Community Conversation: How Are You Building a Proactive Student Success Culture?

When it comes to student success, waiting until a student is in crisis is simply too late. And yet, crisis is often how we learn that a student is struggling. A failed assignment, a vanishing act in class, a withdrawal notice—unfortunately, by the time these signals appear, the student may already be struggling well past the point where intervention makes a difference. Institutions know that being proactive with students is more effective than being reactive, but if struggle only shows up in hindsight, how can institutions stay ahead of the curve? How do we spot the early signs before they turn into emergencies?

During a community conversation at Jenzabar’s annual conference, JAM, we explored these very questions and invited attendees to unpack what a proactive student success culture really looks like. Below, we’re highlighting key takeaways from the discussion—not as a checklist, but as an evolving dialogue about how institutions can move toward intentional, data-informed, and student-centered support systems.

Student Attendance: The First Sign of Struggle

Across the room, attendees widely agreed on one thing: attendance is often the earliest and clearest sign that a student may be struggling. Data confirms this. Studies show that if a student has three or more absences, they are 40% more likely to fail the class.

However, attendance can be a tricky bellwether on which to rely. Faculty are usually the first to notice and report attendance issues, but this information must be quickly shared with student success teams to enable timely intervention. To use student attendance as a means to be proactive in retention initiatives, institutions must be able to quickly move attendance data through their systems and set off the right alerts.

In discussing how they use attendance toward student success initiatives, some institutions shared that they streamline the attendance process by integrating QR code check-ins through Jenzabar eLearning or JICS. In these instances, students scan a QR code at the start of class—either with their phones or via an online form—which gives student success staff (and not just faculty) real-time insight into class attendance.

Still, the challenge isn’t just collecting the data—it’s acting on it.

Data Holds the Key, But Its Use Requires Cultural Change

Participants agreed that improving student success isn’t just about gathering data but about creating a culture that values and uses that data effectively. However, building this culture is often complex.

Because data infrastructure and systems typically fall under IT’s domain, student success professionals can sometimes feel more like beneficiaries than drivers of change. In fact, our community conversation revealed a gap: While everyone acknowledged the need for a data-driven culture, concrete strategies for fostering it were less clear.

Fortunately, student success teams are in a unique position to support a data-driven culture shift. To enable this change, they can:

• Advocate for the implementation of easy-to-use tools that simplify data entry and tracking for faculty and staff. These tools can reduce friction and increase engagement.
• Create clear communication channels between faculty, advisors, and IT to ensure everyone stays informed and aligned.
• Model data-informed decision-making in their own work, demonstrating how timely and relevant data leads to better student outcomes.

In this way, student success professionals can help transform data from a disconnected resource into a shared foundation for proactive support and student achievement.

Laying the Groundwork for a Proactive Student Success Culture

The conversation about student success at JAM 2025 made one thing clear: While no single institution had all the answers, all participants were working to move from reactive responses to proactive strategies. But building a proactive student success culture isn’t about fixing one system or launching one tool—it’s about making intentional, campus-wide shifts in how institutions understand and support students.

If we could sum up the key takeaways of building a proactive student success strategy, they would be:

• Recognize attendance as an early, actionable signal of struggle.
• Simplify your reporting tools and workflows so faculty and staff can act quickly.
• Use real-time data to close communication loops between departments.

In taking these steps, institutions can build a culture where student success teams don’t react to problems—they actively work to prevent them. As institutions continue evolving their student success strategies, it’s important to remember that progress isn’t always about having the perfect plan. Instead, it’s about asking the right questions and committing to getting better answers together.