Assessing the impact of COVID-19 policies on academic probation

Academic probation is considered a formal warning for students and institutions that a student is not performing at an acceptable level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions implemented “grade forgiveness” policies that allowed students to minimize the impact of particular courses on their grade point averages. Although there have been benefits for students, there were consequences as well. Primarily, because students were able to minimize the impact of poor grades on their grade point averages, students who may have performed at a level that qualified for academic probation did not receive the traditional services and supports because their grades did not reflect performance. The purpose of this research was to assess the impact of these grade forgiveness policies on academic probation in the semesters with policy changes and the semesters following. A convergent parallel mixed methods approach was utilized within Astin’s I-E-O model as a framework. There are three research questions being explored. 1. How did trends in academic standing change through the terms with the policy changes? 2. How did standards determining academic probation change during the period of policy changes? 3. How did support for students with academic struggles change during the terms with policy changes or the subsequent semesters? The qualitative data came from interviews with five academic advisors/administrators in the summer after traditional policies were reinstated for two continuous semesters. These practitioners indicated that during COVID-19, standards for academic probation did not change for the most part. The quantitative data examined were related to the usage of a pass-fail grading policy, academic probation rates and grades earned below a C. It was found that there was a sharp decrease in students on academic probation during the COVID-19 policies’ implementation. Most academic units did not make changes to academic probation standards during these terms. The official supports for students on academic probation didn’t change during the terms. Because of the lack of warning about academic performance, students struggling academically were not served at previous levels and an increase in academic probation and other academic problems occurred when the institution returned to traditional policies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Mason, Elizabeth Ariel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ward Hood, Denice
• Adams, Gretchen
• Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni
• Dávila, Liv T
• Baber, Lorenzo

• Academic Probation
• Covid
• Higher Education

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Mason

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120119

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120119