When I was teaching our rates tended to be similar Commuting first generation older students I did some detailed analysis a couple of years ago
Of the students who did not succeed the problem was seldom lack of ability. Early exams and assignments had grades similar to successful students. Very few really FAILED The issues were personal and failure to complete. Changing policies to allow recovery from missed assignments helped a lot. So did small assignments and quizzes with not all needed for full credit Kept them coming back after a bad week or two Suzi Shapiro Emerita - IU East Sent from my iPhone On Feb 5, 2016, at 1:09 PM, Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi all, In my Introduction to Psychology course, during the Fall and Spring semesters, I have a "successful completion rate" (i.e., the percentage of students enrolled on the first day of class who earn a C or better for their final grade) of about 55% over the last three years. When I used to teach in the summers, my successful completion rate was around 85-90%; and I also get about 85-90% successful completion in honors' sections of the course. A couple of colleagues who teach about the same number of sections as I do have successful completion rates of about 75% and 85%. It's possible that they are much better at teaching than I am. On the other hand, it's also possible that the rigor of our courses differ. For example, the total number of points earned on my tests correlate about 0.62 with scores on a psychology reading-comprehension test that I developed. Reading is extremely important in my class. Why am I telling you this? First,the "successful completion rate" metric is becoming imortant for evaluating teachers and programs (take a look around the U.S. Dep of Education Website, e.g., here: http://www.ed.gov/accreditation?src=rn ). And the tone of some publications and announcements for teaching workshops/programs either imply or state outright that faculty are the primary cause of low successful completion rates. Second, I was hoping that you would share with me (probably privately, off-list) your experiences with this metric and also what your successful completion rates for intro psych are. I'm very curious about variations across different types of institutions. Best, Jeff -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social/Behavioral Sciences Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Fax: (480) 423-6298 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJeffryRicker/timeline/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffry-ricker/3b/511/438 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13048.2053ea869f5c78d1a98b73ae63133ea1&n=T&l=tips&o=48071 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-48071-13048.2053ea869f5c78d1a98b73ae63133...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-48071-13048.2053ea869f5c78d1a98b73ae63133...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48077 or send a blank email to leave-48077-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
