Guide Offers Playbook for Building an In-House Student Coaching Program

A new guide from nonprofit InsideTrack offers step-by-step guidance and recommendations to help college and university leaders boost student persistence and completion by building their internal capacity.

“Empowering Teams, Transforming Outcomes: A Guide to Building a Holistic In-House Student Support Program” includes insights, best practices, and ready-to-use tools to help on-campus teams build internal capacity and to scale high-impact student success practices.

“In an era of financial and economic pressure and volatility for higher education, student success leaders are once again being asked to do more with less even as a growing number of students face a multiplicity of complex new challenges,” said InsideTrack President Ruth Bauer White.

Dr. Timothy Renick"Meeting those challenges — and making good on the promise of higher education for a new generation — requires that institutions meet the needs of learners in a more holistic sense,” White continued. “This is about giving institutions a roadmap for transforming their approach to student support by unlocking the full potential of their internal teams and culture.”

The report is drawn from InsideTrack’s frontline experience working side-by-side with hundreds of college and university programs to help them design, build, and scale holistic in-house student support programs able to meet the fast-changing demographics and complex needs of students.

The guide breaks down essential elements necessary to help institutions bolster their in-house capacity, beginning with an institutional needs and readiness assessment to understand the specific challenges and opportunities they face. It recommends that institutions choose an evidence-based methodology, focus on building an internal culture that can sustain the impact of the program, and secure sustainable funding sources to ensure the program can continue to operate for years to come.

The guide also includes real-world case studies from Austin Community College, Loyola University of New Orleans, and California State University Bakersfield, which have worked to scale successful on-campus coaching programs.

“This report provides a powerful new playbook for institutional training, development, and change management — all with an eye toward dramatically improving learner outcomes,” said Dr. Timothy Renick, founding executive director of Georgia State University's National Institute for Student Success, who contributed a foreword to the guide. “It’s a blueprint for institutions looking to build the kind of sustainable, in-house capacity they need to ensure all students not only persist but thrive.”