Succeeding at Defining Success: How Governing Organizations Frame Student Success in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

Student success has become a buzzword in higher education, with many governing organizations now incorporating this metric into strategic plans and faculty evaluations. The extant literature varies in how this construct is defined and measured in modern education. This study offers a contextual overview of how student success has been defined in research throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Further, the study analyzes guidelines and policies related to student success found in publicly available documents from a purposive sample of 21 higher education governing organizations across the United States. Results reveal myriad approaches to defining student success, often centered on retention, progression, and graduation, but with limited transparency around how definitions were developed or which stakeholders contributed. Recommendations include using more precise and descriptive language to clarify how student success is defined and measured across contexts. The study also finds that both academic research and policymaking efforts oftentimes fail to reflect the views of all stakeholders (e.g., students, faculty, administrators), supporting the recommendation to include all perspectives when appropriate.