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Checkpoint: Six week grades

On the seventh Tuesday of every semester, students receive their midterm class grades. For most students, these grades serve as a way to see how they can improve. 

Senior Madison Coskey uses her six week grades to track her progress. 

“I like them a lot because it keeps me accountable … It tells me what I need to work on, what I’m doing good at,” Coskey said. 

Coskey talked about how different professors handle the six week mark. 

“Although some professors don’t like putting in grades to see, they do tell you how you’re doing, or they talk to you. Some of my professors have a six week checkup. They’ll set up a meeting and talk to me about it, which I like too,” Coskey said. “I’m also very good about checking my grades. But six weeks for me, it’s very valuable.”

Junior Alek Moore also finds value in a midterm grade report, especially when it is paired with an exam grade.

“It gives me what I need to improve on, where I need to focus more of my attention on, what I can do differently,” Moore said. “[My class grade] usually builds back up after a little bit because my first exam is what pulled me down for a moment and then afterwards, I know how to improve.”

Hannah Leftwich, the director of Student Success, said the grades can be used as a checkpoint for students who are unsure about their major. 

“The six week grades are a good data point. So if most of the time you have hit a test by that point, and you can see how you’re doing, and if you’re not planning on making any changes, it’s probably a good indicator — if it’s not going well and you don’t want to make any changes — that you should drop the class or come up with a different method,” Leftwich said. “But if the grade is low, and you need a class for your major … it can be a good indicator that what you’re doing isn’t working and get some other resources in to help you be successful. So it’s a good piece of data, but it’s not the whole picture.”

Jeremie Beller, Dean of Bible, offered a professor’s perspective on the rush to get the grades in by the six week deadline. 

“I do think it keeps professors on their toes to say, don’t let things hang out there, ungraded. But I also think that it’s a good chance for students to measure, ‘How am I doing? Where am I at in the class?’ Ideally, professors will have things updated so students know continually,” Beller said. “I say this as someone who just finished catching up on a lot of things that were backlogged, but it does force us to do that, and students need to have a sense of where they’re at and how they’re progressing, and where we need to step in and offer some extra help.”

Leftwich emphasized the importance of coming to student success for help before it’s too late. 

“I think one of the things that’s most important for students to do is not wait until they feel like they’re in trouble to get help,” Leftwich said. “Faculty, student success, staff, want to help, but we have to know, and if you wait until you’re in trouble, it’s almost too late to pull it back. And so coming to tutoring or talking with your professor consistently is going to be the best setup for long term success in your classes at OC.” 

Beller said the accuracy of the six week grades can vary based on the structure of the class. 

“Some classes are designed to be able to capture a snapshot of where you’re at, and other classes just haven’t gotten to some critical points, because they’re still laying the foundation to get there. So that’s determinative, based on the design of the class, I think,” Beller said.

Provost Brian Starr echoed Beller’s sentiments.  

“In some classes, and I think the ones that are structured best, it is a good benchmark. The reason we do that is to try to get students visibility on how they’re doing, and either just as an assurance — you’re doing fine — or as a wake up call — something needs to change for you to improve,” Starr said, “If you do it [the check mark] when you’ve got really good visibility on how the student’s really going to do, it’s going to be too late. If you do it too early, it’s going to be fairly meaningless data, and you might get false negatives, or more likely, false positives, depending on how the class is structured. So for the best classes, I think this is about optimal timing. And when I say the best classes, I mean those in which the professors design to give both formative and summative feedback at a regular cadence throughout the semester.”

Beller said most students maintain their six week grade. 

“My experience is that it usually remains pretty consistent. You’ll have a few students who, it does shock them into better practices, and other students, it’s just a gauge,” Beller said.

Leftwich said the six week grade is not the only factor used to predict a student’s end grade. 

“We look at six week grades, but we also send out something called the stoplight survey to all the professors near the beginning of the semester and then near the end of the semester, and those are also helpful to see how students are doing,” Leftwich said. “And so those three pieces of information altogether can help us see where a student is and how they’re likely to end their semester. But six week grades on their own are not, I don’t think, strong enough to make any rash decisions, I guess.”

Nathan Shank, professor of English, said he finds the stoplight survey more representative than the six week grades. 

“The idea of an early check on students is good, and something formal that’s not just, you know, I hope the grade books are updated. In my courses, the midterm grades tend to not represent the final grade with much fidelity because if it’s weighted and you haven’t had some assignments, then it could be that, like, a participation category that remains fixed is being overweighted in terms of its effect on the grade,” Shank said. “I think sometimes they [students] get a little litigious with that, especially with athletes having to maintain a certain GPA.”

Leftwich explained the two steps used to track student progress. 

“We have a system that’s our early alert system, called Lighthouse, and we use it in two main ways. The first is, if a professor or staff member is concerned about a student, they can send an alert, and then we open a case, and we follow up with that student to find out if everything’s okay or if they need some additional resources, like a tutor,” Leftwich said. “And then we have the stoplight survey, and we send that out to all undergraduate faculty once at the beginning of the semester to see if there’s any early signs of concern, so students not going to class or they’ve missed a couple of early assignments.” 

These systems, Leftwich said, assist students who may not know their options in the face of failing grades. 

“We email those students on that list and try to schedule appointments with them so they can come in and meet and we can get an idea of what’s going on. And then we also do one year at the end of the semester before the final drop date,” Leftwich said. “So if there’s a student that is absolutely going to fail where they’re marked yellow or red like a stop light, we walk them through the different options that are available to them at that point. So it’s the beginning and end of each semester.”

Leftwich offered advice for students moving forward beyond their six week grades. 

“If they’re not satisfied, their first step is to talk to their professor, and then the professor can tell them whether or not, based on the grade that they have, how likely it is that they can improve their grade or or if it’s unlikely, and then what their options are, and that’s going to vary student to student. And then from there, if the student has done everything right, and they’re not getting the grade that they want, I recommend tutoring, because it’s likely that they’re doing all the right things, it’s just they’re missing some key pieces. And so I recommend tutoring, and we have tutoring that is available at no additional charge, your tuition and fees cover that, and we have tutors in over 65 subjects,” Leftwich said. 

Leftwich recommended seeing the campus’ academic life coach if a student is still unhappy with their grades.

“If a student is still doing that [going to a tutor] and they’re still not seeing improvement in their grades, the next step would be to meet with Roger, who’s our academic life coach, and he can take a look at your schedule and say, ‘Well, let’s figure out kind of what you’re doing and how you’re spending your time, and let’s talk about how you’re studying,’” Leftwich said. “Maybe there’s some adjustments that you can make there, and all of that is really slow, tedious work, but students who do that typically can increase their grade by the end of the semester, or get it to where they’re happier with it.” 

Leftwich also mentioned a student’s department advisor as an additional resource. 

If they’re doing all those things and they still don’t like it, or their grades aren’t going the way that they want, or they’re still struggling with the concepts, then it’s worth talking to your advisor about,” Leftwich said.

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