Impact on Completion:

Students in the initial cycle of the program will not complete until the end of the grant period, but the number of students completing in two years will increase to 30 by Spring 2015. The students in the program after the grant begins will not be finished with the program during the grant period, but there should be significant indicators to determine potential graduation numbers for that group. The focus on graduation should have an overall effect of increasing the number of graduates and the graduation rate.

Potential Lessons Learned:

1. The value of early intervention to assist students to degree completion in two years;
2. The appropriate time for intervention to promote graduation;
3. Factors which impact a student's ability to graduate on time;
4. The potential need for expansion of academic and advising services;
5. The need to increase graduation and the awareness of the value of a two-year degree.

Concept Description

An analysis of the data for the graduates of East Georgia State College for the last five years (Table I) shows approximately 10% of our graduates finish a degree in two years from entry and 30% finish a degree within three years of entry.

TABLE I
Two-Year and Three-Year Graduates

The number of graduates for each academic year (fall-to-summer) has increased from 143 graduates in AY 09-10 (fall 2009-to-summer 2010) to 173 graduates in AY 12-13 (fall 2012-summer 2013). During the same time period the number of students graduating in two years has declined from 15 in AY 09-10 to 14 in AY 12-13 and the number of students graduating in three years has declined from 54 to 43 in the same period. This would indicate at the same time we are increasing the number of graduates, the number of graduates who are completing in a timely fashion is declining. Our first-time, full-time graduation rate for the fall 2009 cohort as reported by the USG is 5.76%.

In Fall 2013, the East Georgia State College Complete College Committee approved a program to identify and support students who could potentially finish their academic programs within two years. The program was entitled (g2)2 or "Get to Graduation in Two Years" and is a "15-to-Finish" program. The program was developed to actively assist those students wishing to complete their degrees in two years or six successive academic terms. Originally begun as a student organization, twenty-six students initially showed an interest in the program, but only six students followed through with an actual commitment to complete in two academic years. The program was adjusted to remove the commitment to the organization and to actively track all students who could complete a degree in two years, not just those willing to commit to the program. To expand the program, it was paired with the "Commit to Completion" initiative, sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa. In addition, efforts were made to proactively work with all students ready to graduate. The efforts were associated with this program and with our reverse transfer initiative with Georgia Regents University and Georgia Southern University.
The (g2)2 program is for those students who plan to finish an associate degree in two years. The mission of the program is to assist students to achieve that plan by (1) providing active attention from the Academic Affairs staff and direct assistance from the faculty and staff mentors, (2) providing assistance in developing and following an academic plan focused on graduation, (3) waiving of the graduation fee for (g2)2 students, (4) providing a learning community of like-minded students to support each other, and (5) recognizing those students who successfully achieve their (g2)2 goals.

Those students who plan on completing an associate degree in two years:

1. Must be completed in a maximum of 6 successive terms (includes summer school).
2. May reverse transfer up to 34 credit hours back to East Georgia State College if they transfer to a four-year school before finishing an associate degree at East Georgia State College as long as they have taken at least 30 hours at EGSC and were on the (g2)2 track.
3. May reverse transfer to East Georgia State College as long as they take at least 25 additional hours at EGSC and follow a plan to complete an associate degree in an average of 15 hours/semester from entry into East Georgia State College.   
4. Must follow practices which keep them on track for graduation in two years by limiting withdrawal from no more than 2 courses, completing all learning support requirements in one attempt, utilizing all academic services of the college, meeting regularly with their advisor and/or mentor during all terms of enrollment, and developing an academic plan to finish an associate degree in two years.

Project Plan

The initial year of the program will focus on students entering in Summer 2013 through Spring 2014 and developing data about those students prior to the beginning of the official grant period. Students who appear to be on track for two-year graduation will be given assistance to remain on track. This preliminary data will be gathered to assess what needs to be done during the grant period in order to insure the success of the program. This group will be designated as the sophomore cohort during the grant period. These students will be evaluated for adjustments in the program. Initially 96 new students have been identified for this cohort.

The initially defined cohort along with those new students defined in spring 2014 will be tracked as candidates for (g2)2 and will be intrusively advised beginning with early summer and fall registration which begins in mid-March. Members of the Project Team will take the lead in setting the final cohort defined as the sophomore cohort. The Academic Advising Center will take the lead in the proactive advisement activity. Staff and faculty mentors will be assigned if the grant is awarded. In addition, Project Coordinators and the Academic Advising Team will be identified and will begin working on the program with the Project Team.

In addition, some materials will need to be developed prior to beginning the grant period. These materials will be developed in late spring to be available after July 1, 2014.

With the students starting summer 2014, a freshman cohort will be identified by the Project Team from that summer term and from fall 2014 and spring 2015. The freshman cohort will begin with approximately twenty students in the summer term, but will expand as more are added during the fall 2014 term and spring 2015 term.

The full program staff will meet during the summer and be ready to proceed with all parts of the program at the beginning of the fall 2014 term.

Assessments of the program will take place at the end of each term.

Logic Model

(g2)2 Logic Model:

Project Budget and Evaluation Plan

The Campus Coordinators will have the responsibility of gathering program assessment data. This data will include number of students served, number of successful students, characteristics of the successful students, academic and student services used by the successful students, and barriers encountered by students who were successful and were not successful. This data will be compared to all students. The Campus Coordinators will also meet with the mentors and Academic Advising staff to obtain feedback on the success of students in the program.