虽然现在预测今年新生的表现还为时过早，但承诺在四年内完成学业的人数令人鼓舞。 （博彩平台/Jessica Vernone）

萨克拉门托州’s Finish in Four campaign is a measurable success little more than a year after its inception. Still, seeking to better serve students, the campaign’s architects are making some tweaks.

提高四年毕业率仍然是一个目标，而且将永远是一个目标，但该计划还有另一个主要目的：加强教师和学生之间的牢固伙伴关系，使他们在四年内毕业，同时获得并保留使他们成为成功专业人士的知识。

“It’s not about graduation. That’s secondary,” says graduation "czar" Jim Dragna, whose official title is executive director of University Initiatives and Student Services. “The primary is really about creating a successful learning environment.

“You see a significant cultural shift in how our students are progressing.”

In past years, the University had little recourse other than, essentially, “performing autopsies,” in Dragna's words. 他说，在一群学生从萨克州立大学毕业之前，没有办法判断学习环境是否成功。 The new ability to use “big data” has improved University culture.

Analytics based on students’ educational experience, courses, or activities are being used to determine their probability of success. So, although there’s no four-year cohort yet tied to Finish in Four, Dragna says the University can with reliable accuracy predict graduation rates based on students’ progression rates.

“The University is becoming much more scientific in terms of what it’s offering and getting that information to instructors as well,” he says.

这又回到了关键的学生/教师合作关系。 Dragna says faculty have a great effect on “persistence” – that is, seeing college through to a degree. Much of that comes by way of “nudging,” which can be as simple as a professor’s advising that a tough test is coming and that studying a particular chapter and getting adequate sleep are essential.

德拉格纳说，这与我们许多人从父母和小学老师那里得到的没什么不同。

吉姆·德拉格纳（左）是博彩平台的“毕业沙皇”，他说，分析学的使用越来越多，有助于大学更好地评估学生的进步。 （图片来源：The 萨克拉门托 Bee/Lezlie Sterling）

“That changes the relationship,” he says. “For most of our faculty, that’s just validating what they’ve done for years, but giving them statistical reasons to even do it more so.”

实时数据收集使教师能够实时采取行动，帮助那些有较高落后风险的学生，即使是在学期的前几周。 这些信息被发送给院长和教员； the University then can intervene, as Dragna says, “in the moment” based on this information, and actually help change outcomes.

“Now we can look at the interventions themselves and see how effective they are,” he says. “Is the prescription working? And how effective is it – not just in a causal sense, but cost-wise.”

这些规定性分析的重要性怎么强调都不为过。 德拉格纳指出，一年级学生退学的原因可能与四年级学生退学的原因不同。

“Now we’re getting at what we can do to help those individual issues as they come up,” he says.

学生们都在船上。 在今年秋季入学的一年级学生中，84%的人参加了“四分钟完成”的承诺，而2016年秋季的这一比例为62%。 Among first-year students in Fall 2016 – the first semester of Finish in Four – 47 percent took 30 or more units, with 36 percent completing all 30. 相比之下，2015年秋季的学生比例分别为35.1%和27.1%。

Dragna says 囊状态 professors desire a strong partnership with students and that, as a teaching university, it is “uniquely positioned” to foster personal and educational growth. “You have the right people at the right time,” he says.

“Students are really fired up,” says Bridget Parsh, director of First Year Experience. “They have (Finish in Four) in their vocabulary.”

他们被赋予权力是有帮助的。 2016年秋季，新增加了658个课程单元，增加了12000多个座位。 Dragna describes course offerings as being consumer-driven – that is, demand determines when they are offered. 其中包括夏季课程，更多的学生报名参加。

Students also are taking advantage of the 聪明的计划, part of 囊状态’s 学位工具箱的关键. 社会学专业大三学生文森特·维勒加斯（Vincent Villegas）把它变成了一种实用工具。

“It allows me to plan out my future schedule and allows departments to be able to plan for that semester when I take that specific class,” he says.

Parsh likens the 聪明的计划 to a “diet plan” that gives students a sense of control and helps them get their heads around the overwhelming undertaking that college can become.

她和德拉格纳都指出，研究表明，当学生的学期负荷为15个单元时，他们实际上表现得更好。 平均绩点是。肩负如此多班级责任的大一新生要高出67分。根据机构研究办公室（Office of Institutional Research）的数据，转学费用高出34分。

“Our students do better when they’re more engaged. … Taking 15 (units) really gets them involved,” Parsh concludes. – 艾哈迈德 V. 奥尔蒂斯