student performance v. administration expectations
How do we reconcile expectations of our administration, such as every student will pass the course, with classes comprised of low performing students? I feel stressed with the large gap between successful, high-performing students, and those who are unable to pass the exams.
Hi Jean,
Very common problem for many colleges and their faculty. At times there is a disconnect between getting students enrolled and getting them through classes. Not knowing the full situation with your college I would suggest the following things that you might want to do.
Document the ability gaps between your students. Most schools use an adult literacy assessment to help with placement. The most common ones are the TABE and Wonderlic. As a faculty member I would want to see how the students do on the assessment.
Do a academic proficiency assessment on your materials. Know what grade level they are written at. There are many different readiability assessments available. This way you will know that your materials are written at the 10th grade (high school) and the majority of your students are coming in reading at the 5th grade. The question then becomes what kind of supports will your college give you to help your students get through the material. There are many things that you can do without taking much time or effort to develop them. Things like guided notes, graphic organizers, etc. You cannot remediate nor should you be expected to. You can help with knowledge acquistion with different strategies. Remediation has to be done in a setting other than your course.
If you can explain all of this to your administration then you all can work out a plan for how you are going to instruct your class and help your students to the maximum extent possible.
Gary
That's a great question Jean – and I'm glad you mentioned this because it is a very common source of stress for educators. As educators, it pains us to lower the bar for our poor performing students. We know that by doing so, we are only doing them a disservice. At the same time, we experience so much pressure from administrators when it comes to pass / fail ratios and graduation rates. My motto has always been, “when you just can't lower the bar, raise the level of support.†This means that, in some cases, low performing students can improve their performance with access to a little more support. Examples of more support might include…
•Study groups with their higher performing peers.
•A suggested list of supplementary class materials.
•Referrals to course tutors.
•Reminders about your office hours and the types of out of class guidance that you can provide.
By creating opportunities for your students to access support, you can facilitate increased passing rates without lowering the bar. You can keep your standards high but also while making your administration happy.
Jean,
I agree with you. I have some students that find it very difficult to pass the course that I am teaching now. The course I taught last quarter is different this quarter in that they changed textbooks. I am teaching a Medical Terminology course and last quarter the textbook we used came with videotapes that accompanied the textbook and it didn't matter what grade level reading the students were at because they could learn from the videotape repeating the words with audionyms and they were able to remember and put it together with the written words and pass their exams. However, with the new curriculum more a/p is expected and there are no more video tapes. They no longer have the reinforcement of hearing, saying, and writing that they had with the previous textbook. The textbook chosen by the school is new to me and I am also new to teaching. I have 2 students that I believe I am going to have to refer to someone better than I, that will have to tutor them in this particular class, so these two will be able to stay in school and not drop out.
I find that this is very stressful for me in that I am finding it difficult to teach this course and will need to explore other methods of getting the material across to my students.
Some companies have manuals, eTraining, etc. on their web sites. Check out the pharmaceutical companies--some have pronunciation manuals. these can been done in a classroom situation or at home. Our publisher has a web site for students to use to reinforce terms and concepts for each chapter. The information is presented in flashcard form, practice test form, games form, crossword puzzle form, and more. Check with your publisher and author, they may have something to help. One of my classes formed their own study group. The group had 10 out of 20 classmates. They encouraged, tutored each other, and they would call each other if they were running late or absent. They included some of the slower students in their group. I also do tutoring after school for those who desire and need extra help. My present employer reminds me frequently that many students are lacking a skill in order to accomplish their goal of passing. The task is finding out what vital skill is missing and can I do anything to help the student acquire that skill. In some cases, the student's expectations of me are high and I try to met those expectations and cannot. I get frustrated at the situation.
I have several students who are very capable of passing a certain required class but quite frankly the feeling I get from these students is that they just don't care if they pass or not. It's very frustrating to have them sit in class and go through the "motions" when there are other students who do care about passing and making sure they understand the subject. Any suggestions? I am very aggravated by this.
Hi Victoria,
I am sure you are frustrated by these students. I would talk with them individually and try to see where they are coming from. To find out if your perception of them not caring is true. Sometimes by giving them some individual attention you can get them reengaged in the learning process. After you have done all that you can do in these areas I would focus my attention on the students that want to succeed and let the others go their ways. If they disrupt the class I remove them, always working through the front office before I take such measures. This is hard because we want every student to be successful but some simply do not want success for themselves or they are not willing to work for it.
Gary
I work with students who really want to learn, but are not high performers. Many of my student would meet with study groups, and email me if they did not understand a topic in class. Reviews for exams are made into a game, and students are given the opportunity submit extra credit material. Oral presentations also help to evaluate if students understand the material.
Raising the level of individual support is vital when there are many levels of ability in one classroom. "Lowering the bar" helps no one.
I have divided such classes into groups or teams. One group will work on research in the library; one group will work on an assignment in another room, or lounge; I will work directly with the third group. These groups rotate. This allows me to establish a more solid connection with all my students, especially in larger classes.
I also set up individual conferences with the students before deciding whether or not to recommed one-on-tutoring, group tutoring or study groups. Works most of the time; there will always be times when we can't be all things to all students.
While we should try to give every student the opportunity to pass, I think it is important to recognize that not every student may pass your course. I think personally it is more stressful passing those who do not deserve to pass (thus having no personal integrity and/or standards), as opposed to giving students what they rightfully earned (good or bad).
Indeed. As instructors, we don't give students grades. We just report on the grades that students have earned.
I think an additional complexity to this issue is when students do not have the minimal knowledge base to even grasp the concepts of the course.
I teach business related classes and many have no business background etc. I think a help also is for admin to do a reassessment of the required prereqs for the courses.
As far as my part in this , It also helps to provide some basic understanding type research that if posted to the class help them get up to speed with things not understood but necessary for success.
This would help to reduce some of the performance gap stress, however some things like grammar, how to write etc. given the fast pace nature of my environment I just dont have opportunity to help them with but I do point them in the direction of support. Which btw can also help developing an understanding of where you can direct the students for help in the area they are weak.
Victoria,
I share your frustration. My class is part of the general education curriculum and most of the students in these classes do not feel the need to "apply themselves" or to put forth minimal effort to pass the course or learn. As we know, oral communication, which includes the ability to do critical thinking and analysis are crucial, but many of the students lack these skills and seem unwilling to work with the instructors to begin the learning process. Unfortunately, the administration wants increased enrollment, so students, who lack appropriate skills and motivation are in our classrooms, and we are expected to make sure we do everything to keep the students in school to keep up the enrollment. I will do whatever I can to help a student begin the learning process, but I am frustrated by the lack of cooperation I receive from many students. This is not only my observation, but I have spoken with other instructors, who share my experiences and frustration.
This is a great topic, and I'm sure one all of us can relate with. This is an area that definitely can create stress. On one hand, we want to create students who are in a position to be successful in the workplace. We want them to have the knowledge and the skills that will set them apart from other applicants. However, we also need to maintain specific attendance levels, maintain specific student evaluation scores, and in turn, keep all of the students happy. Those things don't go hand-in-hand. It becomes a balancing act. I am only a year and a half into my teaching experience, and every quarter I wonder if it's going to get easier. Will I ever become more confident in myself and in my experience that I won't be concerned about the student evaluations? Should I get that confident? I don't know. I guess time will tell.
I remind myself that I am doing the best I can to supply each every student the opportunity to pass the course and then I put the responsibility of successfully using the tools I gave them back on the individual student. Taking individual gains and losses of others personally will burn you out quickly.
