The Accelerator Academy is an academic program offered in the summer semester to students who did not successfully complete their introductory English class during the academic year. Students are offered wrap around academic support to help them understand how to successfully engage the material and complete the course successfully. The goal of this course is to help increase student progression in order to meet the USG’s goal of completing English by the end of the freshmen year (30 hours).
Evaluation Plan and measures: Evaluating number of students who pass English 1101 during the summer semester
KPIs: Grade of C of better
Baseline measure (for each KPI): Baseline measure is only 55% of students who retake course pass with a C grade or better the 2nd time they take the course at the Atlanta campus and 42% at the PC campus
Current/most recent data (for each KPI): Summer 2025
Atlanta Campus 95% (36/38) and PC Campus 64% (23/36)
Goal or targets (for each KPI): pass rate in English 1101 of at least 70% during the summer retake term at Atlanta and 60% at PC.
The program has demonstrated success in 2023 and 2024 and 2025 at the Atlanta campus and success in 2024 and 2025 at the PC campus.
The institutional financial responsibility of this program is high with tuition support and stipend. However, data suggest that these incentives do not drive either participation or success. In 2025, a microincentive model was used to drive participation in support programming. This was highly effective as overall, there was greater participation in support and financially, the university spent less money to drive the success.
This program has shown success in ENGL 1101, especially in 2025. Connecting the correct faculty members with this program how also shown to drive success. This program can continue to grow with support from both ENGL and MATH departments. Further refinement of the tuition and stipend payment could further increase the ROI for the campus while driving increased student success.
Student recruitment is difficult. Students often do not know if they will be successful in a course until the course’s final days of the term, by which point they have already registered for the summer. Changing schedules to fit a specific section can be difficult and negatively impact enrollment. In 2026, grant funding to support this program will be exhausted, and the institution will need to utilize 100% institutional funds to support the program.
