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> I never understood the point of rigid grading schemes My wife is a college psychology professor and is fairly strict with her grading scheme. She makes this

> I never understood the point of rigid grading schemes My wife is a college psychology professor and is fairly strict with her grading scheme. She makes this clear on the first day of class and spells it out directly, in bold, on the syllabus. Her rationale is this: The likelihood of you asking for extra credit, or excuses, or various "grade grubbing" activities is largely influenced by your socioeconomic background. Students who make special grading requests overwhelmingly skew white and female and are more likely to take place at institutions that take students from more affluent backgrounds. She doesn't want her grading inadvertently biased against males, non-whites, or less affluent students so her grades are final. Despite this inflexibility, her student evaluations are sky-high.

ineedasername 8y ago
That's an interesting stance, I haven't noticed that pattern but the composition of colleges varies greatly. In any case, I get around the whole "grade grubbing" issue by having my policy of "extra" work spelled out, also up front on the syllabus. No one gets anything extra just for bugging me about it. Basically it amounts to allowing homework assignments to be re-done (once). A single quiz grade can be replaced by doing some fairly difficult extra problems. No makeups on the midterm and final, but a research project can be done to get up to 5 points on their final grade. Beyond that I hold office hours and happily spend them further helping students with anything they're stuck on. Short of (provable) extenuating circumstances, that's about it. I even ask for a police report for students claiming "car accident" for things like missing a quiz. (In one case, a student told me there wasn't one because it was just a minor accident that scratched the side view mirror... I pointed out that an accident like that wouldn't have prevented them showing up to class, even if it was a few minutes late.)
- Analemma_ 8y ago
  It’s absolutely true. My wife teaches in a lower-income district where many families are African or Asian immigrants, and she loves it precisely because she gets no such bullshit from parents. When their kids misbehave or get poor grades, they apologize to her and promise the kid will do better next time. I hate to say it, but this “customer is always right”mentality is totally a problem specific to well-off whites.
  - sgustard 8y ago
    True in other domains too. My brother's a doctor and prefers working in a lower-income neighborhood, where he never gets challenged by patients doing internet research. Of course the lack of knowledge of the "rules" that allow you to challenge authority is part of what keeps people economically disadvantaged.
kaitai 8y ago
Perhaps because I teach math, my grade-grubbers definitely skew male. The women just figure they're bad at math and the world is fine with that assessment.

ineedasername 8y ago

That's an interesting stance, I haven't noticed that pattern but the composition of colleges varies greatly. In any case, I get around the whole "grade grubbing" issue by having my policy of "extra" work spelled out, also up front on the syllabus. No one gets anything extra just for bugging me about it. Basically it amounts to allowing homework assignments to be re-done (once). A single quiz grade can be replaced by doing some fairly difficult extra problems. No makeups on the midterm and final, but a research project can be done to get up to 5 points on their final grade. Beyond that I hold office hours and happily spend them further helping students with anything they're stuck on. Short of (provable) extenuating circumstances, that's about it. I even ask for a police report for students claiming "car accident" for things like missing a quiz. (In one case, a student told me there wasn't one because it was just a minor accident that scratched the side view mirror... I pointed out that an accident like that wouldn't have prevented them showing up to class, even if it was a few minutes late.)

Analemma_ 8y ago
It’s absolutely true. My wife teaches in a lower-income district where many families are African or Asian immigrants, and she loves it precisely because she gets no such bullshit from parents. When their kids misbehave or get poor grades, they apologize to her and promise the kid will do better next time. I hate to say it, but this “customer is always right”mentality is totally a problem specific to well-off whites.
- sgustard 8y ago
  True in other domains too. My brother's a doctor and prefers working in a lower-income neighborhood, where he never gets challenged by patients doing internet research. Of course the lack of knowledge of the "rules" that allow you to challenge authority is part of what keeps people economically disadvantaged.

kaitai 8y ago

Perhaps because I teach math, my grade-grubbers definitely skew male. The women just figure they're bad at math and the world is fine with that assessment.