In The News

Charles Thornburgh is the founder of Civitas Learning, a cloud-based, predictive analytics platform that provides data to students, faculty, advisors, and administrators to deepen learning and improve outcomes. Thornburgh’s career has focused on using technology to improve access and efficacy in a variety of educational environments.

Entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of Central Texas' economic engine — Austin has reigned for the past two years as the country's top startup incubator, according to an influential ranking produced by the Kauffman Foundation. Some of that innovative thinking will be on display later this month. Twenty-six individuals representing 21 companies have been named finalists for this year’s Central Texas EY Entrepreneur Of The Year awards, which cover Austin and San Antonio.

EY today announced the finalists for the Entrepreneur Of The Year^® 2017 Award in Central Texas. The awards program, which is celebrating its 31st year, recognizes entrepreneurs who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

This is the first of two publications that focus on improving students’ college, career and life readiness, particularly for students who have been underrepresented in higher education. Both publications frame the larger context of readiness through case studies that analyze the effectiveness of College Spark Washington’s (CSW) College Readiness Initiative (CRI). This first publication, An Integrated Approach to College, Career & Life Readiness: A Case Study on Personalizing Guidance, features the program Career Guidance Washington (CGW, @waOSPI), which takes a student-centered approach to college, career and life readiness by helping students understand who they are, where they’re headed and how they’ll get there.

This report provides insight into how colleges are planning and implementing “guided pathways” reforms based on the early work of 30 colleges participating in the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Pathways Project. These colleges have committed to redesigning their programs and support services for all incoming students by fall 2018 according to the guided pathways model adopted by AACC based on CCRC’s research.

“In partnership with Civitas Learning, USF has achieved unprecedented student outcomes,” said Dr. Paul Dosal, vice president of Student Affairs & Student Success at the University of South Florida. “Because of the precise, real-time insights available from Civitas Learning’s Student Success Platform, our case management team is able to help more students exactly when they need it most, and as a result, we expect our 6-year graduation rate to exceed 70 percent, which will be 19 percentage points higher than just six years ago in 2011. Our first-year persistence rate is now at 90 percent, which is the highest in USF history. Additionally, USF has eliminated the achievement gap by race, ethnicity and income.”

Apply to college, finish high school, graduate, enroll: it sounds simple, but, for many students negotiating the transition between secondary and postsecondary education, it is a major challenge, one that can make or break their ultimate success in completing college. What support do students need from their high schools and college?

"Building on the good work of our pioneer institutions, many of our partners are now finding double-digit gains in student persistence, actionable student and course insights, and substantial retained revenue," said Dr. Mark D. Milliron, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Civitas Learning. "We are thrilled to have our partners back in Austin as we continue this journey of learning together."

What if the university could leverage more of its student data and get real-time results? This insightful question raised by administrators and members of the university’s Student Success Committee led USF into the powerful world of Big Data and the use of predictive analytics through a partnership with Civitas Learning.

USF is taking a stand to help its students, and other colleges should follow its lead.