I'm curious, how many other people here have their Dean asking them to give documentation on how they have reached out to try to keep all students in their courses, even those that are unprepared, all in the name of student retention. Is this the direction higher ed is going?
Are you sure they are not asking about student retention in your major or school (which is the new "it" thing)? Asking teachers to help retain students in courses would be worrisome. Double-check.
ReplyDeleteI've heard both lately. We are doing a major redesign of our gen ed curriculum to keep more students enrolled in those classes and so that we pass more of them.
ReplyDeleteFor Gen Ed courses, the thinking might be different. There is an argument to be made that they should enrich students as opposed to other courses that act more as gate-keepers and quality controllers in the path to certain advanced studies or vocations. Still, grades HAVE to be earned.
DeleteThe problem with writing, though, as a gen ed requirement in this case is that you won't do very well in your upper level courses if you can't write an essay to save your ass. Just sayin'.
DeleteYou're absolutely right: some Gen Ed courses really have a deep fundamental impact on long-term success(e.g. English & Math). That's why many colleges have tried to increase retention in these courses without lowering the course standards: adding remedial/preparatory courses (sometimes several rungs of courses), and providing tutoring services at specialized learning centers.
DeleteMy dean hasn't asked for it, but my former chair did. She actually had a "save three students" campaign in our department for awhile, and every year when we'd come in for evaluations, she would have some strategy to make us talk about this. Sometimes it was actual roles with withdrawals recorded and questions about three specific students. Other times it was a class with a low retention rate and pointed questions about why this class was so low and what the faculty member could have done better to keep this from happening.
ReplyDeleteThank God she's not our chair anymore!
I could never understand how some Chairs find the time to micromanage like this. Whenever I serve as Chair, it feels like I'm using all my might just to run in place. Or maybe it's just the stress of holding back on punching some well-deserving twit's lights out...
DeleteAt the university where I worked as an Accursed Visiting Assistant Professor, where they treated us like serfs, retention was a priority, but their "Mr. Retention" was an ineffective wallflower, thank goodness. Still, I was yelled at a whole lot by my department chair for being too tough, because of student complaints.
ReplyDeleteMy present university is in a region with rapid population growth, so classes are packed. I have 100 students in the general-ed class, and 80 students in the class for majors. If any of them get in my face, I have the luxury of recommending that they take some other class, or take it from the (less selective and less expensive) college across town. It's wonderful.
Our college president let us know thaat there is talk in my state about tying funding to retention and success rates. If/when that happens, he said that while he would never ever ask us to lower standards, student success would become an intense need and we would all just have to quickly figure out ways to subanstially raise it.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that too. It's the one threat that can make a professor question whether his bland 50 minute lecture really is the best way to teach.
DeleteI may also be in the same or a similar state, as that has come up this year. I also work at an open admission school, so retention is pretty much our big issue. The school is trying to make it a school issue though, so this semester I can email at-risk students to a group of people who's job it is to reach out and try to help them.
DeleteHuh. The profs with classes of 100+ and heavy research responsibilities will quickly realize that the quickest and easiest way to comply will be to lower standards. The students will love it, the admin will love it, and the employers will not. Ironic, isn't it, how thoughtless concern about quick, easy ways to student success will lead to less student success in the real world, where they will really need it. Anytime any administrator has a magic bullet, I duck: good education isn't magic, but it takes effort, both for faculty and especially for students.
DeleteFrod I could not agree more. We have had the option to send at risk students to student services for years. I stopped doing that when I realized it was just an opening salvo for the student services people to harrass me about my standards. They think, for example, it is unreasonable to assign 30 pp per week in a lit class. Their idea of intervention is to call me and explain how busy the twiddle babies are. How can I expect to improve my success rates, they claim, when my expectations are so out of whack with what the average student at our college can actually do? When people like that start having control over me, I am quitting. But I fear that day is coming. I am definitely working on a Plan B.
DeleteThe really annoying thing about this to me is the request for more documentation from the professors. If you want to fairly evaluate how well we're doing our job, surely self-reporting is not the best way? First and most importantly: we have jobs to do. Let us get on with doing them. Secondly, if you need to do assessment of said work, surely that's the administration's job, not ours. Third, do you really want us self-reporting everything? I'm tempted to self-evaluate with "only occasionally leaps the tallest buildings; is faster than a regular-speed bullet".
ReplyDelete"Request for more documentation from the professors": that is indeed weird. My solution, after getting annoyed just like you, would be to self-report practical things you did that positively affected retention (if you have relevant emails saved, print and add them to the pile).
Delete1) Encouraging students to get help,
2) Encouraging students to meet the challenge and work harder, 3) Having a clear syllabus that details assignments, tests, and grading (attach syllabus),
4) Helping students during office hours, etc.
5) Be creative...
While the rest of the faculty ignored the request or responded minimally, you covered your butt. Yes, this whole request is pure administrative inefficiency and laziness: they should have a well-designed survey or should go the focus group/open forum route to gather that data.