Skip navigation
Partner Service

Student Outcomes Maturity Index

Assess the strength of 28 critical practices that can strengthen retention and persistence and focus limited resources where they can have the greatest impact.

Volatile enrollment, growing student readiness needs, and tightening budgets are putting higher education leaders in a bind. Retaining more of the students already enrolled may be one of the most reliable ways to sustain both mission and revenue, yet many institutions are trying to improve outcomes through a fragmented mix of programs and initiatives.

When every promising effort competes for limited time, funding, and leadership capacity, the central question is no longer simply, “What more can we do?” It is, “Which practices will improve outcomes at scale—and what should we prioritize next?”

Request Now

Turn a complex student success portfolio into a focused plan

EAB’s Student Outcomes Maturity Index gives provosts and student success leaders a clear, enterprise-wide view of how mature their retention and persistence practices are today. The structured assessment evaluates 28 research-backed practices and distinguishes between merely having a practice in place and implementing it consistently and effectively.

Through a custom report and expert-led debrief, leaders identify their institution’s strengths and gaps, along with three priority focus areas for the next one to two years. Recommendations emphasize scalable, structural, and cost-efficient practices—not one-off programs that reach only a narrow group of students.

Participate in the Student Outcomes Maturity Index to:

  • Align senior leaders around a shared picture of current student success practices
  • Focus limited resources on the highest-impact priorities and achievable quick wins
  • Move from diagnosis to action with relevant EAB research, workshops, and advisory support

Assess 28 practices across five areas of student success

The Student Outcomes Maturity Index examines the structures and practices that shape retention, persistence, and degree progress across five functional areas:

  • Academic advising
  • Enrollment strategy
  • Mental health and well-being
  • Pedagogy and curricula
  • Registration and degree planning

For each practice, a maturity curve shows the path from your current state to effective, institution-wide implementation.

How the Student Outcomes Maturity Index works

Unlike backward-looking outcomes analyses, EAB’s index assesses how well your institution has implemented the research-backed practices most likely to improve student outcomes—giving leaders a clearer basis for prioritizing resources and action.

  1. Complete a focused diagnostic

    The executive sponsor—typically a provost or senior student success leader—invites select leaders from the five functional areas to document which practices are in place and how consistently they are implemented.

  2. Receive a custom report

    EAB translates responses into a qualitative maturity heat map that highlights institutional strengths and opportunities, three priority focus areas, quick wins, and recommended EAB resources. The process typically takes one to two months from kickoff to report.

  3. Align leaders and take action

    An EAB expert debriefs the findings, adapts recommendations to the institution’s context, and presents them to the cabinet or a similar senior leadership team. EAB then supports action planning, change management, and implementation.

Ready to sharpen your student success strategy?

If you are a Strategic Advisory Services partner, log in and fill out the form below to request the Student Outcomes Maturity Index. For questions, reach out to your Strategic Leader or [email protected].

Not yet a partner? Learn how Strategic Advisory Services can help your leadership team make progress on its highest-priority student outcomes.