There is a longstanding debate about whether traditional grading—letter grades based on a student’s content knowledge, classroom behavior, and extra credit—appropriately measures student success. Students often ask for additional assignments to bump their grade to an A or to avoid failing a class, but that kind of extra credit doesn’t necessarily increase their content knowledge, some critics say.
Additionally, some educators find extra credit to be inequitable, since it could unfairly benefit students with more resources or time to complete additional coursework.
Some teachers don’t allow extra credit at all, and in some school districts, there are school- or gradewide policies prohibiting the practice.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education policy think tank, released a report earlier this year that surveyed teachers on their views of “equitable grading,” which consists of 11 policy changes to traditional grading.
About half the respondents said their district or school had adopted one of five policies from the survey, including: no zeroes, no penalties for late work, unlimited retakes on tests and quizzes, no credit for completing homework, and no credit for class participation. However, only 2% stated that all five policies had been adopted.
As schools experiment with the best way to assess students’ performance; extra credit remains a divisive topic. In an informal LinkedIn poll, 39% of the 971 respondents said students should receive opportunities for extra credit, while 34% said students should not be permitted to complete extra credit assignments. Twenty-seven percent said it depends.
In social media comments, educators shared more details about their beliefs on extra credit. Here are some of their responses, edited lightly for length and clarity.
Extra credit can benefit students, some educators say
What matters to me is that a student learns more or raises their level of understanding. If a student doesn’t perform well on an assignment or test, it shouldn’t be the end all: rather, it’s a new starting place to improve upon. Students learn at different paces, and we all make mistakes that we can learn from. Providing extra credit to allow a student to fix mistakes and show a higher level of understanding (and get a better grade) can help motivate the student to learn.
Extra credit can be used as a way to further personalize learning, address students’ individual interests, and polish their multiple intelligences. It can also be used as a reward for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Giving extra credit can be nuanced
For students who go above and beyond the scope of a lesson or project criteria—absolutely. When standards-based grading is used to avoid teacher biases and ensure equity in grading practices…that is non-behavior grading and provided ALL students in the course have equal access to earn the “extra credit.” Generally, however, I do not offer extra credit as a means to make up missed assignments or as an alternative to completing the assignment, which has value.
It depends on the student who has been putting their best effort into performance, but sometimes unforeseen things suddenly happen. In these cases, the student should be able to get extra credit for makeup [work], otherwise, no one should get extra credit. Most of the time, a teacher’s reputation is based on liking and not. It’s my own experience that if you give extra credit, then you are known as a good teacher, whereas if you don’t, then you’re known as a tough and bad teacher. Once you get a reputation as good or bad, then students get away with their mistakes.
Extra credit does have its place [in] education; however, too often it is used to falsely elevate a student’s grade by giving them trivial work in order to improve a percentage in the class. However, if it is truly used as a tool for personalization and to allow students to dive more deeply into a subject, then, of course, it is another tool teachers can use.
Some educators don’t believe in extra credit, with few or no exceptions
Extra credit should be going above and beyond expectations, not an easy method for covering up poor choices for the rest of the grading period.
Why give extra credit? Instead, allow students to retake tests if they struggle. It is about learning the subject rather than just getting a grade for an extra assignment.
Basically, no. A grade should reflect what a student knows and can do. Often, extra credit is even an equity issue—the kids who have more time, privilege, resources, and help at home do the extra credit, and the rich get richer.
