1. Pace’s Inaugural Retention Conference June 16, 2017
Predictive Analytics 101: An overview of how to create a dataset and model to identify students at risk of attrition
Karen DeSantis Senior Analyst Office of Planning, Assessment and Institutional Research Pace University
Pace’s Inaugural Retention Conference June 16, 2017

2. Data Types and Sources Demographic Economic High school specific
Pace specific
Dates and deadlines
Census
Applications (Pace University and Financial Aid)
Orientation
BCSSE (Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement)
Placement tests
Historical data

3. Variables Demographic Economic High school specific Pace specific
Gender, Age, Race, International, Underrepresented Minority
Economic
Financial Aid package, Tuition, Unmet need, Grants
High school specific
GPA, test scores (SAT, ACT, etc.)
BCSSE responses, Placement data (from Orientation)
Pace specific
School, Campus, Residence, Major, CAP or Honors, Legacy, Athlete
Dates and commitment
Deposit Date, Attended orientation
End of Semester Data:
Starfish, Event attendance, End of semester GPA

4. Models
Identified Dependent variable: Prediction of which students will leave the University
One semester (Fall to Spring semesters) – only a small percentage leave
One year (Fall to Fall semesters) – up to 25% leave
Gathered historical data for 2013, 2014, and 2015 First Year, Full Time class cohorts
Gathered data for the 2016 First Year, Full time cohort
Data cleaning takes more time than you expect
Variables may be missing
Some students did not take BCSSE, SATs or complete FAFSA forms
Recoding of variables into binary variables (0,1)
Computing variables to be on a scale rather than absolute values such as financial aid

5. Model – Variable selection
Which variables correlated with the Dependent variable for the historical data?
SAT scores
High School GPA
Placement scores
Undecided majors

6. Analysis Binary Logistic analysis
Binary selected because there are two outcomes: Return or Attrite
Statistical package selected affects analysis
SPSS requires all variables to have a value to include a case (student) in the analysis
If a case has one variable empty, it will not be included in the SPSS analysis
Created a binary “Dataset” variable so the analysis was run on the complete dataset with an Attrition variable (students from 2013 to 2015) and used the variables for the 2016 students without an Attrition value
Saved Predicted values
Analysis provided a predicted value for all students in the model
Compared predicted values for each of the 2013 to 2015 cohorts to see how well the model fit with the students who already left

7. Lists of Students
Students with the highest predicted value for attrition were identified for the 2016 cohort
List of top 500 students was isolated and shared with the Division of Student Success
Using financial aid variables as well as the predicted attrition variable, identified students who had highest financial need within the 2016 cohort
List of top 500 students with highest financial need shared with Financial aid

8. Assessment of Model
Identify 2016 cohort students who attrite from Fall to Spring
Assessed identified students predicted scores from the two models
Identifying top predicted students in each cohort year and comparing attrition rates for the two models
Comparing top predicted students from 2016 to the top predicted students attrition rates for the previous years
Future: After Fall 2017 census, compare attrition of 2016 students who were contacted with attrition of the whole class.

9. Outreach Feedback Feedback from DSS and Financial Aid
How many students were actually contacted?
What were their difficulties contacting some students?
Comments and suggestions by those who performed the outreach
Were students already on advisors/counselors radar?
How outreach was performed and by whom
What outcomes happened after DSS outreach?
Did FA outreach result in additional financial aid awards for the following year?

10. Next steps Remove 2013 data from analysis Plans for Fall 2017 cohort
BCSSE data is more complete beginning with the 2014 cohort when it was included in orientation
Plans for Fall 2017 cohort

11. Additional Ideas Concerns? Suggestions? Questions?
What new variables can we add to the model?
Grades from Math Courses or first Course in major
Blackboard engagement
Concerns?
Suggestions?
Questions?

12. Thank you
Karen DeSantis