Dear Colleagues,
Next week you will be receiving an email from the Office of the Registrar requesting submission of midterm grades. We are reaching out to emphasize the importance of submitting midterm grades to student success and retention. Improving student outcomes is a central element of Lehigh’s Strategic Plan and one of the first steps to achieving excellent outcomes is retaining students and supporting their academic progress. Submitting midterm grades is even more essential in courses that have been identified as having higher than average DFW rates (i.e. courses in which rates of students earning grades of D or F or withdrawing are high).
Why is submitting midterm grades important for student success? Many students are reluctant to seek the academic support that they need or are not aware of resources like tutoring that are available to them. This is especially true for first-generation students and students from families and high school environments which give them less information about higher education. When you submit midterm grades, this gives students clear information about where they stand in your class and increases the likelihood that students who would benefit from available support will seek it. Also, midterm grades provide information to advisors and others who can assist students in finding and accessing resources to enhance their learning and academic performance. Midterm grades also allow students the opportunity to withdraw from a course they are unlikely to pass; submitting these grades on time could enable a student to register for a half semester course.
Instructional videos (2 minutes) for midterm grade entry are available on the Registrar’s website.
We also encourage you to talk to students in your classes about tutoring and academic support resources available to students through the Academic Success and Writing Center and to submit alerts and/or referrals via Compass (see instructions). Encourage any student who is having difficulty with your course to seek help.
With your collaboration, we can be better informed about students’ challenges and better prepared to address them.
Best,
Terry-Ann Jones
Nathan Urban
