By Sarah Wang | Staff Writer
Every sixth or seventh week of the spring and fall semester, many students receive an email that begins with “Your professor is concerned about your academic progress.”
These emails, better known as academic progress reports, are sent due to reasons like a missing exam grade, low attendance or substandard academic performance.
Academic progress reports are administered by the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE) in the Paul L. Foster Success Center, which is devoted to help students to be academically successful by offering resources such as tutoring, supplemental instruction, learning lab and mentors to those who are struggling in class.
According to Ron English, strategic intervention program manager, CASE sends out an invitation during both the sixth and the seventh weeks of the fall and spring semesters to all faculty who teach undergraduate courses, asking professors to identify any students that are showing subpar academic performance.
“It doesn’t mean that the student is failing the class,” English said. “I like to tell professors: please identify the students that you think would benefit from accessing academic resources.”
The process of the academic progress reports begins with CASE reaching out to professors, then emailing students that are at risk of failure, then the CASE staff helps students get connected to the right resources on campus.
English said the academic progress reports used to be called deficiency reports, and were sent out on the eighth week of the semester to alert students they need to make changes.
“We moved that up to the sixth and seventh week because we feel like the earlier students know that there’s a problem or an issue, the more time they have to make corrections to their academic performance,” English said.
CASE has seen value in alerting students they are at risk of failing a class after noticing a range of 62% to 68% increase in their grades.
“Sometimes people have to leave for family reasons or whatever, but we think if they’re performing well, they’ll stay at Baylor and graduate,” English said. “We want students to come in as freshmen and graduate with a Baylor degree.”
The greatest benefit of academic progress reports, according to English, is that it stops students from making excuses in their mind to comfort themselves for their substandard performances.
“Know that somebody not only sees them, but cares about their academic progress is the best benefit of academic progress reports,” English said.
English also said he recognizes the misconception among students who believe that receiving academic progress reports shows inadequacy rather than care, and he understands why students would form those ideas.
“It is passing a negative message, but what I really want students to understand about it is instead of feeling a sense of shame, inadequacy or stressing out, academic progress reports tell students that not only do you need to make a change, but you’ve got time to make it,” English said.
Rachel Webster, lecturer in the English department, said academic progress reports are part of an overall system Baylor has in place to support students.
“I appreciate this multilayered approach, because I believe that students often face challenges without realizing the vast resources available to them,” Webster said. “Whenever a student is facing academic, emotional, physical or even financial difficulty, it can be incredibly isolating.”
Webster also said she hopes that through this message, students learn it is OK to ask for support and that there is someone who cares and wants to help.
“We all succeed by working together, which is one of the great benefits of being part of a caring community,” Webster said.
Dr. Coretta Pittman, associate professor in the English department, said she usually chooses to do her own one-on-one meetings or email students who are absent or not focused in class. She, however, also said it is good for the university to know what’s going on so they can reach out and provide resources by the academic progress reports.
“Maybe students feel uncomfortable when they get one, but that is not the purpose at all,” Pittman said. “The purpose is to encourage that students to go and seek the help they need to maybe do time management a little better or get some supplemental instruction.”
English said sometimes students are reluctant to ask for help and want to make efforts on their own, but he still suggests they should get as much assistance from the available resources as possible in order to do well in their courses.
“If you get a progress report, please make changes and access resources,” English said. “The real smart move is to utilize resources as much as possible to get the best grades you possibly can.”
