Using Intrusive Advising to Improve Student Outcomes in Developmental College Courses

Abstract

Using intrusive advising principles and the four Cs framework, the Strong-Start Program was developed and implemented to improve student outcomes in developmental math, reading, and writing courses. An intrusive advising protocol was used to help students recognize, adopt, and engage in the behaviors needed to complete instructor-assigned outside-of-class work. The intervention focused on two aspects of intrusive advising: (a) the objective to increase student academic success and (b) a set of predetermined goals to be accomplished in each academic advising session. The proportion of students who passed Strong-Start supported developmental math courses was significantly ( z = 2.0, p = .02) greater than the proportion who passed Instructor-Matched comparison developmental math courses (49.33% vs. 33.67%), with a percentage difference of 15.66%, a 46.5% increase relative to the comparison group. The odds ratio ( OR = 1.91, 95% confidence interval: 1.01–3.64) of students passing a Strong-Start supported developmental math course were 1.9 times ( p = .03) that of students in unsupported Instructor-Matched Comparison courses.