Student Progress Assessments for Faculty

What's This?

The Student Progress Assessment (SPA) is a tool which facilitates, communicates, and documents an evaluation of a graduate student’s progress in their degree program. Annual SPAs are completed between April 1st and June 30th. 

In this guide, we’ll go through the basics of SPA. If you would like a more general page on SPA to share with students, one can be found here, on the Graduate Studies website. 

Because they are the terms used in the SPA application, we'll be using "Major Professor" to refer to the faculty member directly supervising a student's degree progress, and "Faculty Advisor" to refer to the program faculty appointed by Graduate Studies as Advisors. 

The Annual SPA

On or around April 1st, your Graduate Program Coordinator and Program Chair will launch the Annual SPAs for your students. After they're live, you and your advisees complete the annual SPA questionnaires, which then route to your program's Advisors for approval. 

Students can access and fill out most of the questionnaire, but you must mark the assessment as “Satisfactory,” “Marginal,” or “Unsatisfactory”. The students then confirm the assessment.

If the SPA is marked as Satisfactory or Marginal, one email to state it is closed will be sent, but the workflow is then done. If the SPA is marked as Unsatisfactory, a Graduate Studies SAA will review the unsatisfactory comments and draft a letter for the Associate Dean to review. 

On June 30th, SPAs (save for those marked Unsatisfactory) are closed, and the cycle's done for the year.

If a student is graduating, or has been on leave for the whole academic year, they are typically opted-out of the annual SPA as there is either no progress to assess or they've made all the progress they need to (as evidenced by their forthcoming diploma). 

A graphic showing the routing stages of SPAs, as described by the text above.
 
A Note on Interim SPAs

There is a shorter-form SPA which can be launched at any time outside of the Annual SPA cycle – the Interim SPA. This is a more simple (one-page) assessment with the same outcomes, launched on request by your Program Coordinator. They are typically used to follow up on Marginal or Unsatisfactory SPAs, but can be used to document student progress as the program sees fit.

Great, I'm a Major Professor. What Do I Do? 

Major Professors are notified via email when your Program Coordinator or Graduate Advisor launches a SPA for your student(s). The email you receive will contain a link to the assessment questionnaire, but they can also be access through the application itself. 

The main task is to talk with your student. SPAs are generally completed in concert with a formal mentoring meeting. SPA should be used to document your meeting so that everyone is in agreement about the student’s progress and any specific steps the student needs to make to continue or return to making Satisfactory progress. 

The SPA Sections

  • Basic Information: This contains information about meetings, work locations, and program progress.

  • Courses: This focuses on the completion of coursework requirements.

  • Degree Progress: This focuses on the completion of non-coursework requirements.

  • Dissertation Committee: This focuses on committee logistics, particularly meeting frequency. 

  • Accomplishments and Expectations: A summary of research accomplishments, ongoing projects, and general goals/expectations. Financial support should be discussed, as should the student's progress toward graduation.

  • Career Goals: This section focuses the student's professional development plan.

  • Overall Assessment: The Satisfactory/Marginal/Unsatisfactory summary. Unlike the above, this section can only be completed by the student's Major Professor. 

SPA Outcomes In Practice

Satisfactory

A Satisfactory SPA means that the student is making adequate progress toward their degree. They may have areas in which minor improvement may be necessary, but are doing well in their program.

Marginal

A Marginal SPA suggest that the student's degree progress is at risk. They're making progress, but not what you would expect to see. This should be accompanied by specific information detailing why their progress is at risk, the steps they can take to address your concern, and a clear statement of the timeline on which you expect improvement. 

Marginal SPAs do not get routed to Graduate Studies, but they do recommend that a Marginal SPA be followed up one to two quarters later by an Interim SPA so that progress can be assessed.

Unsatisfactory 

An unsatisfactory SPA suggests that the student is not making adequate progress toward their degree. It should include specific information on unmet expectations, the steps they can take to address your concern, and a clear statement of the timeline on which you expect improvement. It is typically accompanied by other indications of inadequate progress, e.g. Unsatisfactory 299 grades. 

Unsatisfactory SPAs are routed to Graduate Studies, who review the information provided and provide a letter to the student reiterating those expectations. There is no immediate effect on the student's program status or eligibility for student employment. An Unsatisfactory SPA should typically be followed-up by an Interim SPA so that the student's adherence to your guidance can be assessed. 

Recommendations

  • First and foremost, it's recommended that you clearly outline expectations for the next year, while recognizing areas in which the student has been making good progress while providing clear and actionable guidance on the areas in which they need to improve. When completing the questionnaire, it's important to use objective, factual language which clearly evaluates the student while avoiding subjective statements, personality critiques, or assessments of student personal issues (medical, familial, etc.).
  • If you feel that student's personal issues and/or conduct are affecting their degree progress, your insight is very much appreciated but SPA isn't the place to report that. As always you can report misconduct like suspected plagiarism to OSSJA, but OSSJA is also the place to submit a Support Referral if you're concerned about a student's mental/physical health or safety. 
  • Remember that it's okay to give feedback which is not uniformly glowing. Rather, providing students with honest feedback, academic guidance, and careful mentorship is a great way to demonstrate trust in them as scholars and individuals. If their progress does not improve then SPAs are your means to formally document issues which may lead to dismissal, but SPAs are not a punitive tool; rather, their intention is to structure the conversations which lead to the student's ultimate success. 
  • Where possible, try to give students deadlines which are as clear as possible. Talking to your Program Coordinator, Advisors, or Chair is a great first step if you are curious how those deadlines might fit in with program or campus expectations and deadlines. 

If you have any questions on what to write or how to write it, your Advisors or Chair are great points of contact. Advisors are listed publicly on our program websites hosted by Graduate Studies (Economics and History).

Frequently-Asked Questions

  • Can I see past SPAs, for context?

  • Absolutely! After logging in to SPA, you can use the search box in the top-right corner to find the correct individual. After clicking on their name, the SPA system will give you a list of their current and previous SPAs. By clicking on the Done button for each year’s SPA, circled in red in the screenshot below, you can view that year’s assessment. 
     

    A screenshot illustrating the suggestion to click the "Done" button to see past SPAs.

  • I'm worried that my assessment could negatively affect the student. 

  • This is extremely reasonable and eminently understandable! A Marginal or Unsatisfactory SPA can be jarring. Ultimately, the "guiding star" is to document a student's progress clearly, fairly, and with an eye toward helping them get back on track. It's not fun to give this kind of feedback, but it is, ultimately, a way to demonstrate respect for the student.

    It's worth observing than an Unsatisfactory SPA does not mean that the student's name is put straight on the Dean's desk for dismissal. Rather, it is the beginning of a conversation – that conversation might lead toward dismissal, but ideally it results in the student having a clear statement, available to all who need to know, of what they need to do to make progress toward their degree. 

    As a little reminder: If you are concerned about a student’s health or well-being, please know you can submit a Care Report to OSSJA. They don't just handle academic misconduct! 

  • Can I add a message to my advisee or colleagues?

  • Yes! When you're viewing the SPA, you can use the "Comments & Notes" field to message all other folks attached to that specific SPA. Your message will be visible to Graduate Studies staff too, but will not form part of the student's academic record.

  • I "confirmed" the SPA, but I wish to retract it.

  • No problem! That's the "Unlock" button, visible from the last page of the SPA. You can do so up until the Graduate Advisor has added their confirmation. Unlocking opens up the questionnaire for the student, you, and your Graduate Advisor to make changes. 

    The Graduate Advisor can unlock both confirmations up until the student has acknowledged the assessment. Your Graduate Studies Senior Academic Advisor can also unlock both confirmations after the student has acknowledged. 

  • My student's making decent academic progress, but their TA work is really suffering.

  • SPA's focus is entirely academic, so your concerns – while very valid, and potentially of great relevance to the student's ability to succeed in an academic context – should be reported instead to your Graduate Program Coordinator directly, rather than documented in SPA.