Get Your Students Hired
We try to identify the students with problems early. We use several different methods.
Our school's registrar office contacts our students daily if they do not call in to report that they will not be in class. I as an instructor also contact my students personally via e-mail if I do not see them in class that day. I do it by e-mail initially, as I feel it is a non-threatening way to communicate with them. They will often respond to an e-mail before they will respond to a phone call.
At our school there is a student services office that monitors students for signs of academic erosion. They are good at identifying students that need help, and students who need to get to work and help themselves.
In either case, we, as instructors, are notified, and this helps us to know what to do, or how to approach these students. Often, we are asked to keep in touch with the student services office so that they can monitor the students behavior closely. Sometimes, it's best to let the student know that you are aware of their "situation," and that you are there to help in any way that you can, but also that they will be held accountable!
Great success story, Laura. Thank you for being so involved and accessible to your students. This is clearly a story that could have ended very differently without your involvement.
I personally was just involved with an intervention of a student who was having suicidal thoughts. She had approached me about a month ago, wanting to have a heart to heart about some personal issues she was going through. I was pleased that she felt so comfortable coming to me, however, I felt that it best that she speak with a professional, as they are trained to handle such matters. At this point, I made sure that the school knew what was going on with this student, and that we needed to check-in with her on a regular basis. She took my advice and sought the help of the professional, however her depression seem to get worse and she began to have thoughts of hurting herself. Some classmates of hers approached me that they were worried about her, where I then contacted the neccessary people at school that saw that she was placed in a safe environment. I am happy to say that she is back in school and doing very well.
We track student attendance daily and the Deans are notified which students are falling off the radar. Instructors call each missing student after class to show their concern for the student. The Program Deans also make a call to the student to let them know we want them to succeed in their classes. When a student starts missing classes it appears that some academic erosion stress is taking place. We try to address this immediately and help the student through their situation.
It is the most challenging at the beginning of a new term when faculty have not had a chance to get to know their students on a more personal level.
Once the term begins then faculty usually can pick up some signs when students are struggling, but not always.
To find out how students are doing, I like to use a CAT and just ask them how they are doing and if they are having any difficulty with the course. I collect these papers at the end of class and many times students will share if they are having problems.
What are the components of the academic performance monitoring system? Who operates the system and who monitors the monitoring?
We utilize an academic performance monitoring system that helps to identify students who are struggling with courses. These students are frequently the ones who give up and drop out.
As I mentioned on an earlier topic our system of faculty advisors is designed to head them off at the pass. By constantly making an effort to touch base with our students for no apparent reason, just to say hello, have a good break, are you joining the latest competition, we are building trust and facilitating a comfortable envirnment for them to feel comfortable in and know they always have someone they can go to.
We have a program in place where we have actual instructors that students have actually had in classes and or frequently see in hallways. The program is referred to as SSI's ( student services instructor )how it works is when a instructor of a class notices that a student's grades are falling or is having attendance issues,he will alert an SSI via e-mail titled " AT RISK" and the SSI will set up a meeting with the student one on one to see what the problem is and if he can help them.
Students need to meet with student services and they will find out the real reason why a student want to withdraw.
Usually all challenges beside severe family issues and/or finacial issues can be resolved without withdrawing.
I am a Student Success Manager - which means my role at school is to identify, monitor and manager retention. I have created a system that all instructors report to me on every student in their class that I have identified as "concerns". Each week I get a report and it tells me, who is doing their homework, what test scores the student got, attendance issue and any/all feedback on any concerns the teachers might have. I meet with the student in person or via phone and just check in with them. Let them know I am here to see them succeed and identify the academic issues. If it's a personal detraction outside of school, I talk it out and see what community resources I might help or offer advice on how to best handle it so they can refocus on school.
Our accelerated adult undergraduate program operates using a cohort model. The cohorts are typically less than 15 students, and they take all of their core courses together in a standard sequence. The small class size, the extended time together, the intimate nature of our campus (only about 300 students total in the grad & under grad programs combined), and the spiritual component of the entire curriculum, creates an environment for relationship building at both the peer and instructor levels. Students are typically invested in the lives of their colleagues; they tend to be supportive. Many times, the circumstances a student in the class is experiencing will be brought to faculty or advising attention through classmates. While we have to be cautious about appropriate boundaries in all interactions, it is generally easy to make use of the benefits of the cohort structure to draw a student into the student services department where our end of intervention can begin. In the past year, we were able to establish a relationship with a respected Christian counseling service in the area, When we come across students who seem to need more interventive counsel than we have available on campus, we are able to refer the student to this off-site center for as many as five free sessions, which the student might not have received otherwise.
One intervention practice we use is a early warning system called "Blinker". Faculty and staff have access to this system either by using an email or faculty can use the faculty portal to inform the Academics team about any student who may be at-risk. This helps faculty and staff share information with people who will reach out to the student to assist with any challenges. Once the faculty or staff send the email, a student service representative will inform them about what they will do regarding the information. Student Services may even request assistance from the faculty to help with the problem.
The premise behind this practice to get everyone involved in keeping students enrolled and that early warning can be benefiicial to our retention efforts.
There are those students that have already made up their mind and you maybe able to provide different solutions to their immediate problems but they will still withdraw. However, if a student has taken the time to come in they will meet with each of the departments that I had listed and the student, at this point, would let each department know that they will be withdrawing no matter what.
I am sure there are those students that a Program Director or even another department head would prefer not return but still we provide them the oppportunity to change their mind. We provide them a solution to their immediate issue and it is up to them to except the suggestion or withdraw anyway. In my opinion the student has an obligation to themselves too and no matter what you do for them they are determine to shot themselves in the foot.
In that particular situation from my view if one student looses we all lose.
the point being without stuedents ther would be no need for teachers / educators.
The best case scenario would be to find what was the main issue behind the students attitude / behavior then using the school resources/ assistance progams determine which one best fits the students needs.
Are you talking about "past history" for the individual or identifying a student as member of a cohort that historically has problems? Ex: someone who gets a full Pell may need help with transportation.