September 4, 2020
Progress reports replacing midterm grades
Submitted by Jeannie Brown Leonard
Dear Colleagues,
K-State faculty are critical partners in supporting student success. Last semester, many of you shared your course-based concerns about undergraduate, fourth- and fifth-year Architecture, Planning & Design, and concurrent degree students via a progress report in SSC-Navigate. Collectively, you raised 4,871 alerts affecting 2,304 distinct students. Academic advisors and the Office of Student Life responded to those alerts. They helped reconnect students to you and your class. Many received academic support and improved their confidence in succeeding. Although some of the students you thought might fail — those marked "at risk" — earned grades of F or W, others did well! Here are a few highlights from last spring's outreach:
- Faculty successfully identified students who needed support.
- 67% of the students for which faculty issued alerts completed their coursework with grades of A, B, C, CR, I, or P.
- Of the 614 students who received alert reason 1 (no class engagement; no response to faculty), 486 (79%) did not withdraw, three (<0.5%) withdrew from all classes, and 125 (20%) withdrew from some classes.
Fall 2020 progress reports replace midterm grades
In collaboration with the colleges, the university will launch another campuswide progress report campaign this fall from Sept. 18-28. This initiative replaces the traditional midterm grade submission for freshmen.
Beginning Sept. 18, faculty teaching undergraduate students, Architecture, Planning & Design students in their fifth year, and students concurrently enrolled in a bachelor's and master's degree program will receive an email with a direct link to the progress report section of SSC-Navigate — no separate login required. You or your GTA need to identify only students who are not performing well and who might benefit from outreach. Do not take the progress report language asking if the student is "at risk for failing my class" too literally. It is too early in the semester to know for sure, but answer "YES" to indicate the student is struggling. Choose an alert reason and, if appropriate, share observable details in the comments box.
How will you know which students should be flagged as "at risk"? Use Canvas analytics or your direct experience to determine which students, if any, are not engaging with discussion boards, are struggling with technology, have health problems, are missing assignments, not performing well on assignments, have other life complications, or would benefit from touching base with you during office hours. The alert reason choices appear below. More details will follow regarding the intervention response for each alert.
Alert
1-No class engagement
2-Unreliable technology tools/internet access
3-Health problems
4-Missing assignments
5-Poor performance on exams or papers
6-Non-academic issues affecting performance
7-Recommend meeting with instructor during office hours
Your participation in these progress reports matters to student success. Please participate. Questions should be directed to your college dean's office or to me at brownleonard@k-state.edu.
Sincerely,
Jeannie Brown Leonard
Vice provost for student success