Measuring Student Success Without Blind Spots: Beyond IPEDS and Freshmen

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

3:45 PM - 4:30 PM East Coast USA Time

Location: Georgetown University Room (ML1)

Institution Type: Any

Target Audience: Any

Presenter(s)

SG

Sarah Gallimore, PhD

Director, Planning and Decision Support
The University of North Texas, Health Science Center
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Kelly Barton, BBA, BA-Economics

Senior Business Analyst
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, Texas, United States
Qiong (June) Zhou, PhD (she/her/hers)

Lead, Accreditation in Institutional Research
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States

Session Abstract: Graduation, retention, persistence, and time-to-degree may sound straightforward, but in practice, they aren’t. IPEDS offers standardized definitions, but only for first-time, full-time undergraduates, leaving gaps for graduate, professional, and certificate programs. As certificate pathways and non-traditional enrollments grow, institutions face mounting challenges in measuring success for increasingly diverse student bodies. Health-related institutions, where accreditation and program structures magnify these issues, provide vivid case studies for exploring solutions. This session will showcase frameworks institutions can adopt, paired with dashboards that clarify multiple definitions. Attendees will walk away with transferable strategies and real-world examples they can easily adapt to their own campuses.

Keywords: • Student Success Metrics
• IPEDS Beyond
• Visualization
• Consensus
• Transferable Strategies