The inaugural National Student Success Conference brought over 300 higher education professionals and partners to Tampa. The goal of the conference was to shine a light on innovative approaches and the leaders behind them. Why is innovation within higher education worth discussing throughout an entire conference? Student debt, career readiness, and curriculum needs are top of mind for students, parents, faculty, and administrators. At the same time, there is a growing dissatisfaction with higher education. As such, sharing best practices and building long term partnerships to better support students is needed now more than ever. Here’s a recap of the National Student Success Conference:
The conference kicked into high gear with a tour of University of South Florida (USF). Attendees had an opportunity to discover many of the innovative investments USF has made to support student success and engage thought leaders. The tour was also a way to foster introductions and collaborative discussions amongst conference attendees.
From there, we moved onto a candid discussion with Dr. George Kuh. Kuh discussed the perceived skills gap and the changing role of higher education.
One of the takeaways from Kuh’s session is that institutions can and must learn from each other. From his point of view, this shift in approach would allow institutions to scale everything devoted to helping students succeed in the classroom and beyond.
The National Student Success Conference was more than just another conference. We set out to provide exposure to initiatives that drive impact and help attendees build a wider network.
Another highlight from the conference featured two of the brightest minds in student success. Dr. Mark David Milliron Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Civitas Learning and Dr. Daniel Greenstein, Director of Education, Postsecondary Success, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined us to discuss and emphasize success for all students. They linked higher education’s perception problem to the nation’s skilled workers pipeline problem. In high demand fields, colleges and universities aren’t producing enough students for the jobs of now or the future, so a shift in strategy is needed.
To close out the National Student Success Conference, we featured the great minds behind the Central Florida Education Ecosystem Database project. This panel style discussion was moderated by Paul J. Luna, President and CEO of Helios Education Foundation and included:
Dr. Scott Fritz, Chief of Staff for Teaching, Leading and Learning, Osceola County Public Schools
Dr. Barbara Jenkins, Superintendent, Orange County Public Schools
Dr. Dale Whittaker, Provost and Executive Vice President, University of Central Florida
Dr. Sandy Shugart, President, Valencia College
Key leaders discussed the rationale behind the partnership and the potential benefits of partnering throughout the K-20 education. The Central Florida Education Ecosystem Database project is innovative and ambitious. If successful, it could change education for good.
In conclusion, the National Student Success Conference has wrapped, however, we’ve curated select panels and plenary sessions to keeping the conversations going.