“Is there, like, anything extra I can do to get my grade up?”
A student of mine—let’s call her Emily—asked me that question at the end of one class last year. We had recently finished a test on factoring, which she had been struggling with. When I handed back her first test, I could see how it broke her. The look on her face said that once again, she had failed. Once again, she had fallen short. I didn’t have the chance to speak with her in that moment, but she approached me later to ask the question.
As teachers, we’ve all heard this question. It lurks in the shadow of your daily classroom life. It sneaks out as the end of term approaches and grades start to solidify, when students realize that their B-minus won’t magically turn into an A or that they haven’t turned enough in to eke out a passing grade.
Of course, as educators, we should be encouraging—and maybe even incentivizing—learning experiences for students. We want them to experience the world and develop both their knowledge and their learning ability across a wide range of both academic and nonacademic subjects. It makes some sense that some educators would choose to offer extra credit for extracurricular work.
On the other hand, if we incentivize self-directed learning outside the classroom, the student who has to work after (and sometimes during school hours) to put food on their table or to help keep a roof over their head doesn’t have a level playing field with the student who comes from a financially stable background. I’ve had both students in my classroom.
I think the real conversation is about the role of grades and how we approach grading. In my perfect world, we wouldn’t have grades at all, which would eliminate this issue entirely. Since we don’t live in my perfect world, we need to return to the question our student asked at the beginning of this essay.
For me, the answer is no. There isn’t anything extra, but there is plenty they can do to improve their grade. I believe that grades should reflect student understanding. That understanding is going to change over time, even for topics the class has already covered. This means that as long as a student is willing to learn, I won’t penalize them for where they started. In my class, students can finish their assignments and retake tests as many times as necessary to demonstrate their understanding.
Ultimately, my goal as a teacher is to help my students develop their understanding of the material we’re learning and to develop the skill to learn. I don’t want grades to stand between my students and learning, which can happen when a student sees their grade is lower than they’d hoped. Instead of students chasing an arbitrary point total, I want their grades to be an ongoing reflection of where they are.
I want the grade to not be the end goal in and of itself. My students can return to assignments and get a new grade that reflects their new level of understanding or take the extra time they need to complete them fully in the first place. I believe work is only late when a term has ended. I give my students the time they need to learn at their own pace.
Finally, I want it to be simple. I don’t want to wade into the mire of 50% for incomplete assignments, or hard deadlines (aside from the end of term, which is a hard deadline in my classroom), or creating make-up assignments for extra credit. I want my students to be able to engage in the learning process in a meaningful way that encourages them to persevere, even when they are frustrated. While not every student will embrace this philosophy, there are some who do, like Emily.
“Is there, like, anything extra I can do to get my grade up?”
I answered no and I saw her sink. But then we spoke about how grades aren’t a measure of worth or value or anything other than her current grasp of the material. We spoke about how this is not fixed in stone and how I would work with her to make sure she understood the material, and her grade would update to reflect that. We made a plan to work together, and by the end of the conversation, Emily was prepared to continue learning. Eventually, she understood both that test and my class material.
Students want to succeed. Unfortunately, for too many of them, success is measured by the final grade, not the understanding that grade represents. This is why we have students offering to clean up classrooms or write an extra essay instead of the one assigned just to get extra credit.
Our students want to succeed, and it’s not their fault that grades are often designed as a reward for completion instead of encouraging learning.
We need to rethink our grading systems. When a student reaches out seeking a better mark, we should feel comfortable explaining why knowledge building is what matters and that grades will come with their learning.
