�

鈥淚 would love to see (academic coaching) be something that is available to all students.鈥�

Elder sees opportunities for collaboration with faculty, academic advisors and research. She would like to see 鈥渙verwhelming connectivity across campus,鈥� such that academic coaches are partnering widely and in the most effective way.

鈥淲e need radical collaboration and we need radical support and radical spaces to innovate.鈥�