How many of you have experienced one of those moments where you realized after a major event that your zipper was down, a piece of food was stuck to your face, or your hair-piece was on backwards? Ever get a tomato thrown at you after your lovely rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy? In response to the latter proposition, you probably wanted to knock the lights out of the brute with the arm, but maybe he had a point. The commonality between the two quandaries I posed is their relevance to feedback. Could you imagine a society where feedback didn’t exist? Anchorman Ron Burgundy never would have found out how stupid his hair looked. Forget about raises in your wages; that’s a form of positive feedback. And for you fashion fiends, forget about Prada and Gucci. Missing feedback loops in their production processes would have left their handbags on sale at Wal-Mart.
Working without feedback is similar to setting out on an important journey minus a map or signposts. You may have a great sense of direction, but this may not be sufficient to keep you on track.
Last week’s leading Poly story, “Senates unite on projects,” talked about our combined efforts with the Faculty Senate on two very important feedback systems we’re pushing at Rensselaer: improving advising and implementing a midterm assessment system. This was really the first time our midterm reporting proposal was widely publicized on campus aside from the few times I mentioned it in this column, so I’d like to explain to faculty and students why this is one of our highest priority initiatives on the academic front.
Essentially what we are proposing to do is engrain a culture of feedback to improve both student and faculty performance. At roughly the seventh or eighth week of the semester, students will provide helpful information to their professors on how they may be able to improve their classes, and likewise, professors will issue students progress reports or grades that will only temporarily appear on student records.
There are a number of reasons why such a policy is important to Rensselaer and its students. Studies show that midterm progress reports help contribute to greater student engagement in their academic environment and ultimately better grades. A report issued at the 2002 Southern Association for Institutional Research Conference in Baton Rouge, La., found that in schools with midterm assessment protocols, “nearly 45 percent of end-of-semester grades increased from the midterm grade, while little more than a quarter decreased or stayed the same.” But why? Could this have just been a statistical anomaly? Most studies suggest that there is a clear trend.
Some psychologists point to the power of discouragement as an incentive for a change in behavior, and in this case, grades can serve as stimuli to motivate a desired level of academic performance. Just look at George Mason University where a study of their students showed 72 percent sought greater assistance in the form of instructor input, improved study habits, academic advisor intervention, or other resources as a result of getting a midterm grade that was not as high as desired.
The evidence is hardly inconclusive on this matter. Report after report shows that midterm grades have proven benefits. Feedback is a human desire, and none of us can improve without it. Ever heard the phrase, “Your comments and suggestions are important to us?” From CNN to Betty Crocker, you can be sure feedback is involved in improving company performance. But corporate America is no different than collegiate America.
According to Nevil Sanford in his book The American College, “[Students] flourish best not when they are given no grades, but when they are given searching and hard-hitting analyses of their performances—accompanied by intelligible and realistic pictures of what they can become.”
We’re talking about a system where students have a clear indication of where they stand before the drop deadline. We’re talking about a system that allows us to identify struggling students before it is too late. We’re talking about a system that is used to assist students at nearly three-fourths of all four-year colleges and universities in America according to the Policy Center on the First Year of College. Why not Rensselaer?
We owe it to our students to make their academic environment the most effective it can be. The data is there, the policy is not—let’s do something about it.
