Early Alert Systems in Higher Education: Do They Really Work?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 3:35 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: From Potential to Performance: Understanding Drivers of Student Success (Table 12)

Abstract

This systematic review aims to gather empirical evidence and evaluate if Early Alert Systems (EAS) support student success in higher education. We retrieved 28 empirical studies on EAS reported since 2010, focusing specifically on interventions aimed to enhance academic success among at-risk undergraduate students at four-year institutions in the United States. Despite the pervasive beliefs of their effectiveness, our SR revealed no definitive support on the effectiveness of EAS which are currently implemented at various institutions. Majority of EAS often fail to fully integrate theoretical frameworks and rely predominantly on the efforts of professors and/or academic advisors, which points to the need of careful data-driven, theory-based system re-design, and collective institutional efforts for maximizing the effectiveness of EAS.

Authors

• Yukiko Maeda, Purdue University

• Xiyu Wang, Purdue University

• Dennis Bowling, Purdue University

• Summer Dawn Bowman, Purdue University

• Jeff Elliott, Purdue University

• Rumeysa Gorgulu, Purdue University

• Sheila Hurt, Purdue University

• Leslie Miller, Purdue University

• Lakshmy Mohandas, Purdue University