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Oakton College

Making Student Progress Easier to See: How Oakton College Uses Data to Improve Scheduling, Transfer Pathways, and Retention

54%

Fall-to-fall retention rate

+9 pts

Retention rate increase

6,100

Credit students served

70%

Students attend part-time

55%+

Students of color

The Situation

Oakton College is a comprehensive community college in the northern suburbs of Illinois, serving approximately 6,100 credit students and 12,000 to 15,000 non-credit students across adult education, workforce programs, and transfer pathways. Oakton’s students reflect the realities of modern community college life: the average age is about 25, roughly 70% attend part-time, more than 55% are students of color, and about 20% are parents. That mix of backgrounds and responsibilities makes it especially important for Oakton to look beneath overall averages and understand how enrollment, course success, and persistence patterns vary across student groups, programs, and course sequences.

Many students are balancing school with work, family responsibilities, and tight schedules – which means the institution’s decisions about when courses are offered, how clearly pathways are communicated, and how quickly questions are answered can directly affect whether students stay on track. For Oakton, being “values-driven and data-informed” reflects a commitment to using disaggregated evidence to understand where students are thriving, where gaps persist, and what changes will most directly support progress.

As Oakton strengthened its culture of inquiry, the focus became making key information easier to use in the moments that shape student progress: faculty conducting program review, chairs and coordinators building schedules, advisors supporting transfer planning, and teams communicating quickly when campus conditions affect students. The goal was to align decisions more consistently with evidence so that course availability matches student need, transfer guidance is grounded in real outcomes, and students can move through programs with fewer avoidable delays.

The Solution

Oakton partnered with ZogoTech to reinforce a campus culture where data is used routinely in decision-making. Data are shared in monthly leadership updates, and teams across the college increasingly rely on common definitions and consistent metrics to ask better questions and act with more confidence. As President Dr. Joianne Smith put it: “Oakton is values-driven and data-informed. The college’s culture has shifted to an expectation of data to support decision-making. ZogoTech has been instrumental for us in helping us build platforms and reports that really are applicable to community colleges.”

Rather than building one-size-fits-all reporting, Oakton has focused on a set of high-use tools aligned to decisions that shape student progress:

  • Program review dashboards built for faculty use. Faculty have access to disaggregated enrollment and success data for their departments, including specific courses and sections, so program review can surface patterns worth addressing – where students are enrolling, where outcomes vary, and where curriculum and support conversations should go next. Oakton also provides credential attainment for career and technical education programs and includes utilization indicators, helping departments identify under- or over-utilized courses and sections and make more informed scheduling adjustments.
  • Transfer tracking that strengthens advising and agreement design. Oakton uses National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) uploads to track transfer outcomes, supporting the development and reporting of guaranteed transfer agreements. The same tracking helps the college understand whether students continue in the program of study they pursued at Oakton or change direction after transfer, strengthening advising conversations for students planning their next step.
  • Fast, targeted communication when student experience is affected. When something changes on campus that impacts students in real time, Oakton can identify the right group quickly and communicate without delay. 
  • Academic Pathways to align scheduling with how students actually progress. Oakton is preparing to unveil the Academic Pathways module to faculty in the spring. The expectation is that it will help department chairs and coordinators schedule more effectively – not only by suggesting the dates and times courses should be offered based on student course-taking behavior, but also by highlighting courses that may need to be offered in a different pattern so students can complete in a timely fashion. The module will also help Oakton identify near-completers and encourage students to take the remaining courses needed to earn a credential, including programs they are close to completing.
“I think it's important to make sure that whatever product or data warehouse you choose serves community college students. That our students are so different than the traditional four-year students. That, finding a product that really understands who community college students are, I think is critical in evaluating products. And that's why we chose ZogoTech.”
Dr. Joianne Smith
President, Oakton College

The Benefits

Oakton’s data-informed approach is translating into stronger outcomes and more consistent decision-making across the college. The impact shows up in improved retention, more actionable program review and scheduling conversations, clearer transfer insight, and fewer avoidable disruptions for students.

  • Stronger retention with reduced gaps over time. Since President Smith set a Wildly Important Goal of reaching a 54% fall-to-fall retention rate with no performance gaps, Oakton’s overall retention increased from 45% to 54%. Over the same period, retention improved and gaps narrowed, even if they were not fully eliminated. This tracking also gave Oakton a way to monitor whether retention-focused efforts such as the Persistence Project and Caring Campus were strengthening persistence as intended.
  • Program review that supports clearer priorities and better-fit schedules. With program review dashboards in place, departments can examine enrollment, course success, credential attainment (for Career and Technical Education programs), and utilization patterns at the course and section level. That visibility strengthens decisions about where to adjust scheduling, where to focus improvement efforts, and how to align course offerings to what students actually take – helping reduce bottlenecks and scheduling mismatches that can slow progress.
  • More confident transfer guidance grounded in real outcomes. By tracking transfer students through NSC data, Oakton can better understand where students go after leaving Oakton and how their program of study evolves. This strengthens the college’s ability to support guaranteed transfer agreements and advise students with greater clarity – especially when students are weighing whether they are on track for their intended pathway or considering a change.
  • Faster, more reliable communication that reduces avoidable disruption. Oakton’s ability to quickly identify and message specific groups of students helps the college respond faster when campus conditions affect the student experience. For commuters and working students, timely updates can prevent wasted trips, missed meals, or avoidable confusion that disrupts already tight schedules.
  • More momentum for students close to completion. As Oakton expands Academic Pathways to faculty, the college is positioned to reduce the number of students who are close to earning a credential but are slowed by course timing, sequencing patterns, or missed awareness of remaining requirements. By aligning offering patterns to course-taking behavior and identifying near-completers for targeted encouragement, Oakton can help more students finish without adding extra terms.
  • A stronger culture of evidence that sustains improvement. Data is now part of everyday conversation and expected in decision-making, strengthening consistency across departments and reducing reliance on anecdote. Over time, this supports durable improvement as programs are continually reviewed, schedules refined, and student pathways clarified.

Together, these changes reflect Oakton’s intent to make student progress easier to navigate and harder to derail. By embedding data into program review, transfer tracking, targeted communication, and pathway-informed scheduling, Oakton is strengthening the conditions that help students persist and complete – access to the right courses at the right times, clearer guidance on next steps, and faster adjustments when patterns show students are being slowed down. As Oakton advances its newest Wildly Important Goal focused on credential attainment, the college is building on this foundation to help more students finish what they started and leave Oakton with a credential or transfer outcome that supports long-term opportunity.