The Great Grading Debate

So there is a debate going on in my school district right now about how to grade 6th-12th grade students during the pandemic school closures. Most teachers have been reporting between 30-50% student participation in virtual learning assignments, with a rare outlying handful of teachers getting 60-70% participation. Again, this debate ONLY APPLIES TO 6TH-12TH GRADE STUDENTS, not elementary students.

Last week, the 6th-12th grade principals held a meeting and were split between giving students zeros for not submitting their work (but accepting work late without deducting points for lateness) or giving students an 'incomplete' for work that hasn't been submitted. Because of this split, one principal (in the 'give students zeros' group) proposed giving students a 70 for work that has not been submitted, pointing out that if a student turns in one assignment and gets a 100, then turns in nothing else and all other assignments are marked as incomplete, that student will receive a final grade of 100 based on one single assignment in a 9 week period. That statement seemed to have an impact on the principals who were arguing for giving incompletes.

I've seen many debates about grading outside the virtual instruction scenario we currently find ourselves in, and I usually fall on the side of giving students zeros for having done no work, but being lenient about late work (after all, students are just learning how to be responsible individuals, they need guidance and support). To me, giving incompletes or 70's (considered a passing grade) for doing no work at all reinforces to students that they can skate through life doing nothing and still get by, which will not be the case for them in college or in their jobs/careers. The teachers in my district are required to keep a log of work-related activities completed daily and justify our positions under threat of not getting paid, and the idea of turning around and giving incompletes or passing grades to students who are doing nothing is a complete 180--it blows my mind that people don't see the hypocrisy there.

My proposal would be to give a grade of 50 (or even 30) on un-submitted assignments so their lack of effort is still considered failing and still reflected in their overall grade for the quarter, but to make it clear, students can submit late work at any point during the remainder of the year with no penalty for lateness--if their work on an assignment submitted 3 weeks late would have earned a 100 if submitted on time, it still earns a 100 submitted 3 weeks late. A failing grade of 50 instead of 0 gives students a realistic picture of their lackluster (or nonexistent) performance, but still allows hope for them to pull their grade back up to passing instead of being overwhelmed seeing so many zeros. But of course... this decision isn't up to me as a lowly teacher employee.

I'm just curious what your thoughts are? What would you do in this situation?

Submitted April 05, 2020 at 11:34AM by blushr00m https://ift.tt/3e0z52u