Good kids gave me the feeling that they actually tried and cared about the subject matter and their grades, but their life circumstances prevented them from doing as well as they could have. Regular attendance, class participation, and general courtesy especially for lab definitely reflect strongly on a student. And trust me, I often felt the same way in college about not being able to dedicated the amount of attention I would to a class.
To be fair as a general rule I would just bump up anyone on the border. 89->90, 79->80, 69->70 (though I saw only one of these ever). Students who had a death in their immediate family or were victims of violence during the semester would occasionally be bumped up a point or two more depending on their demonstrated effort. Border stragglers were so infrequent it didn't really matter especially since my departments forced an artificial distribution of grades in a particular a practice I wholeheartedly disagree with. The students who did not understand this though I was unnecessarily difficult compared to other instructors, but those who understood realized at least I wasn't saying you're doing fine you'll get an A when in reality they would get a B due to departmental rules limiting the number of As I could hand out.
Those sorts of restrictions are absurd considering the variability of students from section to section. For example, my early morning sections were always more difficult to get As in because people who sign up for early morning classes are usually of two types: go-getters or kids who got last pick of classes. My afternoon were usually filled with kids who did not care about their grades as much and who actively sought out a more relaxed/later schedule. In the AM section there were a lot more type-A people competing for the same amount of As as in my PM section. Raw scores were always higher in the AM section, but due to departmental grade fitting I was forced to give people in my AM section a B who would have earned an A in my PM section based on raw scores. And some of the students who earned an A in the PM section would have had a B in the AM section. It was impossible to take my department's grade policy seriously after I realized this.
As for failing students, I would bump them up more than just a point depending on the circumstances. But I was always honest with those students struggling or who had no chance of passing that perhaps it would be best if they dropped the course and attempted it again later. I would allow them to drop without any sort of negative remark like withdrew failing. Almost all of them took my advice and dropped.
I didn't pick favorites to bump up or be lenient with. Even this one kid who constantly rubbed me the wrong way got bumped up from 89->90, and a fair number of students who I learned evaluated me negatively for being too difficult were also bumped up. The only students I did not bump up were those who visibly did not make an effort to master the material or show up.
I never told any of my students or former students I bumped them up. Nor did I tell my department who probably would have fired me on the spot. Tenured professors have the luxury of making course policies with a participation/professionalism grade which allows them to adjust grades without any sort of oversight/objection, but I certainly did not.
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order 
Golden Teacher Liquid Culture For Sale
Edit 
Reply 
I am now getting a 3.5! I was able to remove my tracks and feel pretty confident that nothing bad will come of this. Only thing I couldnt change was the modified date on the document, which I doubt he would see or think twice about. wish me luck 
.
