We keep students informed of their grades on a daily basis. Because we utilize a blended format of some in-class and some digital assignments, the students and instructors are continually discussing missing work, grades and attendance. If students are still not getting things done or grades are falling,they are then set up for a meeting with the director of education.
If we have concerns about a student's attendance, academic performance, or behavior, we may accompany them to the dean's office for an informal three-way conversation. Our dean is accessible and very student friendly, but knows just what to say to motivate the student. Instructors are required to call a student who is absent and has not contacted the school.
Twice a quarter we officially updated students by bringing reports into their classroom showing their grades and attendance. We talk to anyone individually that isn't making satisfactory progress to find strategies to overcome obstacles they may have.
At our school students having problems accademically are personally accessed by one of the lead instructors. At that time, an action plan is agreed upon, implemented and followed up with until the results are satisfactory for the studen.
In my institution, most students are immigrants who are not fluent in English. The institution taught the language in class, but many do not have someone to practice them. Some student got frustrated and canceled the classes. so the see the institution implement the English cafes to give the student and ambient to practice the laungue whit others student whith the guide of a professor. Is not a class, is time to discuss a daily topic.
Every 5 weeks we hand out progress reports to the students, both attendance and academic reports. With each report we run we look over every student to make sure they are meeting the requirments for graduation. We also use it as a tool to help us see how the student is doing to help give us any red flags or concern about the student. Anytime a student doesn't meet requirments they are put on Probation or Monitoring for the next 10 weeks and we do this so they are aware of their standings. They also meet with someone in eduation every week to set up and track a plan to get them off of probation or monitoring.
Every week assignments are due. The instructor then has 3 days to grade the assignments and provide feedback. If a student did not submit an assignment they get a phone call, text message and e-mail inquiring abut the students situation.
If a student does poorly on any of the weekly assignments we ask that they schedule a time for tutoring to review the content for that assignment and help them understand the next one. Student services also contacts a student If their grade is below expectations to inquire about the situation.
Nicely done, Stacey. I hope these efforts are paying off and students are reaching their goals. Any tips for others who may want to emulate your system?
At our school, we find that students who have to retake a course or complete remedial work are most likely to begin to experience academic erosion. When this happens, we try to connect them with good academic support (tutors) as well as try to introduce them to other students who may have similar interests.
Students who experience academic stagnation are connected to our career services department to help reinvigorate the goals they've expressed in the past. Also, we try to connect them with graduates who have worked in a similar area of interest as the current student. These networking opportunities have been very helpful in keeping students motivated.
This is a good strategy, we do something similar at our campus the rate of progress is important to the students success in the program. we make regular contact points mandatory to "touch bases" with the at-risk students. this seems to help with retention at our school.
To make sure that students understand what happens if they should get to a point of 'academic erosion or stagantion' the school schedules the registrar to speak to the beginnig classes about what theyr academic progress means and what happens if they fall by the wayside. In the next class we inform students through email and one on one with instructors about what is happening and what they need to do to gettheir grades up. We are vigilant about making sure that students do not fall through the cracks.
As soon as an instructor sees a student having trouble we pull them aside and have them fill out a form ackowledging that an issue has come up. We try to probe as to the reasons why the academic issues have surfaced and try to come up with creative solutions.
We have witnessed some successful sing these methods. Not manystudents appear to be repeaters
Earl, has this proven to be a successful procedure? Do you seem many repeat students from one quarter to the next?
Do you do assessments beyond the weekly evaluations, Julius? Are the evaluations based on lab work or written assessments?
Students are provided midterm evaluations at the mid point of each quarter. They are given their current average. Students who have a C average or less are provided counseling and recommendations to improve their performance.
It is provided by a secure web site, and no there are no concerns about privacy. The student and the instructor are the only ones who have access to the specificed course. The students have their passwords just as in regular e-mail.
As a clinical instructor we find that weekly evaluations are the best options for tracking progress and giving the student almost immediate feedback to there productivity.It breaks down what is expected while at their perspective sites, progessionally how they are improving, what needs to be worked on and a number of grade value which resignates the most.This is graded on a 100% value. So, weekly they will be able to attain this 100% and clear guidelines showing the path to success only makes the student strive harder to impress you and hopefully land themselves a job afterward.
K.C., is this a product that your school developed or one that is provided by a third party? Are there any concerns about privacy?
At one of out instructors in-service, we were given an additional tool for us to use on the internet called Engrade (www.engrade.com) and I love it.
The site is user friendly, and after I fill in my class rooster, and outline my rubric, I e-mail my students the site address, and use the code they give me to allow the student to log-in. This way, they take responsibility for viewing their quizzes, tests, class participation, homework etc. They can also track their attendance as well as their absences.
