Hold the Line on Final Grades

As you know from yesterday's post, there have been students who have lobbied for "something more to do" to get a few more points to get an "A" and there is not.  Reason being, there are dozens of assignments in my classes each semester ranging from papers to exams to group projects to creative projects to worksheets, and more.  In sum, I use a wide variety of teaching methods and corresponding assessments to determine if students are -- or are not -- mastering the course objecives.  For example, in my HR course there are 16 worksheets from the text that covers every chapter in the required text (which reminds me, if you are requiring students to buy books for your class and they never crack it all semester I say "Shame on You!").  There are also 10 video case studies, an exam, an essay, and a team video case study. 

When all is said and done the assignments are worth 1,650 points.  The cut-off for an A is 93% in all my classes, with a B betweeen 80 to 92, a C between 70 to 79, and so forth. 

I entered final grades for the HR class earlier today.  I went right down the grading sheet and assigned the final grade based on the percentage of points associated with each letter grade.  I followed the ranges without fail meaning those students who earned 92% of the total points possible got a B.  In fact, no student who was one point away from getting the next higher grade got that grade because they did not earn it when given the chance over the course of the semester.  Indeed I make no compromises for any students when entering final grades.  One reason is that if I give an A to the kid who was one point away that changes the grading scale to 92% and then suddenly those who were 2 points away from an A are now 1 point away.  Shouldn't they get an A, too?

I am sad to say that there were two students who ended up with 59% of the total points possible and were given the F they earned.  This is not my problem, this is their problem.  Had they handed in one more worksheet, or attended one more case study, or missed one less class where attendance was taken they would have passed.  But the truth of the matter is that they did not do what they needed to do when they had the chance to pass and I refuse to reward lackluster students with grades they did not earn.

So the message for today is, hold the line when giving out final grades!  Do not make concessions for one student unless you are willing to do the exact same thing for all of the kids in your class.  Have confidence in your grading -- unless, of course you are one of those teachers who are too lazy or stupid to give students more than a midterm and final to assess learning, which is an utterly unreliable measure of student learning.