2008 Woodie Awards
Progress reports provide routine checkup on students
Clarisa Barnes
Issue date: 10/19/06 Section: News
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By Clarisa Barnes
Assistant News Editor
Students from four "target" areas can expect to be contacted by advisors if their progress reports come back negative.
The athletics department, student support services, advising and retention department, and the Student Success Center do routine checkups on their students to make sure they are meeting academic standards, David J. Pittenger, acting associate provost of academic administration, said.
With midterms underway, each of these departments will be contacting students who are not achieving as well as they should based on student progress surveys completed by instructors.
"We get from the records office a list of students who meet our requirements, athletes or students on probation, and then the forms are sent out to faculty with a cover letter asking them to fill it out and return, but it's voluntary," Pittenger said. "The faculty is under no direct obligation, but the vast majority [complete forms] and return them.
"This is the first semester we've done using the new student progress survey … but progress reports have been used at UTC for a very long time," he added.
Pittenger said that each of these four departments used to send out their own reports, but they recently joined efforts in hopes to be more effective.
"In this version, we ask some more specific questions about how the student is progressing in class. There were questions that advisors felt were important for them to know [that weren't being asked].
"For example, we've always asked about absences but it was important for the advisors to know whether the absences were excused or unexcused, whether or not the student had missed an exam, whether they were participating in class.
"Another thing we're doing with the form that we haven't done before giving faculty the option to write comments about the student's performance. Those comments are confidential but are meant to help the advisor better understand how the student is faring in the course," Pittenger said.
Assistant News Editor
Students from four "target" areas can expect to be contacted by advisors if their progress reports come back negative.
The athletics department, student support services, advising and retention department, and the Student Success Center do routine checkups on their students to make sure they are meeting academic standards, David J. Pittenger, acting associate provost of academic administration, said.
With midterms underway, each of these departments will be contacting students who are not achieving as well as they should based on student progress surveys completed by instructors.
"We get from the records office a list of students who meet our requirements, athletes or students on probation, and then the forms are sent out to faculty with a cover letter asking them to fill it out and return, but it's voluntary," Pittenger said. "The faculty is under no direct obligation, but the vast majority [complete forms] and return them.
"This is the first semester we've done using the new student progress survey … but progress reports have been used at UTC for a very long time," he added.
Pittenger said that each of these four departments used to send out their own reports, but they recently joined efforts in hopes to be more effective.
"In this version, we ask some more specific questions about how the student is progressing in class. There were questions that advisors felt were important for them to know [that weren't being asked].
"For example, we've always asked about absences but it was important for the advisors to know whether the absences were excused or unexcused, whether or not the student had missed an exam, whether they were participating in class.
"Another thing we're doing with the form that we haven't done before giving faculty the option to write comments about the student's performance. Those comments are confidential but are meant to help the advisor better understand how the student is faring in the course," Pittenger said.
