so, this week i'm a substitute in the student center @ the jc i work @. the student center is a place that's sorta computer lab/math& english help. it's pretty cool that they have this, as i think it really offers help for student success.
anyway, i'm working in there this week. yesterday, i was reviewing the roster for one of my classes. on the roster i saw the name of a student i had previously had in a class. this student was on academic probation, and needed to pass my general ed class to stay in school. this student came nowhere close to passing. the student failed to even turn in most assignments, missed a quiz, and scored poorly on the tests. so, the student should've been terminated from school. yet, there the student still is. (as an aside, the roster changed and i won't have that student next time, but the student is in another instructor's class.) today, i saw another student, that in my opinion, has no business being there any more. i've had this student in 2 classes, both of which the student failed. and, in both classes the student was caught plagiarizing. according to school policy, one incident results in disciplinary action (it goes on your record) and a second incident is supposed to result in termination. furthermore, this student was also on probation and needed to pass to stay in school. didn't pass. caught plagiarizing twice. wha?
i'm all for giving people chances to improve and redeem themselves. but, in the academic institution we need to also maintain a high level of academic integrity. there are certain things that must not be tolerated (like plagiarism). as an instructor, how can i feel that the school is going to do anything when i report future violations? why should i even bother enforcing the policies other than my own desire to teach and try and maintain a fair environment for all? well, fair to the extent that a student caught plagiarizing is probably going to fail my class and you might pass, but outside of that...
yet, so many smaller institutions are caught in a trap of having to fight for dollars. you can't afford to throw out students left and right. you sometimes lower your admission standards. you aggressively market your "product," that is, your school and hope that you can grow and build but how far do you compromise what might have gotten you started in the first place?
i don't have answers to these questions. mainly because i don't think that there are simple solutions most of the time. well, except for on the plagiarism deal. you've got a rule. follow it. no student's tuition is worth compromising the educational environment.
5 comments:
Yeah, that sucks. Nothing like trying to follow the rules and seeing people get by after breaking them.
It is a tangled web in education. Student numbers and money seems the root and heart of all problems. A simple slap on the wrist and an empty threat is was the institutions can afford but to loose the student they can't.
We are running into the same problem where I work. the district is threatening to drop one of our instructors if we can't get enough students in our school. So our "don't come back" policy is getting looser and the kids are figuring it out and beginning to play games.
Is there a department head you can talk to about your concern?
yeah. if i think about it, maybe i'll mention it to him the next time we have an evaluation.
At our school site it's a bit different. Instructors have to make sure they have done everything they had to in a class to warn students they may be failing a class. At the first moment you think a student may not be doing well you need to start documenting it and begin meeting with the student and the head program advisors because if you haven't done everything in your power to forwarn the student of their impending failure, the instructor can face scrutiny.
In our elementary ed undergraduate program, no student is allowed a C in any class in their program. There are no warnings - you are kicked out of the program. What's great is the program follows through but it's a lot of pressure knowing you are responsible for that student being kicked out of their major. They can reapply for the program after a year.
Scott
we're also supposed to do a bit of advising and documenting if a student has a 70% or below. so, i can feel you there.
it doesn't bother me so much to have students fail, especially because it has been my experience that the students failing aren't reading the textbooks, aren't doing the work. it bothers me when i catch students plagiarizing repeatedly and the school doesn't follow through on it's own procedures. it bothers me that students are on "probation" and told each class that they need to get their grades up or it's bye bye and it's not followed through on.
on that last point, one of the students just needed to pass. so, maybe she wasn't that far down the probation line. but the other student was told that he/she needed to get an "a" in both my class (a g.e. requirement) and the program class being taken. during the term, the "a" for my class was modified to a "b," not by me, but by the student's program director. then, i don't know what the expectation became, because the student didn't come anywhere close to passing, let alone a "b." furthermore, this student was my multi-plagiarizer. it just makes me wonder what you've got to do, or not do, to get removed from school.
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