Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Alternatives to dropping a test
I teach chemistry at a medium-sized, public liberal arts institution with small class sizes. I have decided not to drop exam scores because I hate to give students the impression that they only need to learn 2/3 of the material (or 4/5 or 3/4, etc). This is particularly a bad idea for subjects that are so cumulative. Instead, I may make their worst test worth only 10%, when the remainder are worth 20% of their final grade. They are still penalized for a poor performance on an exam, but it gives them a chance to rescue their score if they apply themselves. I do not let students make up exams, either. If they miss an exam for illness, death in the family, fill-in-the-blank, then I assign a score to the missed test-- the average of their remaining tests. Since poor students will often invent excuses to miss an exam in fear of doing poorly again, this gives them no real advantage. The average of their previous and future poor scores will substitute for the missed score. I have a statement in the syllabus that only one exam can be missed for any reason. Another colleague of mine allows students to miss exams, but adds the weight of that exam onto the weight of the final exam. So, if there are 5 tests worth 15% and a final worth 25%, a student who misses an exam for any reason now has a final exam that is worth 40%. It makes a student with the sniffles evaluate how sick they really are. A student that hands in an assignment late can only receive as a maximum the lowest score of student work that was handed in on time. So if Suzy turned in her work on time but only got a 60 out of 100 points, then Joey who turned his assignment in late can only get 60 points, even if the assignment is perfect. I have found these policies to minimize excuses because there are options open to them, but usually the skipping/late option is worse.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
As someone who spent one week of a class running a high fever and lying on the floor so I wouldn't throw up--but I couldn't afford to miss class--not being able to make up that tests would really have upset me. Not that going to class and doing the homework really helped much in that class--I was stunned to get a B--but at least I wasn't vomiting by the weekend of fieldwork.
I do understand what you're trying to do, but in my experience at least I always did worse on make-up tests (perhaps because I was usually still sick). I don't think students need even *more* encouragement to drag themselves to class when really sick, prolonging their recovery time and exposing others to the illness--there's already too much of in both school and the work world.
Try not to have a grading plan that only a mathematician would understand.
have to agree with m. above. the way we punish people for not being robots who can make it to their daily chore (school, work, whatever) every single day unless they have an "acceptable" excuse bothers me. it did as a student and it does as an instructor. if a student doesn't come to class, something is wrong. we think the acceptable "wrongs" are 1) illness or 2) death in the family. but i have had students miss because of severe depression, anxiety, concern for a sick pet, childcare cancellation, and many other reasons, and i would rather my students be honest with me than lie about why they were absent. (i myself only had 1 instructor in my entire academic career with whom i would be completely honest about why something was late instead of suddenly being "sick" and that was because she understood that schoolwork shouldn't always come first and encouraged us to keep in touch with her throughout the semester about how we were doing.) i expect honesty and hard work from my students, and i get it because i don't force them to lie and i don't punish them for being humans instead of academic robots. our culture is messed up enough about the role of work. it's no wonder younger generations are beginning to question our priorities.
This is so easily remedied. I just give more tests and, therefore, weight them less. Rather than giving only a few tests that are worth a huge percentage of the grade, I give 6 tests, each of which is worth only 5% of the grade. That way, if a student misses a test, she/he is only out a small amount and can still earn an A. If another test is missed, a good passing grade is still possible. If the person misses a THIRD test, she/he can still pass, but the grade will be affected (plus, keep in mind that that's HALF the tests, and it's over a 16 week semester!).
Post a Comment