Temple University

Temple University’s transformational planning focused on better understanding and defining holistic strategies to support student success. Accordingly, Temple engaged in collaborative process of listening and learning not only from the cohort of TPG institutions but also through various campus-wide committees the team established to better define the institution’s access and success strategies.

Transformation Highlights:

Academic Pathways:

The Temple Option is a new admissions pathway for student who show potential for success but do not perform well on standardized tests. As a test-optional method, students may elect to submit short responses to a set of questions designed to capture more non-cognitive factors (e.g. a student’s grit, self-confidence, etc.).

The introduction of the Temple Option has transformed and narrowed the opportunity gaps that previously existed at the admissions stage. As of fall 2015, 18 percent of Temple freshmen were admitted through the Temple Option, which also related to significant increases in underserved student populations (e.g. 19.9 percent of African-American and 25.7 percent of Latino student enrollment).

Temple is also exploring non-cognitive factors in all of its student success and retention efforts. Part of Temple’s student success efforts was to transform the campus culture to better understand and account for non-cognitive factors and develop appropriate interventions around these factors such as supplemental instruction, academic coaching, and discipline-based tutoring.

A more detailed overview of Temple’s transformational work may be accessed here.