Second-Year Student Assessment™

Helping second-year students persist and progress is a continuing challenge for two-year and four-year colleges and universities. To retain second-year students, you must meet their specific needs and keep them engaged as they transition to their second year.

The online Second-Year Student Assessment from Noel-Levitz (See sample) carefully assesses students’ needs and checks students for known attrition indicators as they begin their second year of college.

Sign up for a 10-minute guided online tour of the Second-Year Student Assessment via a live Web meeting. You'll also see how to immediately access the resulting student and cohort findings in our secure, online Retention Data Center.

Measure receptivity to assistance along with students' areas of strength and challenge

Students need approximately 20 minutes to complete the online Second-Year Student Assessment. The assessment includes 27 motivation questions and tracks motivational data across seven scales:

• Academic Confidence
• Commitment to College
• Engaged Learning
• Leadership
• Financial Security
• Transition
• Family Support

In addition, 13 items examine students' satisfaction with their college experience, such as:

• Interactions with instructors, academic advisors, and other students
• Variety of majors, course availability, and academic challenge
• Availability of opportunities and activities related to major and career interests

The survey also closely examines student receptivity to assistance, examining not only each student’s current receptivity in 15 areas, but also the student’s levels of participation in these 15 areas during the first year of college, providing information to strengthen first-year programs. Finally, the assessment reveals second-year students' current program/college completion plans—their plans to continue at their current institution, transfer, or withdraw.

The survey works with second-year students at two-year institutions as well as college sophomores at four-year campuses. In addition, an optional feature of the assessment allows you to add up to 10 custom items to the survey that are specific to your campus.

Focus interventions more precisely

All of the information collected by the Second-Year Student Assessment is available to you immediately in our secure, password-protected Retention Data Center. There you will see the resulting reports revealing student motivation, interest, needs, and satisfaction, and you will learn which students need the greatest assistance, allowing you to make informed interventions that match at-risk students to the most appropriate and effective campus resources.

To help you focus and prioritize your campus outreach, the Second-Year Student Assessment includes the following informative reports:

• Student Report (see PDF sample): Offers a clear, non-technical explanation of a student's motivational assessment, including the student's strengths and areas that might benefit from attention. The report details the student’s receptivity to assistance in five key areas, alongside your institution’s sources of assistance. The student’s self-reported needs and interests serve as an immediate action plan.
• Advisor/Counselor Report (see PDF sample): Provides a detailed, item-by-item breakdown of each student's demographic information and motivational assessment, including strengths, needs, satisfaction, and receptivity to assistance.
• Summary and Planning Report (see PDF sample): Summarizes all demographic items, motivation scales, receptivity and institutional impression (satisfaction) items. This cohort report includes outreach lists based on an item about students' current plans to complete their program of study and remain in college. This data highlights which students plan to complete their educations, intend to transfer, expect to withdraw, or are undecided about their plans.

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Use independently or in conjunction with other components of the Retention Management System Plus™ (RMS Plus)

The Second-Year Student Assessment may be used independently or in conjunction with our motivational, early-alert surveys for first-year students, the College Student Inventory™ and Mid-Year Student Assessment™. Additional risk indicators can be pinpointed using our Student Retention Predictor. By using all four of these tools, you’ll stay in touch with your students’ needs, interests, motivations, and challenges while encouraging their continued progress toward college completion.

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