Diagnosis, Prescription, Intervention, Evaluation, Advanced Academic Training, and College Student Success

Abstract

The Personal Background Preparation Survey (PBPS) identifies students at risk for academic nonadvancement. Uniquely, the PBPS produces individualized reports making evidence-based risk-specific recommendations prescribing interventions targeting students’ empirically identified risk indicators. At a large southwestern health sciences community college, after baseline PBPS administration among 409 diverse first-semester-fall 2010 students, fall 2011 PBPS administration helped target PBPS-individualized interventions among 618 first-semester-fall 2011 students. Group-oriented Advanced Academic Training (AAT) workshops augmented PBPS-targeted individualized interventions among 1,183 additional first-semester students during fall 2012 and fall 2013. AAT participants practiced a daily self-testing retrieval regimen to reduce PBPS-identified cognitive processing, information-, and time-management risk indicators. Controlling PBPS risk level, underrepresented minority status, and gender as covariates, first-semester student nonadvancement rate decreased from baseline’s 42.3% and PBPS-individualized interventions’ 41.4% to 16.2% and 11.6% postAAT ( p < .001), respectively. AAT was designed to reduce primarily higher risk student nonadvancement; yet, retention gains did not differ significantly across risk levels, underrepresented minority students status, and gender.

Appropriately Targeting Group Interventions for Academic Success Adopting the Clinical Model and PAR Profiles

“…Its success in health care has been echoed by substantial improvements in student success following PBPS-targeted individualized or group interventions. (R. Johnson et al, 2016; Tata et al, 2012).…”

“…PAR group profiles provide empirical data for using the Diagnosis ⇒ Prescription ⇒ Intervention ⇒ Evaluation Model, adapted from clinical medicine, to appropriately prescribe group-specialized targeted academic success interventions. Further research and practice efforts are needed to document whether educational adoption of the clinical model for targeted group-specialized interventions using PBPS PAR-group profiles produces student-retention improvements similar to the substantial increases that followed recent individualized and group-targeted interventions (R. Johnson et al, 2016; Tata et al, 2012).…”

“…W. Johnson, Johnson, Mckee, et al (2009). While the PBPS has helped advisors, counselors, faculty, and administrators proactively target evidence-based prescriptions for individualized interventions to avert AASE (R. Johnson, Johnson, Vijayan, Tata, & Villegas Jr., 2016; Tata, Johnson, & Johnson, 2012), PBPS Prevalence of Academic Risk (PAR) group profiles have not previously been used to help identify and distinguish groups of students sharing similar academic risks for group-targeted student-success interventions.…”