Pellissippi State Community College: Increase Retention and GPA

The Student Assistance Center at Pellissippi State Community College uses Signal Vine to support Tennessee Promise scholarship students and increase retention. Advisors use Signal Vine to text nearly 1,500 students across three campuses. As a result, in a single semester of using Signal Vine, Pellissippi State improved students’ GPAs and increased persistence into the next semester.

Challenges

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission issued a challenge to community colleges: develop and implement unique projects to support TN Promise scholarship recipients. Projects had to increase retention and completion rates at the community college. They also had to incorporate technology and a proactive advising model. Pellissippi State chose to meet the state’s challenge by using Signal Vine to connect with students.

Implementation

Pellissippi State’s top two priorities for text messaging are to 1) personalize outreach and 2) engage students.

Caseload management

The first step in creating a personalized texting program is to connect students with their advisors. Pellissippi State divides its 1,500 TN Promise students into 12 caseloads, one for each advisor. They safely text back-and-forth through the platform with students in their caseloads about registration, scholarships, and other topics.

Message calendar

The Student Assistance Center jumpstarts this one-on-one outreach by sending reminders to all TN Promise students. These “mass” text messages are personalized to each student and look like they’re coming directly from an advisor’s cellphone.

Message content

Text messages prompt responses and actions from students. Many text messages ask a question. For example, the Center scheduled a text in May that said, “[First Name], just wanted to let you know that fall registration is underway. Were you planning on taking classes in the fall?” Most of the responses came back within 10 minutes of sending that message.

Once students know that they can reach their advisors by text message, they use text messaging as a “catch-all.” Students initiate conversations with their advisors on any and all topics, using advisors as a universal resource.

Results

Pellissippi State measures student engagement and message response rates in the Signal Vine dashboard. The average message response rate is 86.7%, with nearly half of students considered “highly engaged.”

The personal and proactive approach of Pellissippi State advisors nudges students to take action. Students who engage with their advisors through texts are more likely than their peers to register for the next semester of classes, pushing the community college closer to its retention and completion goals.

An additional benefit of the text campaign is improved academic performance. Students who participate in the text messaging program have higher GPAs than their peers by an average of .27 points after one semester of the program. The increases in persistence and GPA are measured after controlling for other variables.