« The Virtues of Fair Trade . . . hmmmmm. | Main | Execution. Gangs. Repentence. »
December 20, 2005
Ah, Grade Protests in an age of Electronic Grade Submission
We at these Colleges finally implemented electronic grade submission last year (I pass over in silence the very annoying temporary failure of the pdf forms for D, F, and Incomplete grades this semester); I served on the ad hoc implementation committee -- ah, community service I actually care about!
So, I submit my grades yesterday morning -- nineish? Then I carry the physical I/D/F forms in (not just mine, a packet for a colleague of mine who, after hours of trying to get -- oh - I was going to pass over that in silence. Right.).
The first grade protest showed up at 4:17 p.m. (by email, so it has that handy timestamp). This protest has all the best elements my "higher" education readers will recognize from their own experiences! Before I go into details, let me say that he/she* earned an 84% and I gave her a B. She wants a B+.
You see, he/she* made a 60 on the first paper -- but that was because he/she mistakenly turned in the rough draft and I cruelly (going on the appearance of a cleanly printed paper with a title page) assumed that he/she meant to submit it and graded it. Then I had had the effrontery to tell him/her that the no-rewrite policy included "mistakes" like hers. But he/she's really protesting because he/she understands how the spreadsheet would indeed produce the 84 which gave him/her a B (of course, he/she said "I understand how you got my grade." My first impulse is always to respond, "No, you got the grade. I'm just the person explaining it to you.") and I told him/her that I take improvement into consideration. So I open the spreadsheet (available to him/her, by the way, via Blackboard) and see that he/she earned a 60, an 81, and an 86 on the three papers. Improvement, yes -- but he/she never reached the empyrean zone of a B+, which starts at 87 for my students.
But wait, there's more! You see, he/she insists that's it unfair that his/her (unnamed, but clearly from the email female) friend made a higher grade for the semester though she had poor attendance and never participated. My (never to be stated - you can't go that far) questions - how does he/she know her obviously untrustworthy (because so lazy) friend's grade -- by his/her friend's self-report? Is his/her friend a better writer (which the reader may imagine is not difficult)?
Don't stop there! You see, he/she really, reeeeeeealllly neeeeeds a B+. Not for law school or medical school (sadly, because I have been known to glare at people with the "If it's my third of a letter grade keeping you away from sick people, thank goodness!" glare) but for a term abroad program.
Cry me a river.
I restrained all my wicked, unseasonal impulses (after all, Santa hasn't been to visit yet) and waited. I'll send him/her a temperate response today. Somehow these things were better when they had to wait for their grades until after Christmas -- at least they didn't intrude themselves on my mood until they could help me kick the New Year off right.
*Use of slashed pronouns is to preserve the anonymity of the student, even though I can't imagine any way any reader would be able to figure out which of the many, many similar protests zinging around the country this week mine is.
Update, 2nd week of the next semester: In the true fashion of people who complain only in an attempt to get something they know they don't deserve, I have yet to hear from her again. Stonewalling can work.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at December 20, 2005 7:47 AM