Quick Insights

Quick Insights

Short, downloadable resources with practical strategies you can use right away.

Connecting First-Year Students to the Support They Need Most

First-year students do not all need the same thing. When orientation and support services treat everyone the same, the students who need the most end up with the least. This resource outlines how to design intentional pathways that route students to relevant support before they have to ask for it.

Helping Families Foster Student Independence: A Checklist for Campus Leaders

More than 70% of parents report being more involved in their student's education than their own parents were. Institutions that engage families intentionally, with clear boundaries and scalable tools, reduce anxiety, build trust, and create conditions where students can thrive. This checklist helps campus leaders audit their current family engagement approach and identify where a more structured strategy could make the biggest difference.

Building a TRIO Student Success Ecosystem: A Checklist for Program Leaders

TRIO programs are being asked to do more with less. Staff capacity is shrinking, caseloads are growing, and too much time goes to answering the same questions instead of building the relationships that keep students enrolled. This checklist helps program leaders identify gaps in their student success ecosystem and build a more scalable, high-touch support model.

The Hidden Cost of Check-the-Box Compliance Training

Most institutions meet the legal minimum for compliance training, check the box, and move on. But when something goes wrong, the costs are far higher than the training investment would have been. This resource walks through the real financial and human costs of ineffective compliance education and how to make the business case for doing it better.

Where Colleges Are Losing Dual Enrollment Students and How to Stop It

A dual enrollment student who completes a course, earns college credit, and never returns is not a success story. This resource introduces the PERSIST framework, a practical lens for identifying where dual enrollment students disengage and what institutions can do at every stage to keep them on the path to matriculation.

5 Year-End Investments Every TRIO Director Should Consider

Year-end TRIO funds are not just a budget problem to solve. They are a strategic opportunity to improve student outcomes now and build a stronger program for next year. This guide walks through five high-impact investment areas, from academic support and career readiness to staff development and financial literacy, with a framework for spending compliantly and purposefully.

Teaching Students How To Learn

Most students arrive at college knowing how to memorize. Very few know how to learn. This resource explores what metacognition is, why students struggle without it, and what advisors, tutors, and faculty can do right now to help students develop the self-awareness and strategies that drive real academic success.

How Orientation Can Better Prepare Students for Day One

Students describe orientation in consistent terms: overwhelmed, lost, disconnected. The problem is rarely a lack of information. It is that institutions deliver too much at once and students cannot act on, retain, or return to what matters most. This resource outlines practical strategies for designing orientation that actually sticks.

Perkins Planning Toolkit: From Grant Requirements to Student Success Outcomes

The Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment is required, but most institutions treat it as a compliance document rather than a planning tool. This checklist helps CTE administrators audit their current CLNA process, redesign stakeholder engagement, and turn grant requirements into conversations that actually drive student success outcomes.

TRIO Spend-Down Strategies: An Online Services Investment Checklist

Every remaining TRIO dollar should either improve student outcomes or strengthen your program for next year. This checklist helps TRIO professionals evaluate online service investments across academic support, orientation, financial literacy, career readiness, and staff development, with built-in documentation guidance to keep spending compliant and purposeful.

Integrating Compliance Training Into Orientation: Strengthen Student Readiness & Reduce Risk

Compliance training is required, but a checkbox approach rarely produces the behavioral change institutions are actually after. This resource outlines practical strategies for embedding compliance education directly into orientation so students arrive on campus informed, prepared, and ready to be part of a safe campus community.

Is Your Campus Ready to Support First-Year Students? A Checklist for Student Success Leaders

First-year students arrive underprepared for college-level expectations not because they lack ability, but because high school rarely taught them how to navigate what comes next. This checklist helps faculty, staff, and student success leaders audit their current approach and identify where a more coordinated, campus-wide strategy could make the biggest difference.

5 Ways to Strengthen High School & College Dual Enrollment Partnerships

Strong dual enrollment programs are built on relationships, not just processes. This resource outlines five practical strategies for building more collaborative partnerships between high schools and colleges, from cross-institutional teams and shared communication protocols to joint planning and celebrating success together.

Sample Dual Enrollment Student Experience Survey

Understanding what dual enrollment students actually experience, where they feel prepared and where they do not, is the starting point for improving your program. This ready-to-use survey template helps administrators gather student feedback across onboarding, academic experience, resource use, and overall satisfaction.

Why Students Don't Know How To Study: A Checklist for Tutoring Centers

Most students arrive at college without effective study habits, not because they are unprepared, but because high school rarely taught them how to learn at the college level. This checklist helps tutoring center staff and administrators identify gaps in tutor training and build the skills tutors need to support the whole student.

TRIO Spend-Down Strategies: Smart Year-End Investments That Drive Student Success

Year-end spending in TRIO programs is not just about reducing balances. Every remaining dollar is an opportunity to remove barriers students are already facing and build infrastructure that serves them better next year. This resource walks through how to spend compliantly, strategically, and in ways you can document and replicate.

5 Things Your Title IX Training Must Do in 2026

High completion rates look good on paper, but completion alone does not protect an institution if the training itself is incomplete. This resource outlines five things effective Title IX student training must include in 2026, covering regulatory coverage, student voice, customization, and what it takes to move beyond the checkbox.

What Orientation Leaders Are Getting Right in 2026

Peer institutions across the country are rethinking what online orientation can do. This resource pulls the strongest lessons from a national summit on orientation and student success, covering engagement, personalization, data, and what it looks like when it all comes together.

Is Your Online Orientation Ready? A Checklist for Student Success Leaders

Enrollment pressure is rising and staff capacity is shrinking. This checklist helps orientation and student success leaders quickly identify gaps in content, personalization, communication, and data, and know where to focus next.

Three students sitting on grass with books and a laptop

Beyond the LMS: Reimagining Online Orientation

Most institutions build orientation inside their LMS, but low engagement, access barriers, and limited interactivity leave students with a poor first impression. This resource makes the case for a dedicated orientation platform and what institutions gain when they make the switch.

A teacher and young student looking at a tablet together at a classroom desk, with notebooks and supplies nearby

Designing Dual Enrollment Backwards

Most dual enrollment programs are built around course availability and high school demand. The University of Cincinnati flipped that model, designing from undergraduate enrollment and completion goals first, and saw retention rates up to 30% higher for underrepresented students. This resource outlines the pipeline approach and what it takes to replicate it.

A staff member holding a notepad in an engaged conversation with two students in a bright campus lounge setting

Practical Coaching Strategies for Early College Students

Early college and dual enrollment students often arrive motivated but without the tools to manage college expectations. This resource outlines practical coaching strategies that help advisors move students from confusion to action without adding staff workload.

Three diverse college students laughing and connecting on a campus staircase, carrying backpacks and course materials

From Orientation to Belonging

Designing orientation that builds genuine belonging takes more than good intentions. This resource outlines practical strategies for creating culturally responsive onboarding experiences that strengthen early student connection and support persistence across diverse student populations.

A student speaking animatedly with an advisor at a table in a bright campus office, with an open notebook between them.

First-Generation Student Belonging Checklist

Orientation is often the first moment students decide if they belong. Use this checklist to see how well your programming builds connection, affirms student identity, and sets first-generation students up to persist.

A college student taking notes in a classroom while an instructor presents at the front of the room

Dual Enrollment Orientation Readiness Checklist

Most dual enrollment orientations were built around compliance. Use this checklist to audit your current orientation or guide a new build, and see how well it prepares students for the realities of college.

Two young women studying together at a desk with papers, laptops, and notebooks in a dorm room setting

Helping Families Navigate Dual Enrollment Opportunities

Dual enrollment families want to engage, but most lack clear, accessible guidance. This resource outlines practical strategies for scaling family communication, delivering consistent messaging, and creating a more seamless experience from first interest to enrollment.

A warm, supportive conversation between an advisor and a student across a desk with a laptop open in a bright office setting

Rethinking Academic Probation

Nearly 1 in 5 college students will face academic probation. This resource shows how intentional intervention can turn probation into a structured pathway that supports recovery and keeps students moving forward.

A college student celebrating in a lecture hall after reading a paper, with other students visible in the background.

Preparing Dual Enrollment Faculty

Dual enrollment faculty navigate two worlds at once. This resource outlines what structured onboarding looks like and why it makes a difference for both faculty success and student outcomes.

A student typing on a laptop at a desk with papers and a smartphone nearby

The New ADA Accessibility Requirements

Explore practical strategies to support student success through intentional program design and targeted engagement. Learn how to create experiences that strengthen connection and improve outcomes.

Improving Retention for Transfer Students

Improving Retention for Transfer Students

Discover practical strategies to improve transfer student retention through stronger transitions and targeted support. Help students build connections that lead to persistence and success.

A keyboard with three blue keys displaying accessibility icons representing mobility, hearing, and vision disabilities

Creating Accessible Course Content

Discover straightforward ways to make your course content accessible and inclusive for all learners. Improve usability while meeting accessibility standards and reducing compliance risk.

Metacognition Meets Dual Enrollment

Metacognition Meets Dual Enrollment

Learn how metacognitive strategies help dual enrollment students strengthen study habits and take control of their learning. These approaches support confidence and long-term success.

Parents as Allies

Parents as Allies

Explore how engaging families as partners can strengthen student support and improve persistence. Learn practical ways to build meaningful involvement from the start.

Dual Enrollment in 2026

Dual Enrollment in 2026

Hear how institutions are expanding dual enrollment through stronger partnerships and clearer pathways. Learn what’s working to increase access and support student success.