I went to the English office at Local U yesterday to find a notice in my mail box. According to the flier:
“Experience has shown that progress reports, sent to both students and their advisors, have proven to be very important in determining students’ chances of success in their academic programs.”
While I understand the concept, I have a long and cantankerous history with progress reports from TCC. They are tedious and time-consuming, and I have never – let me double-check that…. yep, never – had a student or advisor follow up on any of the progress reports I’ve done at TCC. Sure, I’ve had kids come to complain about the report I gave them, but no one’s ever used it as a signpost for improvement.
Understandably, then, my spirits sank a bit when I discovered that LU wants me to post progress reports, too. LU has a very different system for these reports, though, and it’s one I can totally get behind. Instead of having to write out four-part forms for each student (requiring a lot of time, a ball-point pen, and the downward force of a Sumo wrestler), I can post grades and comments online. I just log on to the BlackBoard account for the class, choose “mid-term grades” from the drop-down menu, enter the grades and any comments I wish the student and advisor to know, and click “submit.”
Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow afternoon?
I sent out progress reports recently. The result? Complaints from parents, but little progress toward improvement on the part of certain certain students.