Almost 6 million students enroll in community colleges each Fall, and only 40% earn a postsecondary credential within six years. Technology-mediated success coaching is one strategy being implemented by colleges across the country in an effort to more effectively support their students and boost completion rates. By providing services that are personalized, proactive, and informed by real-time data on students’ academic and non-academic progress and challenges, success coaching has the potential to greatly improve postsecondary outcomes.
This brief presents final evaluation results from the Carolina Works initiative, which aimed to improve retention and completion outcomes for students at ten North Carolina community colleges through the provision of proactive, technology-mediated student success coaching. Findings from a mixed-methods, independent evaluation of the initiative led by DVP-PRAXIS LTD point to the promise of success coaching for improving community college student outcomes and highlight key implementation factors that can increase the effectiveness of this student success strategy.