Early Identification and Feed Forward Policy

Policy Statement

The Early Identification and Feed Forward policy is a process for identifying students experiencing academic or professionalism difficulty or who are “at risk” of failing to progress due to academic or professionalism challenges in a course, academic year or phase. This process allows the school to notify the student and provide feedback and resources to the student.

In addition, students with ongoing academic or professionalism challenges, may benefit from ongoing, longitudinal support through multiple educational experiences. This type of support requires the student’s areas of growth to be “fed forward” to the next course, rotation director or to the student’s coach in order to create individualized learning experiences that can target the areas of growth and ensure the student is give the time needed to meet any additional expectations placed on the student (i.e., extra coaching, meetings with AME advisors/deans).

The intent of this educational process is not punitive or disciplinary as describe further below.

Defined Terms

Student Early Intervention Committee (SEIC):

SEICs are medical school committees that meet quarterly to monitor student progression through the curriculum and identify students who are at academic or professionalism risk. The Medical Education and Student Affairs Offices in collaboration with course and clerkship directors are responsible for identifying students who are struggling to meet the academic and professionalism standards and thus progress through medical school as expected.

SEIC recommendations are intended to notify students of identified concerns and to provide suggested or required support and remediation to ensure successful and timely progression through the curriculum. SEIC recommendations may be fed forward to AME advisors, course and clerkship directors to provide support for the student. SEPC reviews all SEIC recommendations.

The Student Early Intervention Process overseen by SEICs is described in section 4.1 of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Policies and Procedures for Evaluation, Grading and Promotion. For more details on the make up of the committees and SEIC procedure details please link to the above.

Performance of students: The SEIC will discuss:

Summative assessments (e.g., LPA, shelf exam, DMAs, OSCEs)
Formative assessments (e.g., KSAs)
Professionalism concerns (e.g., professionalism with patients, faculty, and staff, missing assignments, excessive absences or tardiness, student evaluation completion rate)
Clinical performance concerns
Whether a student with performance concerns is receiving tutoring or clinical coaching

Responsible Parties

SEIC for academic year, Associate Dean for Medical Education, Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Early Identification of Students Procedures

Per the Formative Assessment and Feedback Policy, students should receive direct feedback about their academic and professionalism performance in courses or clerkships in a timely manner to allow for sufficient time for remediation.

Performance Notifications to Student

Learning Progress Assessment (M1/M2)

The course/module leadership email all students who have failed an LPA and offer to meet with all students. The course directors also report performance of any student who fails a Learning Progress Assessments or is at risk of failing a course in real time to the Associate Deans for Medical Education and Student Affairs, the Director of Enhancement and the student’s AME advisor.

Clerkship Fail (M3/M4)

Clerkship leadership report shelf exam failures and any overall fail grades in real time to the Associate Dean for Medical Education, the Director of Enhancement, the Registrar, and the student’s AME advisor. The student is also notified and asked to meet with the Office of Enhancement.

Extra Coaching for Identified Areas of Improvement and Growth

Extra coaching provides extra practice of clinical skills, where performance concerns may have been identified for a student. The extra coaching process is overseen by the Assistant Dean of Curriculum & Instructional Design and the Program Coordinator, Academy of Medical Educators and Coaching Program. Extra Coaching is discussed at SEIC.

Students are required to be referred to extra coaching the course or clerkship director when:

A student fails a doctoring summative assessment or an end of academic year/phase OSCE (i.e., EOTYA)
A student receives an overall pass or fail grade on a clerkship or 4th year clinical rotation
A student receives a clinical pass or fail grade on a clerkship or 4th year clinical rotation

Students may also be referred to extra coaching by:

A student’s Academy of Medical Educator Doctoring Core Educator
Doctoring course director based on student’s overall performance
Clerkship director for a student’s performance on the current or recent rotation
Sub-I or elective director
Recommendation of the SEIC

Extra Coaching Procedure

Once referred, the student and their AME advisor will be emailed by the Coaching Program Manager regarding the referral and the details and reasons for the referral. Students should also receive notification of the referral and reason for referral by the course/clerkship director. The student will be notified in the email that at least one extra coaching session is mandatory and a response is required within 72 hours of the email receipt. If a student does not respond, it should be reported to the Assistant Dean of Curriculum and Instructional Design and will be reported to SEIC if unresponsiveness continues.

During the first extra coaching session, the student and coach will identify goals for the extra coaching sessions. The coach working with the student will determine the number of sessions needed (usually 1-3) and a progress note of the session will be sent by the student and coach to the coaching program manager within 48 hours of the session. This should include goals for the sessions including skills being worked on.

While the student participating in ongoing coaching sessions, if new areas of growth are identified by any of the potential referral parties, the information should be fed forward to the extra coach.

After the coaching session(s) have been completed, a final summary should be sent by the coach working with the student to the Program Manager for Coaching. The student’s post-coaching performance is monitored by the Associate Dean of Medical Education and the Assistant Dean for Curriculum & Instructional Design.

Relevant LCME Element(s): 9.7 Formative Assessment and Feedback

Related Policies and References:

Approved by the Medical Education Committee (MEC) on October 24, 2023
Revised by the Medical Education Committee (MEC) on May 21, 2026