Preparing students for success

Anoka Technical College feeds local industry pipeline with SAS^®

When it comes to preparing students for post-secondary education, America's high schools have traditionally focused most of their attention on kids seeking four-year, liberal arts degrees. That approach often overlooks students who aren't bound for universities.

Anoka Technical College, located near Minnesota's twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, has pioneered an educational concept that is making a college education more accessible for many of the area's traditionally underserved students. By following that route, the school is supplying a constant stream of workers who have received the training and education necessary for ensuring that Minnesota companies maintain a standard of engineering and manufacturing excellence.

To pull that off, Anoka relies on Analytics from SAS to identify prospective enrollees while they're still in high school. After identifying them, the school makes sure the students are then adequately prepared for the two-year college experience. And the use of SAS Strategic Performance Management and SAS Enterprise BI Server allows a variety of users at Anoka to gauge the effectiveness of the school's efforts and the progress of their students toward meeting education goals.

"The four-year, baccalaureate framework isn't achievable for all students, either because of their families' financial circumstances, because they're new to American higher education, or because they're applied learners who are more comfortable and will thrive in an applied technical program," explains Anne Weyandt, Anoka's president. "SAS is helping us create a pathway for applied learners that is a pipeline to industry and gives these students as many opportunities and as much support as those who choose the liberal arts pathway."

How does SAS help Anoka?
Anoka's program, in conjunction with the Minnesota Center of Excellence in Manufacturing and Engineering, is unusual in that the college shares a campus with a high school, and those students may attend secondary technical classes at Anoka for college credit.

Using SAS for predictive modeling, Anoka mines student data to determine which students it should invest time and effort in at this early stage of their academic careers. The college then partners with the local school district to make sure the students are academically prepared when they enter the two-year program.

"I ask people whether we are providing students with the best opportunities when we limit our options for high-school juniors and seniors to lectures about literature or history that satisfy graduation requirements," Weyandt says. "Many young people are excited to work with high-tech welding equipment or to learn about public-safety careers. With help from SAS, we can design a program that will give more meaning to these learners if, when they're juniors and seniors, they can actually explore a career while they're completing their high-school graduation requirements."

Anoka's program has become a national model for high school and college partnerships because, Weyandt says, it is sustainable for the long term – not just a whim of current political and academic leadership. "The performance management and predictive modeling approach that we're using with SAS will help us lay a foundation for a sustainable K-14 partnership, not just an initiative that is dependent upon leadership interest and funding variability for its survival," Weyandt says.

What are the benefits of using SAS
John Cacich, Anoka's vice president for academic and student affairs, says that SAS Performance Management and SAS Enterprise BI Server are the means by which the college measures planning effectiveness and overall satisfaction among educators and students alike.

"The benefits we gain are improved internal and external communication, because SAS allows us to give people the opportunity to access the information they need on their time rather than through a meeting," Cacich says, "and it raises the credibility and acceptance of the information. With the predictive modeling on the front end, we are able to target our resources better for those students who are most likely to come to us for their education and to make sure they are prepared."

With the ability to measure outcomes and successes, both the school and the Center of Excellence are in a better position to win additional federal and state funding for programs, Cacich says. "SAS helps put us in the position to go back to these providers of dollars and show them what we've been able to achieve with their investment," he adds. "That's why it was such an easy decision for us to choose SAS for our technology solution. We're excited to roll up our sleeves and work with it, because we know we really need it."

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