[This piece was originally written as a report on research conducted as part of a teacher workgroup exploring the issues of student retention and persistance. At that time Gloria was an ABE/GED teacher at SCALE; today she is teaching ESOL at Winchester High School.--Ed.]
I had been teaching ABE and GED writing classes at SCALE in Somerville for quite a few years. Student attendance and spirits were always high in September through November, but immediately after Thanksgiving break there has usually been a dramatic drop in attendance that lasts into the spring. There have been months at a time when periodically two students out of sixteen attend class. Some students have poor attendance; others leave the program for various reasons. This drop in attendance and retention also affects the other students who experience a decrease in enthusiasm and motivation. This demoralization has a snowball effect; it becomes contagious! Low level attendance and retention, and the concomitant effect on the motivation of the remaining students, is a problem that the staff at SCALE have been grappling with for years. We have wondered: If objective conditions in students' lives allowed them to keep up attendance, what could we as teachers do to maintain the September sense of excitement and possibility?
I have always used an evaluation form filled out by students at the end of the school year in June. My purpose has been to engender comments in order to improve my course the following year. Given my concern with attendance and retention, I wondered about using the evaluation form in a different context. My research question became: What would happen if I used evaluation forms during the school year, rather than solely at the end? My plan was to use the written evaluation and follow-up discussion as a means of motivating the students. My hope was that this process would positively affect attendance and motivation throughout the year and particularly during the holiday season starting with Thanksgiving.
For this study, I chose the GED writing class. We met from 10:30 to 12:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. Our focus was on both areas of the GED writing test--grammar and the 200-word essay. The goal was for students to pass this test and improve their writing skills in general. Before Thanksgiving, students filled out the evaluation form (see below) and participated in a discussion about the problem of attendance and motivation after the holidays. We repeated this process in March. I kept careful attendance records from November through March. Students and I talked to or called those who were absent. I interviewed and kept a record of those who left and the reasons why.
Our initial discussion had two parts. The first part focused on their likes, needs and solutions. The second part was a discussion of what we could do to keep up attendance levels. For example, students said that addressing spelling was a need. I said that there was little time to do so. We came up with a plan: Using the GED list of most often misspelled words, I pretested ten words at a time. They self-corrected and studied. One week later, we had a posttest. In between, we simply looked at those words that were most troublesome, which took about three minutes. The unanimous reaction of students was that this has been a success.
Later, in March, students wrote and then discussed and amended their answers to the following questions: 1) What effect did the November evaluation and discussion have on your attendance and motivation and on the class in general? 2) What more could teachers and SCALE do to keep students motivated and coming to class?
The results of using this evaluation/discussion process were encouraging. Attendance showed a marked improvement as compared to previous years, when attendance during this same period was often below 50% and even 25%. Average attendance for each month was as follows: November 77%; December 65%; January 72%; February 82%; March 82%. Out of a total 37 class days, there were only two days during the entire period when attendance was below 50%. There were fifteen days when attendance was over 80% and 23 days over 70%. Of the fourteen students who left the program, five graduated, four had personal problems, three transferred to the Adult Diploma Progra, one moved out of state, and one got a day job.
There was a dip in attendance during the November through December holiday period; however, the decrease is minor when compared to previous years and when taking into consideration an increase shown in student responsibility during this period, as students called or let me know about absences and problems.
In late November, two teachers commented that they had overheard students discussing the evaluation process and how they intended to keep themselves in class. At the beginning of each class, I noticed students taking careful note of attendance. They took it upon themselves to leave notes and to let me know when they had appointments. They also questioned students who had been absent. Some called the absent students or requested that I do it. l always thanked those who called or left notes so as to reinforce responsibility and commitment. In addition, my attitude didn't take on its usual slump. Previously, I had often felt somewhat frustrated and ineffective as the class decreased in size and lost momentum.
Motivation and attendance seem to have been affected by students becoming active participants in the program. There appears to be a more widespread student attitude that what they do and decide is important to the teachers, other students and the school. There has been a stronger sense of personal responsibility and community. In the beginning of my research, I had anticipated that merely using the evaluation and discussion before the holidays would affect attendance and motivation. However, I now suspect that the real source of improvement stemmed from the increased student involvement and continuing discussions and strategizing around issues of attendance, retention, and motivation.
Drawing on what l've learned from this study, I'm planning to continue the use of evaluations during the school year. Given the amount of student movement we experience in our program, using the evaluation once or twice might only reach a small percent of students during the year. Therefore, I also plan to have each student fill out the forms after being in the program three to four weeks. I'm also planning to start the year with a discussion of goals, needs, dreams, impediments, etc. The November and spring discussions will then be follow-ups to this. Finally, I have wondered whether in the future I should have the counselor distribute and collect the evaluations and possibly run discussions. Would students feel freer to express themselves honestly? I think not, since I believe much of the benefit of this process came from the development of a group sense of purpose.
Evaluation Questions:
1. What aspects of this class are most helpful to you?
2. What changes or additions would you recommend for our class?
3. What do you hope we work on over the next few weeks?
4. It's often difficult for adult students to stay in school. What things are of most help to you?
5. What are the three major things that would significantly improve your ability to succeed at SCALE?
6. What changes would you like to see in the SCALE program overall?
7. Which of the above questions most helped you think seriously about your experience in this class and SCALE?