What are the five greatest predictors of student

success?
By Tim Elmore: GrowingLeaders.com
According to First Year Experience programs and our work with over 6,000 schools and
organizations worldwide, we have reduced the list of highest predictors of student success
(meaning engagement, excellent performance and satisfaction) to what we call the “Big Five.”
The “Big Five” are quite simple. When a student experiences these five realities they are most
likely to graduate and excel in life:
1. Getting connected to the right people.
For years the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has confirmed the importance
of close, accountable relationships in student success. We continue to find that students who
fail to graduate or succeed in school are ones who fail to engage with others outside of class
or don’t get involved with activities involving new people. They get stuck and then don’t have
a support system to make them want to continue. They also have no accountability strong
enough to prevent them from quitting. Research shows that when students get connected to
solid people (peers or mentors) they tend to stick with commitments and follow through. The
Federal Mentoring Council shares one study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program found
students with mentors earning higher grades than similar students without mentors. A 2007
study discovered that kids in a mentoring relationship at school did better work in class,
finished more assigned work, and improved overall in academics—especially in science and
in written and oral communication. After graduation, “employees who have had mentors
typically earn thousands more than employees who haven’t.” Those people act as “guardrails”
preventing youth from shifting or drifting from their course.
History indicates that people intuitively understood the importance of connectedness with
accountability, but we have migrated into a more individualistic lifestyle in recent times. Today
we have connectedness (often on Facebook) without accountability. Victor Hugo was a
brilliant writer, but very distracted. It took him seventeen years to finish Les Miserables. His
solution? He asked his servant to take his clothes while he was sleeping. This forced him to
stay in his room…and write. This guardrail enabled him to finish Les Miserables—and the
world has benefited greatly. Today, students need these guardrails.
2. Possessing adaptability and resilience.
There is a growing body of research in the last decade suggesting that adults have created a
fragile population of children. Because parents or teachers have not demanded they
overcome adversity or we’ve not leveled consequences to their behavior, kids often become
brittle young adults, unable to cope with the demands of life. You can imagine a student like
this has trouble with transitions and the hardship of adapting to new situations. Let me
illustrate this drift:
— In 2006, 60% of students moved back home after finishing college. In 2010, that number
had risen to 80%. It’s more than a bad economy. They’re not career-ready.
– Condoleezza Rice and Joel Klein report three out of four teens aren’t even fit to serve in the
military due to obesity, failure to graduate high school or their criminal records.
– The MacArthur Foundation funded a research project that said for many kids, the transition
into adulthood doesn’t occur until 34 years of age.
I don’t believe this stall in students is because they’re unintelligent or bad kids. I believe we’ve
failed to prepare them to cope with demands. We somehow felt that self-esteem meant we
should affirm them consistently and prevent them from falling or failing. Sadly, this has had
the opposite effect. We have risked too little, we have rescued too quickly and we have raved
to easily about our kids—and now they find it hard to navigate transitions. Adaptability and
resilience are priceless possessions that predict success far more than good grades and high
SAT scores.
3. Developing high emotional intelligence.
You know this already. Forty years ago, educators frequently believed that the kid with the
highest IQ would do the best, and later become the most successful. Now, it appears it’s
more about EQ than IQ. If a student has high self-awareness, self-management, social
awareness and relationship management, they’re more likely to graduate, excel and become
a leader. It’s more about life skills and soft skills than memorizing lectures and taking exams.
The concept of emotional intelligence has proven to be so influential, that it’s now inculcated
the planning of educators. For example, policy makers in one state are using school programs
to cultivate emotional intelligence and social intelligence in order to prevent crime, increase
mental health, deepen student engagement and lower unemployment. In Georgia and
Nebraska, we’ve begun working with the department of education to create curriculum that
will spark conversations about these soft skills to not only increase graduation rates but make
kids employable when they do graduate.
Quite frankly, the reason emotional intelligence has become such a large factor in student
success is that kids today struggle more with mental health issues than they did forty years
ago. This, in turn, leads to poor performance and high dropout rates. Research in education
and psychology now shows the benefits of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs for
children as young as preschoolers. Public awareness is catching up to the research. A New
York Times editorial reviewed key research findings, saying, “…social and emotional learning
programs significantly improve students’ academic performance.” Additional studies also
show emotional intelligence is strongly linked to staying in school, avoiding risk behaviors,
and improving health, happiness, and life success.
4. Targeting a clear outcome.
This one should be obvious. Whenever a student enters school (high school or college) with a
clear goal, they are more likely to stay engaged and finish well. I believe it’s the primary
difference between school and sports…or for that matter: work and sports. We love sports in
America because it’s often the one place where the goal is clear. Every football field has an
end zone; every basketball court has a rim and backboard. We know what the score is and it
energizes us. For many, both school and work represent places where we endure the
drudgery and eventually disengage.
A university study conducted on “peace of mind” sought to find the greatest factors that
contributed to people’s stability. The top five they discovered were:
Refusing to live in the past.
The absence of suspicion, resentment and regret.
Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change.
Refusing to indulge in self-pity.
Forcing yourself to get involved with a major goal in your current world.
When author Dan Pink researched what motivates both students and adults at the highest
level, he concluded it could be summarized in three elements:
1. Autonomy – The student worked at their pace and created their future.
2. Mastery – The student believed they were growing and improving.
3. Purpose – The student worked on a goal they felt was meaningful.
5. Making good decisions.
This one is almost predictable. The students who succeed make right decisions in and out of
class. These are decisions that determine their moral compass, their discretionary time, their
study habits, their predisposition to cheat, their outside work and how they deal with setbacks
and stress. All of these can be pivotal in determining whether a kid succeeds or surrenders.
Like us, students must keep a clear objective in mind. May I illustrate?