ENGAGE™ Helps Texas University Increase Freshman Retention Rate

A Texas university credits an ACT tool for helping it retain more first-year students.

The University of North Texas (UNT) began administering ENGAGE College in fall 2009 and has since seen its freshman retention rate grow by three percentage points. ENGAGE is a part of the university’s campus-wide retention initiative.

ENGAGE College, formerly known as the Student Readiness Inventory College, is an ACT assessment that helps institutions improve their retention rates by evaluating first-year students’ psychosocial and study skill attributes, determining their levels of academic risk, and applying specific interventions to help them persist in their studies and achieve academic success.

“The increase is a positive trend that other universities in our peer group are similarly striving for,” said Troy Johnson, vice provost for enrollment. “ENGAGE College has definitely made a difference for us.”

Like many selective universities, UNT relies primarily on cognitive measurements—standardized test scores and high school grade-point averages—when making admission decisions. UNT officials noticed that in some instances students with high cognitive scores did not retain at the same rate as some of those with lower cognitive scores.

“We needed to understand the noncognitive and behavioral characteristics that indicate academic risk, so we could identify the students who may need assistance earlier and intervene more quickly,” said Johnson. “ENGAGE College gives us the information we need to help students stay and succeed at UNT.”

ENGAGE College helps institutions predict their students’ academic performance and persistence in their first year of college. Institutions can use the results by themselves or in conjunction with scores on standardized tests, such as the ACT^® or COMPASS^®, to identify students with high levels of risk. They can then target these students for specific outreach interventions to enhance their study skills, involvement in campus life, and connections to the college community.

	Designed for 2- and 4-year college students Completed by the student
	Designed for students in grades 10–12 Completed by the student
	Designed for students in grades 6–9 Completed by the student
	Designed for students in grades 10–12 Completed by the teacher
	Designed for students in grades 6–9 Completed by the teacher

UNT gives the assessment to all first-year students—typically about 3,500 each year—during freshman orientation. Students receive reports that include a summary of their scores, information on how to interpret the scores, and a recommended plan of action. They can access helpful resources through the ENGAGE student website.

Advisors receive reports that contain students’ information, along with retention and academic success indices. They use the success indices to identify students who may be at risk of academic difficulties or dropping out.

“The ENGAGE results provide our advisors with greatly enhanced information about students that we couldn’t get otherwise,” said Johnson. “They use that information to customize advising and interventions.”

Tools like ENGAGE are especially important for colleges and universities in this time of budget cuts. ENGAGE can assist with retaining students, which in turn, enables universities to maintain tuition revenue projections and formula funded state appropriations. Maintaining both of these revenue sources is vital to college operating budgets and critical to the achievement of “value added” institutional effectiveness related goals.

“Institutions have many strategy options for improving academic success. We must choose wisely, so we are efficient and effective with our limited resources. We should do those things that have positive measurable outcomes, and ENGAGE does exactly that.”