How to Measure Student Success
Career advisors and counselors care deeply about student success. So how do you measure whether what you are doing is making a difference? Advisors tell us that showing the impact of their career readiness activities and programs with quantitative data is critical for funding and support. It’s also essential to educators’ career well-being to know, “how is my class/advising making a difference for my students?”
No matter who I talk to at conferences I attend – from deans to advisors – when I ask what they love most about their job, the answer is always the same: positive outcomes for their students. The positive difference they make in a person’s life. For Social and Enterprising Holland personality types who value helping others and teaching, this makes a lot of sense, right?
No data, no impact demonstrated = no added support
Unfortunately, many school counseling and higher education professional development and career development programs do not measure their impact. When you have hundreds, sometimes thousands of students assigned to one or two advisors, gathering and understanding data can take a back seat to fighting fires. But the reality is you won’t get more funding and support without data that shows the nature and extent of your students’ career decision needs. The hard part can be deciding what to measure and how. We can help.
Resources to Get Started
“Common Data Collection Methods,” a handy PDF table from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Basic Guide to Program Evaluation from the Management Library (management.org)
5-minute Career Decision Profile (CDP): Career Key partners use the CDP to measure their impact. This scientifically valid career decision readiness inventory is used as both a diagnostic tool and a pre and post measure. For over 10 years, the University of Toronto Mississauga Career Services has used the CDP in these ways. They measure their impact and gain the buy in of faculty stakeholders participating in mentoring and internship programs.
Surprise! Educators are more likely to participate and help out if they can see the positive impact they are having on students.
Just start measuring the essentials
Regardless of how you decide to measure and collect impact data, one of the most important things is to start. Perfection can be the enemy of good. Doing an evaluation that meets scientific standards of quality, like those required for peer-reviewed professional journals, can be challenging, expensive, or even impossible. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to measure outcomes.
In the case of career development, the CDP measures 7 “essential” aspects of career decision making research shows are the most important in career counseling.
I have a Post-It on my computer monitor that says, “don’t wait until everything is perfect or complete.” Maybe that mantra will help you too. To learn more about how we can help you gather the right data for your program, contact us.
