Grades, Interrupted.
Well, that all seems unpleasant and mildly humiliating…
…like my Tuesday.
I was in the process of wrapping up the major research paper. That was expected, and just fine. In fact, we were two days into over time, because I would rather get good papers that demonstrate students knowledge, instead of garbage that happens to have the virtue of arriving on the day that I asked for it. That very central point of universal fairness is at the center of my beef today, True Believers.
I have a few students who have very much “opted out” of the paper for the past two weeks. Some have gone to sleep, in fact. That’s a small number, but an irreducible minimum that are showing up, but just have a Gandhi like refusal to work. One of those students went to an out of classroom staff member to basically lobby for a passing grade, or at least a “D,” in my class for the semester.
That person showed up to my class on Monday, when this request was made. I indicated the sleeping gentleman, woke him up, and then handed him all of the materials that he didn’t have. I explained what had to be done, and offered time after school that day.
“I don’t want to do all of that. I just want to do the final draft. Isn’t that enough?”
My response was that, no, it was not enough. That there was a point to each part of the process, and despite the way things had gone, I’d be around after school to help. That resulted in, “I don’t feel like coming after school, or doing that, so @#$% you.” This was said in front of that out of classroom staffer, and exactly NONE of this is the point. I wasn’t too happy with that staff member attempting to negotiate a change in the grading scale or criteria for one unmotivated student, but that isn’t the beef.
It did, however, light the fuse for Tuesday.
I’m in my class, second period, and now the student who chose to say “@#$% you” has his case carrier make an appearance. She hasn’t really intervened for the entire year, and has a misunderstanding of the assignment. This person wants me to again negotiate grading standards to favor the student, has a number of “explanations” for his conduct, and so forth. I was pretty clear that my job doesn’t involve any of those things, at the end of the day. There’s no grudge for the kid’s behavior, but at the end of the day he has to prove that he has competency in the standards of 10th Grade English. That part IS actually my job. I explained that he was not currently close to the pass line, and had numerous failed assignments in the past…just one paper, no matter how important, wasn’t going to do it unless it was a total home run. Even then, the best we could hope is a “D.”
She left, and five minutes later, ANOTHER adult came to me (in class) to lobby for this. This was my original co-teacher at the Edu-Mountain, who I like and respect. I’m sorry, I should put this in the past tense. Liked and respected.
She proceeded to tell me that:
- I was wrong.
- Academic integrity isn’t important in this.
- My current co-teacher doesn’t know what she’s doing, so her agreement with me was invalid.
- That my grading criteria shouldn’t be what it is.
- That SHE was going to provide some sort of alternate assignment, and give it to him, and then present it to me. At that point, I would change the grade.
- That she would send along some chocolate bars, and we would talk after I cooled off.
The entire time, she kind of condescended to me, on my own deck. Which, as pretty much everyone knows, is NOT SMART. My next class waited outside with my co-teacher, for they wanted NO PART OF SUCH NONSENSE.
I turned to my co-teacher and said, “You’re in charge.”
“When will you be back?”
I took a moment, thought, and said, “You had too many words in that sentence. Take off ‘when’,” and walked off to find my direct supervisor. I found him outside of the main building, and pretty much just asked if I was supposed to just make sure that everyone got C’s. HE was confused, and asked for the backstory, and I relayed it, as on fire as Pony Torch.
While this went on, my former co-teacher walked up, and chimed in again. “Are you still on this?” she asked. I was bewildered, and at more than one point, directly insulted. I actively questioned what the point of my employment was, if it was not expertise in the English language, and the ability to judge competence for passing or not. My former co-teacher walked off, and then my school guidance counselor, the only one that I trust, arrived.
She too had been dispatched…by the first person to talk to me about it, to speak with me. I was irate. However, she had the best advice.
“Just calm down, and let people talk. You know two things. He’s not going to do the work, and you’re the roll book carrying teacher, so the final grade is yours to decide.”
The counselor was right, of course. Calming down was TOUGH, though.
I went back to class, and made some bad jokes. I checked the record…last semester, my class was the only one that this student had gotten a grade higher than D in (in high school), and furthermore, he was already in serious danger of not graduating. I didn’t see why all of the focus had come down on my class, when the semester was looking grim in ALL classes. Four adults had basically been dispatched to advise me to change my grading criteria and grades, just to get this fellow a D.
I’ve been teaching for twenty years (just about) and I have never been pressured to change a grade before. I was upset, appalled, and worst of all…angry that I was being made out to be the Bad Guy in the situation. The fact is…this student has failed most of the assignments. There’s no way that makes the standards of passing.
That’s what Academic Integrity means.
Obviously, the art is about this, metaphorically. That big ol’ science table must turn off super powers or something like that, because Cap hasn’t wrecked it. The big D is what all of the other people think will save the day, and those thugs are just super thugs. Strong guy sort of minions, probably filled with super steroids. They probably subconsciously represent school work, since the Big D is just knocking them aside like they don’t matter.
There are still assignments left. If this fella comes to class, and knocks them out of the park, and maybe does a few assignments from the past that he never did, there’s a chance. That’s fair. I’m not going to be unfair, but I’m not going to change or inflate a grade to something that wasn’t earned.
More importantly, I’m not going to argue about it anymore. The counselor was right, the final decision is mine, and mine alone. That decision will be informed entirely by what the numbers and percentages say…nothing more, nothing less.
That said, I’m still angry about it, and there are several staff members that I simply would rather not see again.
Hang tough, Gentle Readers!
Tales of Adequacy! 