School Commitment
Describe a practice at your institution that demonstrates School Commitment.
We created a form that is called "Early Alert" that we use in this way: As soon as an instructor perceives that a student is starting to do poorly in class or feels he is losing motivation, the instructor fills out this form with the student and explain that because he is important for us and his performance is part of what he is feeling, we want to help him sending him to a couple of tutoring sessions that could help him to boost his knowledge and at the end his motivation for the class. We have very good results and great response from the students. This practice has helped us a lot with retention.
A very simple way to address retention and online courses is my in the very first week identifying those tunes that had not submitted any work. Obviously, there is a issue which is preventing them from addressing their original goal.
We have incorporated a provisional method. The students attendance is monitored and red flag if one day is missed within the first 30 days. We meet with the students to make sure there are no issues that has entertained their thoughts of giving up or quitting.
We have a Retention Committee with both faculty & staff to address student issues and current trends. Each year a retention plan is created to address these issues and trends with action steps or goals for improvement. This is not only our committment to the institution but to our student body.
It would be difficult to describe just "one" practice - there's a multitude of approaches. We have a "success adviser" who is known to all students from day 1 orientation and who teaches classes as well. Built-in safety valves regarding number of absences and assignments completed are in place. Early-alert issues are identified by faculty within the first 30 days of classes. We don't depend on just one of these - they're all there to be used by faculty and administration.
Our school has a policy of doing interim progress reports with all students individually. Regardless of whether the student is in good standing or not, they will meet one on one with Dir of Ed or Student Services to review progress, and be given the opportunity to verbal critique the school. In addition, online surveys are given to all students at Midterm and Final exam points to determine any short falls the institution might be suffering from. These survey results are discussed in weekly staff meetings and issues of commitment to student needs are immediately addressed.
Well one of the many is again communication. Ask questions. Let your student know that your not givivng up on them. Some of our students really do not have support on theoutside. So just showing that you truly have their best interest at heart is a great practice.
We have the students sign a Contract for Success;
in this contract, students are strongly encouraged to communicate their needs as soon as they become apparent with their instructors. This cna help foster school commitment and deter Academic Erosion and Academic Stagnation.
All new students meet with their Program Director within the first 30 days that they are a student. This allows the student to meet with their Program Director and to start developing a rapport with them. The program directors also meet with students throughout their program for advising sessions. I see my students frequently and encourage them to call me or email me at anytime. I would rather they call my cell phone or home phone number then to disappear.
Although defined practices can be effective, developing a culture of open communication between faculty, staff, and students can help quite a lot. At my institution, when issues that could impact retention or student stress arise, I can almost immediately meet with staff and administration that can help provide support and solutions to the student retention issue.
We have several practices that are interrelated to the approach that we take to demonstrate, and celebrate success, and our commitment to them.
1. We celebrate a student of the month every month in our newsletter; that student is nominated by other students and is recognized for their achievements.
2. We have a " Success Board " in each of our campuses; we post a picture of all of the students that have taken and passed any exam associated with their training, as well as putting up the student of the month's picture.
3. We have monthly feedback sessions with our students to discuss any issues or concerns that they feel we need to be aware of. We then summarize the notes of those sessions and publish them in our newsletter with a committed plan of action to address the items taht we have agreed to focus on.
First, the commitment must begin at the top and it must be reinforced among all employees from the janitor to the program directors and others.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is that we have good leadership, and the trickle-down effect results in influencing everyone positively.
The handful that resist...those who still think of students as the enemy, are decreasing and the number of quality employees are increasing.
How we are perceived by our leadership, 'is' impacting our paradigm and bringing out the best in everyone.
Hello Tom: The position of "success adviser" sounds interesting. Exactly what does the person do? My college has a "Student Advisor" and many of the students know her. She assists with guiding the students toward a course-tutor, but she also helps with transportation (student car-pooling), housing (provides assistance with affordable housing), and simply listens to the students' concerns. She will make periodic phone calls to the students just to find out how they are doing.
Best practices... open door policies,tutoring, comittment from staff.
we make sure all objectives of every course is being met....
One practice that my institution has is a Commitment to Employers. It says something along the line of if any graduate while employed fails to have the desired level of knowledge expected at entry level, we will retrain the student at no cost to the student or employer.
That says a lot and it is one of the reasons I chose to work with them.
The saying it takes a village comes to mind. Faculty have been discussing their commitment and techniques inservice after inservice and now with the RT modules. Life long learning and tools to handle situations as they evolve is on going.
Instructors need to call students that miss class at my school. That works most of the time.
My school works extremely hard at the recruitment and overall introductory phase of student addition. Each student has an assigned faculty advisor from his area of study to use during his degree completion - even though the teacher may not actually have the student for a class. Each instructor is required to meet with the student twice per quaarter to discuss their academic progress for the particular class. The effort of my school is to keep the student engaged in the process of their education.
