How Predictive Analytics Helped Boost Senior Graduation Rates
John Jay College, working with DataKind, a partner of the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth and the Rockefeller Foundation, took an innovative approach to improving student graduation rates through the use of data and analytics This week, the organizations unveiled data.org, a new platform for building the "field of data science for social impact," at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and it featured the John Jay graduation success story on video for this high profile audience.
Using 10 years of historical student data, the project helped John Jay advisors identify students who are at risk of not finishing their degrees. The data helped advisors prioritize intervention services for these students. As a result of their efforts, and the new CUSP program designed specifically to help seniors reach graduation, John Jay was able to boost senior graduation rates. In its pilot year, and with the support of the Price Family Foundation, the initiative has already seen 73 percent of its participating students graduate after one year—in comparison to a two-year expected graduate rate of 54 percent for similar seniors without any intervention.
John Jay’s CUSP program shows the power of marrying data-driven science with responsive personal advising: Students are guided on how to meet remaining academic requirements, given strategies for overcoming financial barriers, and offered post-graduation planning and referral resources.
“As a College focused on educating for justice, it’s not enough to provide access to underrepresented students–we need to make sure we are providing our students with the resources and a supporting environment to help them cross the finish line to graduation,” said Karol V. Mason, President of John Jay College. “This incredible outcome demonstrates our College’s ability to effectively leverage data and technology, and our ability to impact more students at a greater scale. At John Jay we’re not afraid to take a risk and try something new, and with impressive outcomes like we’ve had with CUSP, we plan on building upon those results.”
Our data-driven partnership with Mastercard, the Rockefeller Foundation, Datakind, and the Price Family Foundation has produced dramatic results for our students, so they can go on to become productive members of society.”
For more about the new data.org platform for using data science for social impact, see the press release from Mastercard and Rockefeller Foundation.
Watch the John Jay College impact video.
About John Jay College of Criminal Justice:
An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York is a Hispanic Serving Institution and Minority Serving Institution offering a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. John Jay is home to faculty and research centers at the forefront of advancing criminal and social justice reform. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College engages the theme of justice and explores fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu and follow us on Twitter @JohnJayCollege.
