UW Bothell joins national network to strengthen student success through data-informed action

The University of Washington Bothell is one of just twelve institutions selected to join the launch cohort of the Postsecondary Data for Action Network (PDAN), a new national initiative co-led by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). This selection places UW Bothell among a small group of colleges and universities collectively committed to using data in smarter, more student-centered ways.

Why this matters—and why now

Colleges nationwide are facing heightened pressure not only to enroll students but to help them persist, complete credentials, and enter meaningful careers. PDAN brings together cross-functional teams—researchers, faculty, advisers, administrators, and data professionals—to tackle that challenge through a year-long learning community.

For UW Bothell, joining PDAN reflects a clear commitment: to use data not simply as a record of what happened, but as a tool to understand root causes, remove barriers, and design interventions that help more students graduate.

This work is especially urgent around a critical but often overlooked moment: the transition from the second to the third year. Many students who successfully navigate their first year still lose momentum later on—often due to major changes, financial strain, workload pressures, unclear pathways, or misaligned advising. A student who changes majors late may lose credits; another who balances full-time work may fall behind on key milestones. These friction points can derail progress toward a degree.

By focusing intentionally on this transition, UW Bothell aims to illuminate what gets in students’ way—and build structures that help them continue forward.

How the network works

Over the coming year, UW Bothell will collaborate with peer institutions across the country—four-year universities, community colleges, and minority-serving institutions—to:

  • Share insights and promising practices
  • Troubleshoot common challenges
  • Test and refine data-driven strategies
  • Build long-term institutional capacity for evidence-based decision-making

IHEP and AIR will provide guidance on connecting analytics to real-world policy and practice, helping partner institutions turn numbers into meaningful action.

For UW Bothell, this means more than analyzing datasets. It means translating insights into concrete policies and student supports, including:

  • Refining advising models to catch momentum loss earlier
  • Identifying students at risk of falling off track based on credit milestones or course patterns
  • Aligning supports during the second-to-third-year transition
  • Developing clear, shared metrics to monitor progress

Together with IHEP and AIR, UW Bothell will establish key performance indicators to close the second-to-third-year retention gap and improve completion outcomes.

What this work may lead to

As UW Bothell digs into the first year of PDAN, several early outcomes are anticipated:

  • New early-warning dashboards that highlight risk factors—such as stalled credit accumulation, repeated courses, or late major changes.
  • Evidence-based interventions tailored specifically to second- and third-year students, including redesigned advising touchpoints, peer mentoring, or short academic “bridge” supports.
  • Policy and curricular improvements, such as clearer degree maps, better major-change guidance, credit-loss prevention strategies, and more responsive financial aid adjustments.
  • Cross-campus learning, as UW Bothell collaborates with peer institutions to share successes, identify pitfalls, and scale strategies that work.

These efforts directly support UW Bothell’s mission to create accessible, student-centered pathways that lead to timely, successful degree completion.

A call to the UW Bothell community

This initiative isn’t limited to data analysts or administrators—it invites the entire campus community to participate.

Students, faculty, staff, and partners are encouraged to engage with questions such as:

  • What makes the second-to-third-year transition uniquely challenging?
  • Where do we see students stalling, losing credits, or changing direction?
  • Which supports, policies, or practices could help them sustain momentum?

By pairing these questions with transparent data, UW Bothell is empowering its community to shape solutions collaboratively.

Looking ahead

Over the next year, UW Bothell will provide updates on how PDAN is informing new approaches to advising, pathway design, policy alignment, and student support. The work is intentional, evidence-driven, and deeply collaborative—and it places UW Bothell in a national cohort of institutions tackling one of higher education’s most challenging transition points.

We are honored to join PDAN’s inaugural group and look forward to advancing student-centered strategies that help every UW Bothell student keep moving, keep growing, and keep going—toward a degree and a future they envision.