My advice to avoid these problems is to put on your syllabus that "no extra
work will be permitted at the end of the semester in order to raise your
grade." Then if you get emails refer them to the syllabus. My experience has
been that many students aim for the minimum scores to get the grade they want
and miss it by 1-2 points. They will have to live with it and it could teach
them an important lesson in self discipline and time allocation, perhaps even a
little maturity.
In my opinion, if you raise a grade because they want it, or allow them to do
extra work to raise their grade, then morally, ethically, and legally, you have
to give every one of your students extra points or a chance to do extra work,
or you are showing preferential treatment.
What lession are you teaching them? Beg or threaten me and I will cave in? Do
you think their chosen professions are going to tolerate that crap? They
probably are trying it on you because it worked on some high school teachers or
some of your peers. The question that you have to answer is "Is your goal to be
popular by being easy to manipulate, or being the best educator you can be,
which includes setting standards that they are expected to accept, or drop the
course?"
I remember a few years ago when there were articles about how grades of C, D,
and F, were disappearing from many universities including the Ivy League.
Students and their parents were initially delighted. The end result was that
the value of a degree from those schools decreased and then those same students
and parents were crying about all the money they spent, expecting special
treatment from the real world that wasn't coming.
I love that guy {I think he was at Harvard} that posted two sets of grades,
what he was giving them because of administrative pressure, and what they
really deserved.
Giving unjustified inflated grades lessens the value of the degree and is not
fair to the students who really worked to earn the grades they received. Just
my opinion after 27 years at the funpark.
Richard Pisacreta, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology
Ferris State University
Big Rapids, MI 49307
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: tips@acsun.frostburg.edu
Sent: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 1:13 PM
Subject: [tips] Re: final grades
Bourgeois, Dr. Martin wrote:
> > > OK, after turning my final grades in, I've encountered a new phenomenon
> > > (for me) and I'm wondering if others have experienced similar situations.
> > > Three students have emailed to tell me that they are not happy with their
> > > final grade (or that it's 'unacceptable'), and they want to know what
> > > they can do to raise it to a grade that is more to their liking. I've had
> > > last minute questions like this before, but never AFTER final grades are
> > > in. Is it just me, or is it my new institution, or is it a generational
> > > thing (I'm teaching lower-level undergrad classes for the first time in
> > > eight years)? Any advice on how to respond? > > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
This happened to me this semester also. The student emailed me asking that I
regrade her exam because she didn't get the 'B' that she wanted in my class.
I was flabbergasted that she repeated her request in a subsequent email after I
wrote her that she had received the grade she earned.
This was a first for me.
Ken
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
---------------------------------------------------------------
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