Does putting poor performing students on academic probation improve student performance?

Question

As we enter a new school year, I'm wondering if the is any evidence to support or contradict the idea that putting a poor-performing students on academic probation improves their performance. Does anyone know of any such evidence?

I can imagine that schools are naturally concerned about eliminating students whose tuition keeps the doors open and my school does not have any formal rules on academic probation. I'm thinking of proposing some, but only if there is evidence that it will actually improve performance. If it demotivates students (for example creating a stigma which is a very serious issue here in Asia) and bounces students who might otherwise just pass then it does not seem so appealing.

Answer 1

This is only a part answer

University of California Berkeley applies a probation when the cumulative GPA goes below 2.0 and are within grounds for dismissal. But, they give a semester and advise the student to:

The College of Letters and Science encourages students who have been placed on term probation to seek advising at the Office of Undergraduate Advising for help with schedule planning and to discuss any issues that may have caused poor results in the first place. Although this web site may be helpful to you, it is primarily designed to assist probationary students whose cumulative grade point average has fallen below a 2.0.

An example from Australia, Brisbane's Griffith University, it seems that a similar constraint may be applied:

The minimum standard for academic performance is a Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least 3.0 for undergraduate students and at least 3.5 for postgraduate students. Students who meet this GPA standard are said to be in ‘good academic standing’. If a student’s GPA is below this level their performance is ‘unsatisfactory’. The first time a student’s performance is below the required standard, the student is placed on probation for the next semester. The second time a student’s performance is below the required standard, the student will normally be excluded.

In the Princeton article "The Effects of Academic Probation on College Success: Lending Students a Hand or Kicking Them While They Are Down?" (Fletcher and Tokmouline, 2010), found that often there is an improvement, but then their

findings also suggest that this short term boost in performance fades out over time and students who are on academic probation following their first semesters of college do not have higher rates of persistence or graduation.

They also found that an overall model (indeed a definitive answer) is hard to come by due to inconsistency of heterogeneous effects, particularly

pre-determined student characteristics as well as high school of origin.

Answer 2

I'm wondering if the is any evidence to support or contradict the idea that putting a poor-performing students on academic probation improves their performance

Whose idea is this? I quick look at what US universities think academic probation means does not suggest that its purpose is to improve performance.

At University of Tennessee Knoxville

Probation serves as a serious warning that your academic performance needs improvement, alerting you that you are in jeopardy of Academic Dismissal.

At Harvard Academic Probation is defined as

a serious warning to a student whose academic performance for the term is unsatisfactory. Academic probation is a formal action of the Administrative Board and becomes part of the student’s official record.

It seems that in general "academic probation" is an administrative state between "good standing" and "academic dismissal". The purpose is to warn the student if they do not improve that they will be dismissed.

A potentially relevant question might be are things like the Success Plan of University of Tennessee Knoxville successful. This, however, is a really broad question. Each University is going to have a different "success plan" and implement it differently. You might also wish to consider how to build and implement a successful success plan.

Answer 3

I saw it more as "a notification that we're working on kicking you out". In my first term of college, I failed a calculus 1 class (passed 3 others, but that F pulled my gpa down to a 1.6). and was therefore placed on academic probation. My advisor then forced me to register in the second semester into 2 classes for which my failed calculus 1 class was a prereq (calculus 2 and physics), virtually ensuring that I would fail. I signed an agreement to enroll in the class, added the class, dropped it 15 minutes, and then enrolled in several easy classes in order to boost my gpa. I actually got over a 3.0 my second semester because the classes were so much easier, but I no doubt would have received F's in both the calc 2 class and the physics class had I taken them. After my second semester, I transferred out in good standing, went to the local community college for a year, and transferred to another university. Had I followed my advisor's advice, I almost certainly would have experienced academic dismissal. My take is that they were trying to get people to flunk out.