The Strategic Data Project (SDP) at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University named Madison Area Technical College as the 2024 Strategic Data Excellence Award.
The Madison College project focused on student-parents, who are often older than traditional students and predominantly identify as female, Black, Hispanic, multi-racial, or Asian.
“The path to success is rarely smooth, especially for student-parents who are juggling classes, childcare, and work. We cannot let these students leave college with debt and no degree,” said Strategic Data Project Senior Director Miriam Greenberg.
Madison College’s use of data to provide support for an often-overlooked student demographic is a model for the sector.
Results from the college’s basic needs and student satisfaction surveys revealed that 42% of the student population were parenting birth to school-age children and facing barriers related to childcare. In response, the data team linked the parenting status question to their data warehouse, allowing them to track and support these students longitudinally to monitor outcomes like retention and graduation rates.
By gaining a nuanced understanding of student-parents’ unique needs, the Madison College team sought to develop a comprehensive support system tailored to addressing the challenges of balancing academic and parental responsibilities.
The first step was integrating parenthood status into the school’s Student Information System. Now, student parents who self-identify for targeted support are directly linked to a new one-stop resource page designed to help them navigate challenges such as finding and paying for childcare and studying with children.
Madison College’s Director of Institutional Research & Data Management Zong Her— an SDP-CTE ECMCF fellow alumna—said that this systemic integration exemplifies the school’s commitment to using data as a tool to support and empower students.
“It’s a model that demonstrates the potential of data systems to be more than repositories of information, but active participants in student success and well-being,” Her said.
This data deep-dive resulted in the creation of dedicated parent study rooms on campus and the acquisition of a fire station from the City of Madison to expand the childcare resources for student parents.
While student-parents are often among the college’s highest-achieving students, they are also statistically the least likely to graduate, said Dr. Sylvia Ramirez, Madison College’s Executive Vice President of Finance & Administration.
“Childcare needs and finances are some of the biggest derailers of student-parents. We know that investment in student-parents is transformational for them, for their community, and for their families,” Ramirez said. “So, you’re talking about generational change, with this investment.”
Read the full press release.
