"Just Numbers" Convening Spotlight 2024: Supporting Student Parents
This spotlight is part of a series examining work presented at the 2024 Strategic Data Project Convening. The theme of the convening was “Just Numbers”—celebrating the power of data and evidence in driving decisions and policies, while simultaneously challenging us to consider the deeper, ethical implications of data usage in education. Read the rest of the series here.
The Strategic Data Project (SDP) announced Madison Area Technical College as the winner of the 2024 Strategic Data Excellence Award at their annual spring Convening in Boston.
The award was created in 2021 to recognize that while strong data work is critical to successful strategy, innovation, and improvement, it is too often taken for granted and goes uncelebrated.
The award sought submissions from practitioner-led projects within domestic public K-12 or postsecondary systems that meet criteria including demonstrated use of high-quality data to address a pressing, clear challenge in education; measurable, quality evidence of success and impact; and the ability to inspire others (e.g., through innovation or making data accessible to non-technical audiences). These submissions were reviewed by a panel represeting SDP Fellowship alumni, affiliated faculty, practitioners, and SDP staff.
The 2024 SDP Convening theme, “Just Numbers,” probed the dual meaning of what “just” numbers can do, plumbing both the sheer power of data to drive decisions and the ethical dimensions of data use—how can numbers be harnessed not merely as cold, hard facts but also as tools for fairness, equity, and justice in education?
To align with the convening topic, nominated projects were also asked to demonstrate how they advance justice for the student populations served. The Madison College project targeted student-parents, who are often older than traditional students and predominantly identify as female, Black, Hispanic, multi-racial, or Asian.
“The path to success is rarely smooth, especially for student-parents who are juggling classes, childcare, and work. We cannot let these students leave college with debt and no degree,” said Strategic Data Project Senior Director Miriam Greenberg.
“Madison Area Technical College’s use of data to provide support for an often-overlooked student demographic is a model for the sector. We are particularly excited about the intergenerational economic mobility this project promotes and look forward to their continued work on using data to inform this service as they join the next cohort of the Strategic Data Project Fellowship.”
In 2023, more than five million college students nationwide had children, and more than half of those had children under the age of six. For these student-parents, only 37% of those enrolled in postsecondary coursework will graduate with their degree within six years.
Results from Madison College's basic needs and student satisfaction surveys revealed that 42% of the student population were parenting birth to school-age children and facing barriers related to childcare. In response, the data team linked the parenting status question to their data warehouse, allowing them to track and support these students longitudinally to monitor outcomes like retention and graduation rates.
"Though some postsecondary systems and universities have identified policies to support student-parents, Madison College sought to first recognize the student-parent as a subgroup, and then collect the data to inform how they intentionally remove barriers for these students. What drew us to this project was how the data work brought together leaders from across the college, aligned to a common mission," noted Alison Guerriero, Associate Director of Outreach and Partnerships for the Strategic Data Project.
By gaining a nuanced understanding of student-parents’ unique needs, the Madison College team sought to develop a comprehensive support system tailored to addressing the challenges of balancing academic and parental responsibilities.
The first step was integrating parenthood status into the school’s Student Information System. Now, student parents who self-identify for targeted support are directly linked to a new one-stop resource page designed to help them navigate challenges such as finding and paying for childcare and studying with children.
Madison College’s Director of Institutional Research & Data Management Zong Her— an SDP-CTE ECMCF fellow alumna—said that this systemic integration exemplifies the school’s commitment to using data as a tool to support and empower students.
“It's a model that demonstrates the potential of data systems to be more than repositories of information, but active participants in student success and well-being,” Her said.
This data deep-dive resulted in the creation of dedicated parent study rooms on campus and the acquisition of a fire station from the City of Madison to expand the childcare resources for student parents.
Dr. Sylvia Ramirez, Madison College’s Executive Vice President of Finance & Administration, said that while student-parents are often among the college’s highest-achieving students, they are also statistically the least likely to graduate.
“Childcare needs and finances are some of the biggest derailers of student-parents. We know that investment in student-parents is transformational for them, for their community, and for their families,” said Ramirez. “So you’re talking about generational change, with this investment.”
Madison College plans to monitor student-parent usage of the school’s resources—both physical resources, like the study rooms and childcare center, and support services, like advising and financial aid. As the award recipient, Madison College will nominate a team member into the next cohort of the SDP Fellowship, who will receive training and support to execute this next phase.