Job Discussion Forums

[Jetgirly]

So, as the end of the term rolls around I am doing two things: calculating students' grades for the third and final term, and averaging their grades from the three terms to forecast their final grade. At the school I teach at, anything below 70% is considered a failing grade. For the past two terms I have rounded 68% and 69% up to 70%, but 67% and below remains as is. Students whose final, cumulative grade is below 70% have to pay extra to attend summer school, and students on scholarhips lose their financial aid for failing a class (for almost all of them, this means next year they will have to go to public school).

Unfortunately, this term quite a few of my students have elected not to hand in their work. They are fully capable of completing the assignments, and I have badgered them about late assignments (despite the "official" zero-for-lates policy), but they simply haven't got the work done. Some have flat out refused, others have invented imaginative stories, none have provided me with the official document you need to excuse an assignment. As a consequence, about 35% of my class is going to end up in summer school, simply because they haven't handed in their work.

So now I am looking at my grades and wondering, "Should I change that mark?" I know that many of the students are more than capable of passing the class, but I have no proof because of how little work they have submitted. On the other hand, I believe that attending summer school could be the kick in the butt a lot of these kids need to be more motivated and organized next year... but quite a few of them won't be back next year because they can't afford it without their scholarship. The school's "official policy" is that I should give these students their 66%s and 67%s (either for the added profit of summer school tuition or to somehow attempt to validate the marks) but I know that lots of teachers fudge things here and there, on an even bigger scale than I have been doing.

Two questions:

1. Should I raise failing grades? If so, what criteria should I use to determine whose grades I raise and whose I don't? Should it be solely a mathematical thing, or should tales of financial woe and violently-unhappy parents come into play?
2. Do you manipulate grades? Why or why not?

[johnslat]

Dear jetgirly,
I voted "Never - it's morally wrong", but I would have been happier with "Never - it's ethically wrong."
1. No
2. No - and one BIG reason is because it can all too easily become a "slippery slope." You start off "manipulating" one or two grades and, gee, it becomes not at all hard to "manipulate" more of them. As a professional (and despite the snickers, yes - I consider myself a professional with a professional code of ethics) your integrity is not something that should be compromised. Like, say, virginity, once it's gone, it's gone forever (and ow I'm going to get posters telling about "operations" that can "restore" virginity, no doubt.)
If I see someone is failing, I TELL them what's going to happen and, if necessary, give them the opportunity to gain "extra credit" by doing extra work.
Yes, there are probably lost of teachers that "fudge", just as there are policemen on the take, crooked lawyers, and sloppy doctors whose malpractice injures or kills. But just because "others" do it is not, in my book, a good reason if it's something I consider to be wrong to do.
But this is something you'll have to decide for yourself. I'm by no means claiming that my particular view of what's ethical and what's not should apply to everyone or even to every case.
As your students likely already know, everyone has to accept (sooner or later) the consequences of their behavior. I think that applies to us teachers as well.
Regards,
John

[Girl Scout]

1. You should not raise the grades any higher. The students have not done the work. They have not earned any sympathy from you.

2. Grading is subjective. My classes do not hand in assignments or take tests with only one right answer. There is no "slippery slope" here. I have been manipulating the grades since I started. No matter how hard I try, in the end the grades are based on my opinion. That leaves me the option of raising or lowering the grade based on one final subjective evaluation.

IMO the way you have been grading and the criteria for raising or lowering the grade should not change from what you have been doing. Consistency is a valued trait in a teacher.

[Jetgirly]

I particularly object to the whole "bonus assignment" culture because my students honestly expect activities like word searches and coloring sheets to replace essays, as that is what their other teachers allow. My students definitely have the attitude that they don't need to do the work the first time around because if they wait until the end of the semester they can get a quick and easy bonus assignment because they know their teachers don't want to make big assignments in the last day or two before final grades have to be entered into the computer. They have been informed of their mark to date on a bi-weekly basis since February and I have told them time and again that the way to improve their mark is to do the work well the first time around. Cut to the following week when I get three assignments cut and pasted from Wikipedia, one from the New York Times and two that were written by a student but are identical. Cut to the next week where I get fewer than half the assignments in, for reasons varying from spider bites to coffee spilled on laptops to "I thought we were supposed to hand in a blank sheet of paper" (really!).

The reason that I have typically rounded 68% and 69% up to 70% is that in a course that is primarly writing-based, even with all of my detailed rubrics I know that the grade I give could vary by a few percentage points depending on a number of external factors. When I did my K-12 certification this rounding up was definitely recommended by both of my supervising teachers, one of whom is a semi-famous educator who has actually published a book on assessment and does the convention circuit every spring (he only teaches in the fall).

[denise]

If there is a subjective component to the grade--say, a participation mark or something--I might move it up (being careful not to get into the slippery slope issue... if you change one, why not all??). I won't change test marks or give them credit for homework that they didn't do, though. In those cases, I just let the computer do the calculating.

d

[johnslat]

Dear Jetgirly,
I could be quite wrong, but I get the feeling that although your original post was cast as a question, seemingly seeking advice and opinions, you've pretty much made up your mind about what you're going to do, and what you're actually seeking is support for your "near-decision."
And that's fine.
However, regarding your post about "the bonus assignment culture" (why do I get the impression that's pejorative?) if I might make a comment or two - you say " . . . because my students honestly expect activities like word searches and coloring sheets to replace essays, as that is what their other teachers allow."
Umm, do you often let your students' expectations of getting "busy-work" (or any other expectations they may have of getting the grade with the least amount of effort) dictate your behavior? Actually, I can usually tell whether students are likely to fail a good while before "the end of the semester", so I don't wait until then to give them the option of doing extra (real) work or of failing.
How do you handle the examples (Wiki, NYT, spider bites, etc.) you mentioned? Do you let them get away with such excuses? If you do, I'd say you're setting yourself up for getting LOTS more of the same.
I don't see anything wrong with "rounding off" a 69% to a seventy (if you think the student deserves that) and I agree completely with denise regarding any "subjective" component. But I also agree with these comments of hers:

"I won't change test marks or give them credit for homework that they didn't do, though. In those cases, I just let the computer do the calculating. "

Regards,
John

[naturegirl321]

I was asked by my old school to change marks so that kids passed. At another jobs, things were automatically rounded up. But I wouldn't do it on my own.

[Jetgirly]

[arioch36]

I apologize, I write this haviing just arrived home at 6 AM. I am also just doing my marking, and I have an interesting case.
I have taught reading, writing, movie, tourism, math, and of course, lots of oral english.

Do i fudge marks? Interesting question to ask myself.

I see JohnSlat's big NO! and i would say the two people i would listen to most are Glenski and then John. That is to say, if i see them say something that is contrary to my ideas, I say whoa! (did I spell that right?) maybe I should rethink this.
If a student gets a 58 for a final mark and has no more then one absence, he (he, yeah always a he) gets a 60. How low would I go? Well, I have never had a student come to all classes, and try, who has not been able to score very close to a 60. With this, I guess I am with jetgirly, I feel my marking has a "margin of error". I tell my students, if you have a 69 and you have attended all classes, you will get a 70. My policy is to give as much as two points based on my totally ... subjective is the wrong word... professional opinion on their overall classroom performance. Attendance is the clearly objective part. But I view how theyact in the class to be more important. The more important the marker, the more subjective it becomes.

This year, oral, we did group debates. I told the students that is one person failed in the group, they would all have to go again, until that person passed. No one came near to failing, excellent job by all. I am sure I will try this policy again.

In my Social Work class I have had one boy who is very marginal. He had three abscences, which without some real documentation of a real problem (or a candid talk) means five points off. Five absences (with no litigating circumstances) the student is not permitted to take the final.
The other classes, all the final were in one class period. For several reasons, I did the social work finals over three weeks. This boy went the first week, got a 40. I felt making him do the final again was more useful then failing him ( a new policy of mine). Second time, maybe a 55. Not good enough. I said go again. Third time, marginally maybe a 65 if I a in a good mood. I decided this would be close enough fo me to award him a 60 with some misgivings. (if he failed he would have to pay the school 500 RMb and take the test next year, with pass fail based soley on the test.
Last day of class was a movie. This doesn't happen very often. Class as a whole did excellent work, and we were finished early, and I promised them. But this was a real class, attendance taken. Boy doesn't come (8:30 class) sends a messagein response to a student's message, that he has a stomach ache. Asking around, seems he has lots of these. Espeially for his morning classes.

Told his classmates ... he just failed. (most of his classmates were quite happy with this)

Sorry for the length. The Peanut gallery is open

[johnslat]

Thanks arioch36 for your kind words. But you know, rereading my posts, I think I come across as way too black-and-white, too strait-laced.
My big NO shouldn't have been so BIG. It all depends on the individual case.
I've been known to "nudge" a 59 or even a 58 up to a 60 - if the student is question seems to me to be really trying. Most of the time my grades are calculated by a mixture of objective and "subjective" grades. Quizzes and test are objective, participation is subjective. I tell the students at the beginning of a course that participation is important to me. I even define participation: 1. Being here; 2, Being awake; 3. Asking/answering questions, doing in-class exercises. But I also know that students have different personalities: some are outgoing, some are shy. And the shy ones aren't likely to participate as much. So, I also take into account what many shy ones do: talk to me before and after class, often asking questions then rather than in front of the rest of the students. As for homework, well what I do probably wouldn't work with lower grades, but I tell the students: If you do the homework and all the answers are right, you get 100%; if all the answers are wrong, you get 100%; if you don't so it (and don't have a "good" excuse), you get 0%.
I see homework as a way of learning, and heck, you only really learn from your mistakes. So I hope they DO make lots of mistakes on the homework.
So, I guess the bottom line is - it depends on the student. If I have one who comes to class and seems to be trying. I'll "nudge" her/his grade a point or two. But if I have one who's absent a lot and who doesn't seem to be there even when he/she IS there, then, ho nudgies.
But I came on so strong because I've seen too many teachers get on that "slippery slope" and, before they knew it, their grades were almost all creative fiction.
So, yes - nudge every now and then, but have your own set of standards about who (likely) merits a nudge and who doesn't.

[rusmeister]

[arioch36]

[gaijinalways]

It depends if there is an advantage to failing them. Sometimes there isn't, especially if the school will pass them anyway.

[Jetgirly]

Ohhhh... they drive me crazy. Today I made a student be kicked out of school because I gave him a failing mark in my class. Nevermind that a student needs to fail five (out of eight) classes to fail. It's all my fault!

I really don't get it. I taught in Canada for the two years prior to this, and while the vast majority of my students worked hard and handed in all of their work, those who didn't accepted the consequences. In the ten or twelve classes I taught in Canada before coming here, I never once had a student get violent, cry or beg on their knees after receiving a low mark. Where is the self-respect here?

[MO39]