The ITA is a set of questions that can help institutional leaders identify and discuss a current snapshot of how well they think they are doing in areas that are important for achieving student success and equity. Institutions use the ITA in different ways that work for them—it could be helpful in identifying improvement opportunities, used as an annual review to assess progress, or as an input into strategic planning. It’s important to define how the ITA fits into an institution’s continuous improvement processes and communicate that to the core team.

100+ question Transformation Team version: 45–60 minutes

30+ Student Success Community question version: 15–20 minutes

Participants are not required to complete the survey in one sitting and receive instructions to return and pick up where they left off.

The ITA builds on research and observations from the Frontier Set. This study showed that institutional transformation—the realignment of structure, culture and business model to create a student experience that results in equitable improvements in outcomes and educational  value—requires institutions to integrate inclusive practices and coherent learning environments designed with students in mind while leveraging a student-centered mission, catalytic leadership, strategic data use, and strategic finance in a robust continuous improvement process. The ITA’s structure reflects this integrated approach. It helps an institution learn more about its areas of strength and improvement in each of the categories, which are all critical input to prioritizing and planning further action to enhance equitable student success.

Depending on your institution, you may use some or all of the ITA’s categories. Also, in time, more questions and categories may be added to the ITA.

For more information about institutional transformation, the Transformation Model, and plenty of examples of transformation journeys, visit postsecondarytransformation.org.

For more information about the Frontier Set, visit frontierset.org.

Only the participant will have access to their individual results via the summary report generated when they complete the ITA.

Institution-level results are anonymized and do not contain participant names or emails, although they do contain role/functional area.

Each institution will have exclusive access to its own results. Note that if an institution is taking the ITA in association with an organization such as a larger consortium managed by an intermediary, results may be shared with that intermediary in order to help them define or improve their services.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped fund the development of the ITA; however, they will only have access to the results as part of an anonymized data set and will not be able to identify individual institutions.

Postsecondary institutions may partner with multiple networks or associations in different ways. The ITA may be used by any of these intermediaries to support their work. “Institutional overlap” occurs when an institution is invited to participate in the ITA by more than one intermediary at the same time, or when an institution has taken the ITA in the past with a different intermediary.

We recommend that intermediaries check with their member institutions during planning if they have previously deployed the ITA, or if they anticipate other memberships that might use the ITA. Once an institutional overlap has been identified, there are several options:

• If an institution has previously participated in the ITA:
  • It is possible to give the new intermediary access to past ITA survey data via their dashboard.
  • Institutional and original intermediary approval are required.
• If an institution has not previously participated in the ITA:
  • Collaboration between all stakeholders is recommended.
  • Roles and responsibilities will need to be defined.
    • We recommend that one intermediary acts as point person for the entire ITA administration process. Other intermediaries can join the Sensemaking Conversation as a co-facilitator or observer.
    • Co-facilitation requires joint prep of the Sensemaking Conversation, particularly when the ITA is used for different strategic reasons by each intermediary. Although the perception survey stays the same, each partner may have unique questions that inform their own approach.
• Institutional and intermediary approval are required to ensure that all parties have access to the ITA perception survey data via their dashboards.

We advise against having more than two intermediaries work with the same institution at the same time. This may place undue burden on the institution, and there is the potential that too many intermediary staff during the Sensemaking Conversation creates a power dynamic that leads to a less productive discussion.

Additionally, we recommend that institutions not be required to take the ITA more than once per academic year. If a second intermediary plans to engage an institution in the same academic year as an institution’s ITA administrator, existing data can be accessed to inform strategic conversations and technical assistance planning.

After completing their first deployment of the ITA and reflecting on the experience, intermediary organizations and their institution teams may choose to adjust the perception survey and/or recommended process to further their priorities in subsequent use. Intermediaries are able to tailor the ITA experience for their institutions in the following ways:

Perception survey tailoring options:

• Match the look and feel of the ITA online perception survey to the brand of the initiative or intermediary organization by adding intermediary-specific logos or custom language to the institutions’ perception survey landing page.
• Narrow down the list of rubrics an institution should focus on in their perception surveys.
• Communicate specific questions for participants to respond.

ITA process tailoring options:

• Determine how often the ITA will be used over time.
• Fine tune the timeline of the ITA.
• Identify who can participate in the ITA perception survey and sensemaking conversation.
• Determine the format of the Sensemaking Conversation.
• Select what other data sources the institution will consider during the sensemaking conversation.
• Choose what findings to focus on during the sensemaking conversation.

For additional details or to make a request, intermediaries should work through their program officer.