Are your students ready for anatomy and physiology? Developing tools to identify students at risk for failure

High failure rates in introductory college science courses, including anatomy and physiology, are common at institutions across the country, and determining the specific factors that contribute to this problem is challenging. To identify students at risk for failure in introductory physiology courses at our open-enrollment institution, an online pilot survey was administered to 200 biology students. The survey results revealed several predictive factors related to academic preparation and prompted a comprehensive analysis of college records of >2,000 biology students over a 5-yr period. Using these historical data, a model that was 91% successful in predicting student success in these courses was developed. The results of the present study support the use of surveys and similar models to identify at-risk students and to provide guidance in the development of evidence-based advising programs and pedagogies. This comprehensive approach may be a tangible step in improving student success for students from a wide variety of backgrounds in anatomy and physiology courses.