Teaching a larger class and managing enrollment

This semester I was asked if I was willing to teach a larger history class. Normally our history classes are capped at 45, but I can earn extra pay if I am willing to teach 70. The trick is the class has to reach that number, else my pay does not increase. So this class I hustled for students to enroll. I emailed the counselors asking for them to refer students, and I also emailed the other history instructors telling them to send students they could not accommodate my way. Before the cap was raised I already had a wait list of 18, so I would not have had to worry about finding students to enroll.


My interest in enrollment was different, and so I managed it differently. Our district's policies say that an instructor "may" drop students who do not attend the first meeting of a full-term class, and that is what I have done in the past. I assume students who do not appear the first day of class are not that interested and that those who have a valid reason for missing the class would contact me. I enroll students off the wait list based on absences on the first or second day.

My rationale is that I want students who will succeed to take my class, and I assume that those who do not attend the first day are less likely to succeed. I would rather students take this general ed, lower-division class at a better time for them to be successful. I have blogged about some data collection I did showing that students who end late typically do worse in my classes, so my hypothesis about late enrollment and success has some evidence to support it.

For this semester's history class I do not plan to drop anyone until after our census date, which is the count that will be used to give me the boost in formula hours. I get extra compensation to teach more students within a single class, but only if I hit a certain number. So I will end up with some students who add late (several did) or who never intended to attend (a couple never showed up). Those who added late missed a couple of assignments and so have a steeper hill to climb to earn a passing grade. The assignments were worth roughly 4% of the grade, so that B- might slip to a C+.

The extra compensation changed my incentive with regards to enrollment this class. I separately write about the effect of extra students on how I conduct class, and I find myself thinking with a different perspective on the relationship between enrollment management and student success. Later this semester I will think more thoroughly about the consequences of a larger class and whether it is worth it.