Next Practices Applying the 2025 Student Success Impact Report: Insights from the Civitas Learning Customer Development Team
What if the programs designed to help students were actually making things worse or simply doing nothing at all? It’s a question more institutions are asking as they confront the hard truth: not every initiative leads to better outcomes. This episode takes a closer look at the data behind student success and how colleges and universities can learn which efforts are truly making a difference.
You’ll hear from a powerhouse team at Civitas Learning who bring a combined 75 years of experience in higher education. Nova Davidson shares insights from her two decades in enrollment management and advising. Rob Friedhoff, a former advising leader at Grand Valley State, the University of Michigan, and Valdosta State, brings practical wisdom from both large research universities and regional institutions. Nathan Miller rounds out the group with a rich background in online education, curriculum design, and adult degree completion. Together, they explain how the Student Impact Report helps schools track and evaluate the actual effectiveness of their student support programs.
The conversation dives deep into themes like segmentation, data-informed action, and how to build a culture of impact without overwhelming your staff. They share real-world examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to persistence, career readiness, and belonging. Whether you’re trying to streamline services, personalize support, or measure ROI, this episode offers actionable takeaways and a refreshing reminder that the path to student success starts with asking better questions.
Show Notes:
[02:32] Nova Davidson started her higher ed. journey about 20 years ago in Enrollment Management and Admissions. She's been working with schools for the last 9 years with Civitas.
[03:02] Rob Friedhoff spent about 20 years on campus and grew up in the advising world. He joined the team at Civitas about 3 years ago.
[03:54] Nathan Miller has been with Civitas for just over a year. Prior to that he spent 15 years in higher education.
[04:52] The Student Success Impact Report is a broad look across everything that's being evaluated. There are a number of initiatives that don't have an impact on student outcomes. This creates a disconnect between effort and investment.
[06:05] Ways that customers are using initiative analysis to inform and improve student success. They use segmentation to identify what really should be focused on.
[07:04] They use the platform in an iterative manner and continue to build upon that.
[08:11] This report helps campuses know what caused an increase in retention or persistence.
[09:04] Understanding what's happening helps with wise decisions about where resources should be utilized.
[10:04] Nathan talks about the importance of understanding what it is that's actually working so focus can be continued on that.
[11:05] Building teams around taking a look at data and making data informed decisions.
[12:21] Measuring the impact of work allows successful teams to celebrate their wins.
[13:59] The theme from our findings include holistically supporting students throughout their experience.
[15:05] How automated outreach can sometimes be counterproductive.
[16:04] Themes that are becoming more and more important include career outcomes. How do students' interactions impact their journey? Connectedness and supporting student success.
[17:40] Taking down the business process barriers and opening opportunities to students.
[18:19] Using impact analysis to measure career decisions or completion rates.
[19:48] The importance of understanding the data and who is actually being impacted by it. The data can uncover student populations we might not be aware of such as students who hit certain cumulative GPA tipping points.
[22:12] Best practices for measuring the impact of your programs.
[24:34] Having data informed work can be useful in knowing which initiatives to focus on.
[25:44] Data can help with having conversations about the willingness to take action.
[29:42] Talking about assessing, measuring, and evaluating and then understanding how to apply these findings. Ways to turn insights into actions.
[32:27] Tips and lessons learned.
Links and Resources:
Resources for Scaling Student Success
How an IR-Led Outreach Experiment Boosted Student Persistence at Greenville Technical College