Dear Grade Grubbing Gertrude,
I posted the grades for your class less than four hours ago. In less than four hours, you have already sent me not one but two emails asking why you received an AB in my course instead of an A. You say, "I don't think the work I turned in for your class was that bad." And guess what -- I agree! It wasn't that bad. In fact, I think your work was quite good. If I didn't think your work was quite good, you wouldn't have earned an AB. What I would love to know is, when did an AB become a bad grade?
Here's a secret: only two students in your class of nineteen earned an A. On the lower end, nobody failed but there was one D. Most of your classmates earned Bs and Cs. Your AB, from my perspective, is a grade to be proud of. It means you not only did the work, but you did it well. You demonstrated original thought. You put effort into expressing that thought. Your presentations didn't suck. In short, you exceeded my expectations.
However, that doesn't mean that you blew me away. There was room for deeper analysis in your written work, and definitely in your presentations. You could have contributed more to class discussion, particularly to respond to your classmates' points of view. Call me old fashioned, but I still believe that an "A" should mean "exceptional work with little room for improvement." You did good, but you didn't do that good. Very few people did.
So quit yer whining, be proud of the work you did, and drink yourself into oblivion. Isn't that what break is for?
Love,
Professor Mitch
What's an AB? Is it the equivalent of an A-?
ReplyDeleteAt my current university, we only have A, B, C, D, and F. Which leaves no space for "almost an A", etc.
I've tried arguing "a B is a good grade" too. It never works.
ReplyDeleteClarissa, if they are within a few points of the A cutoff, on a B, they are still going to argue they "almost" got an A and beg to be bumped up.
ReplyDeleteThis site is a find, by gods!
ReplyDeleteAnd I could complain all day (I'm an excellent complainer) about grade inflations and undergrad expectations. My adviser told us at our first grading meeting -- for an *enormous* 'required' class she needed five TAs (each assigned 25 students, plus her own 25) to handle -- that an 'A' is earned merely by accuracy and completeness, leaving no room to reward individual brilliance.
If the facts are there, more or less (and less rather often than more, I'm sorry to say), we gave full marks. Despite the fact that the question explicitly asks for analysis, and said analysis was usually a single sentence (frequently -- but not always -- framed as, "and I feel like this is mean because it is so unfair to...").
I often wondered how these poor students would do under an Indian system, where my peers and I worked harder than I saw most of them work and ended up with final scores between 60 and 75 percent.
[Which is classified as a high first class, just in case you were wondering).
I was at a school that modified to that A, AB, B, BC, C, system and it was all just bullshit. It was another way to turn a B into an (almost) A. It made students "feel" better.
ReplyDeleteTruly, there is no one sadder, and eventually angrier, than the student with the 89 average. Never mind that s/he is in the top 10% of the class, never mind that I'm thrilled by the kids who got to the top 80s and above. No, 89 is on his fifth grade-grubbing email to me, each one getting angrier and angrier.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReally, the part that bothers me most about this inflated expectation to match inflated grades is the fact that in giving mediocrity -- or good work -- the signifier of excellence, I have no room to tangibly reward those students who are not merely very intelligent (plenty of my students were smart) but put it to good use.
ReplyDeleteGiving an excellent analytical answer 10+ and a glowing comment does not empirically demonstrate the difference between the author and another student who got a 10 by virtue of meticulously stating five or seven facts, and telling us s/he thinks those facts depict an unfair or flawed system. Whatever pyschologists and uni HR says about low grades leading to low self-esteem, I think demonstrating the difference above is very important.
If anything, we're allowing our average students to think minimal work and bullying/whining at authority will get them what they want (but don't want to work too hard for), while showing hard-working, smart students that their work ethic and genetic blessings are worth nothing, so they might as well stop trying to do better.
@Rimi:
ReplyDelete> If anything, we're allowing our average students to think minimal work and bullying/whining at authority will get them what they want (but don't want to work too hard for), while showing hard-working, smart students that their work ethic and genetic blessings are worth nothing, so they might as well stop trying to do better.
NOT in MY classes, they WON'T.
Instead of having A- or B+, we have "AB." The grades look a little funny, but I don't mind this system. It's a lot better than the place where I adjuncted before getting this gig. There, we only had A, B, C, D, F. At that institution, someone with an 80% and an 89% earned the same grade, and that always felt wrong to me because there was a huge difference in the quality of 80% work and 89% work. An AB is 88%-92% and that feels like a much more comfortable range.
ReplyDelete@Froderick
ReplyDeleteNot in my classes either. The grade grubbing has already begun. First the begging, followed by the insults, all in the same email by one particularly complainy student. But, a D is not a C, and you earned a D, so that's what you get. Complain all you want, but I keep excellent records, and showing that you were late (extremely!) or missed almost 1/2 of the class periods doesn't help your case.
@Joe:
ReplyDelete> First the begging, followed by the insults...
This pattern invariably gets me. Weren't these children ever told that when one is in trouble, it's best to be nice to people? Oh, I get it: they're consumers. Customers even. Right!
Senor 89 has moved from the polite, past the whining, and onto the SCREAMING stage in only 12 hours. I should admit that I screwed up, he tells me. I may not be able to do calculus, but I understand that there were 100 points and you got 89.
ReplyDelete@Mitch
ReplyDeleteHow does an AB transfer?
In these type of situations, I only answer grubs twice. The first e-mail explains the grade in numbers only (cold hard facts). It ends with something nice like, "glad your hard work paid off in such a good grade." If they grub again, I send the "killing with kindness" e-mail: "I appreciate your hard work in class," "Congrats on successfully completing the course" ending with "I consider this matter closed and will not respond to further e-mails on this issue."
If they complain further up, whip out the spreadsheet and let the numbers speak for themselves.
Don't try to convince emotional students like this of anything other than it's over so move on. Their anger and shock usually peak and they move into the acceptance phase pretty quickly as long as you don't string them along or give them any hope that things will change.
I prefer the approach taken by Monty Python:
ReplyDelete"I hate to see a grown man cry. So, shove off, out of the office with you, then." ;-)
Email One: This is how you got this grade, you can see these calculations on Shitty Instructional Software That, From My Perspective, Is Like the Grade Inflation Panopticon.
ReplyDeleteEmail Two: I am happy to discuss this with you in the coming term.
In the coming term: (verbally) This is the grade you got. You may not be aware that I know all of the other grades you got. Your performance in my class is in line with your performance in other classes, hence I see absolutely no reason that your grade (in my supposedly 'easier' discipline) should be any different.)
In the coming term round 2: (verbally) I will not change your grade. If you want to debate this further, we need to meet with your dean. Shall I email him/her now to make an appointment?
Nobody wants to meet with their dean...
My mantra in this year is: Nothing even remotely nasty or confrontational in email, no matter how much you want to say "I loathe you, you little shit."
I tend to offer full information about how to contest a grade (which, in my department, requires a formal letter to the chair), along with the chair's contact information, toward the end of reply #2 (or, if they're in my office, I walk them down the hall to the chair's office, just so they'll know where it is). This "no skin off my teeth if you decide to appeal" attitude, combined with the requirement that they write something more than a 2-line email, seems to deflate most of them.
ReplyDeleteWe've got A-s, B+s, *and* an AB grade, which I don't think is actually meant for my classes, so I've never tried to use it. I'd like to have the AB option, and maybe a BC one as well; it would save some unnecessary dithering at this time of year.
I only had ONE gradflake complain about their grades (and I thought I'd have at least 5 or 6).
ReplyDeleteAnd who was it? The student was the worse (passing) one in one of my classes. She was on the edge of getting a C+ but ended up with a B- (an 80!) because of her final paper.
So... what does she do? Sends me a msg asking why her final grade was so low!
I sent the student the grades, but I doubt they could figure out how to do a simple calculation. And I'm not helping a grad student figure out how to calculate a grade.
OK, gradflake grades. Where I live, a B- would get you your funding yanked, unless it was offset by a couple of A+ grades.
ReplyDeleteWhat are people's scales for grad grades, anyway? It seems that in my department we have: A+ for wow, yes, better than I could do; A for yes, good, onward to the next thing; A- for possibly, but don't run toward my field; and B+ for you probably should not be in grad school. B or B- would be something like who the f--- admitted this person to our program?
We have A, A-, B+, etc down to a C- and then F. A person can't graduate on a B- average; they have to have a 3.0 or better. On a 4.0 scale, a B- is a 2.7 while a B is a 3.0, a B+ is a 3.3, an A- is a 3.7 and the coveted A is a 4.0.
ReplyDelete[We have no A+, which is a shame. I had ONE person last semester who would have deserved it. However, I suppose some folks would dole out too many A+s and mess this up.]
Anyway, I see a B+ or B as average gradflake work, with an A- or an A as good stuff. My average grades have been anywhere between low to high on the historical average for the classes.
I see the B-/C+/C/C- crowd as "why bother?"; most will self-destruct.
@Marcia, I've taught only one class open to grad students, back when I was ABD. University policy was that the minimum passing grade for a grad student was B. For the undergrads, the minimum pass was C. The only one who flunked was Gradflake Gwen.
ReplyDeleteThe class was a practicum that included a mock peer review and publication process. Gwen apparently read none of the assignments and learned nothing outside of her previous knowledge, an insider's view of her ethnic group. I asked for evidence of a wider perspective and the required reading in my "reviewer" comments, and she responded by CHANGING THE FONTS for the final draft.
She was shocked that I had the gall to "flunk her"; I was shocked that she hadn't already flunked out of the program. The profs backed me on the grade, but she eventually got her doctorate. This makes me feel that mine is worth less, coming from the same department.
> I've tried arguing "a B is a good grade" too.
ReplyDeleteA 'B' is not a good grade, it's an average grade.
>Truly, there is no one sadder, and eventually angrier, than the student with the 89 average.
Yes, students with an 89 will always be less satisfied with their mark than those in the lower 80's because they use upward comparison as opposed to downward comparison. It's the same reason bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists...