September 14, 2012
Academic progress reports on all freshmen may be entered into iSIS Monday, Sept. 17
TO: Deans, department heads, all teaching faculty and graduate teaching assistants
FM: Michael L.Lynch, associate vice president for student life
RE: Academic progress reports for freshmen
A major part of our efforts to improve freshman retention at Kansas State University is the collection of academic progress reports on all freshmen. These reports give students an early indication as to their performance in your class. In addition, they let the student's academic adviser and academic support services know which students are doing unsatisfactory work so they can contact the student to discuss steps they may take to improve their performance.
Submission of the progress reports will be electronic through the iSIS system – no paper rosters will be provided. Beginning on Monday, Sept. 17, faculty can check to see which of their fall 2012 classes have freshmen enrolled by going to the iSIS faculty center, under "My Teaching Schedule." Those courses with freshmen enrolled will have a mid-term grade roster icon posted. Click on this icon and the names and report form for the freshmen will appear. Whether or not you believe you have freshmen in any of your classes, please check. As noted, these rosters will be accessible until 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1.
For those classes in which freshmen are enrolled, you will be shown a midterm academic progress report form with the names of the freshmen listed. Only the freshmen will be listed. You will be asked to indicate whether the student is doing satisfactory, grades A–C, or unsatisfactory, grades D-F, work at this time.
For those doing unsatisfactory work, faculty are requested to indicate one or more reasons why you believe this is so, and at least one reason must be indicated. Please remember that you can also include such factors as class attendance, completion of homework in an accurate and timely fashion, classroom participation, out-of-class preparation, etc., in your assessment of satisfactory or unsatisfactory work. Once you have marked all of the students listed, click "Save" to store your responses to the progress report. Please be sure to complete the rosters for all classes indicated.
Each of the progress reports for an individual student will be compiled into a mid-term academic progress report. The student will be able to go online and view his or her report. Academic advisers and/or academic support staff will contact students with unsatisfactory progress reports to offer assistance.
If you have any questions concerning the mid-term progress reports or the iSIS procedure, please contact Michael Lynch at mlynch@k-state.edu or 785-532-7305.