This is my second year teaching. Seniors especially, but not only ask me to bump their quarter/semester grades at the end of semester/quarter. They think it is so normal and that I am unfair if I don't. It sounds like a lot of teachers bump their grades, if they are close(less than 1/10 of a point let's say) to the next letter grade. The administration totally supports this. They already have in place a grading system, where we cannot give a student less than 50on a test(not quiz) and less than 60 for the quarter. Is this something common in other schools? This is the only school I ever taught at.
Thanks
I think it's fairly common to bump grades that are within half a percent of the next letter grade. For example, if a kid earned 89.5% in my class, I will go ahead and give her an A. I rarely bump grades beyond that circumstance, but it has been known to happen.
If you already have extra points built in to your overall grade, then I don't think you should do too much bumping. Minimum Fs, lots of make-up and redo opportunities, extra credit....If you have any of those in place, then the overall grade is probably already somewhat inflated. Don't inflate it more.
I think it's fairly common to bump grades that are within half a percent of the next letter grade. For example, if a kid earned 89.5% in my class, I will go ahead and give her an A. I rarely bump grades beyond that circumstance, but it has been known to happen.
This is my policy as well. There are no opportunities for extra credit in my class, so I'm willing to round up at .5%.
I round up within the .5 (sometimes a tad beyond that), but only based on the kid's effort over the course of a semester. If a kid is on the borderline but has been seriously trying, and merely struggles... I will usually round up to the A-, B-, or whatever. However, if a kid has a dozen zeros and suddenly asks me to round a 59% up, then I won't do it. It's all a matter of effort on the part of the kid, in my mind.
Before my school switched to a weighted four-point system, I always rounded up for students who showed an effort. Now my system is letters instead of numbers, but I may round a high B+ manually to an A-. It's such a small difference, but it means the world to a student who has put in the effort.
I think it's fairly common to bump grades that are within half a percent of the next letter grade. For example, if a kid earned 89.5% in my class, I will go ahead and give her an A. I rarely bump grades beyond that circumstance, but it has been known to happen.
If you already have extra points built in to your overall grade, then I don't think you should do too much bumping. Minimum Fs, lots of make-up and redo opportunities, extra credit....If you have any of those in place, then the overall grade is probably already somewhat inflated. Don't inflate it more.
I agree- I always round up.
The only time I will bump more than 0.5% is if they are still close (less than 1%), participate, try their best, and that one grade will keep them off of A/B honor roll. I will bump their C to a B.
I always round up for grades 0.5% or higher. It has never occurred to me to do it any other way. I guess I think of the final grade in terms of a whole number, so I just automatically round it up.
I will occasionally bump up a grade as much as a point if the student has put in effort and their grade is borderline.
