subject: Giving a Zero As a Grade - What Makes for a Tough Teacher? [print this page] Giving a Zero As a Grade - What Makes for a Tough Teacher?
EXCURSUS... Several years ago, I was taking the "Baby Bar Exam" in California. This is an examination created by the California Bar Association and given to all first year law students taking a law degree from one of the many proprietary schools in California that allow one to become a lawyer via independent study. The exam is given to insure quality control, and before a student can proceed to the second year of law study, he or she must first pass this 4 hour exam. Before entering the test site, I was talking to a fellow 60 year-old who was telling me that this was the 12th time he had taken the exam. He passed the test that day by the way. He is a lawyer now. Moving on...
In the following scenario, who is the "tougher" teacher? We'll make "You" the student.
You are late turning in a significant written assignment, additionally, the assignment is poorly done as indicated by the "chiseled-in-granite" rubric that the teacher painstakingly developed. Teacher A, who prides herself on being a "stern taskmaster" gives you a zero. The zero is averaged in with your other scores and we move on.
You forget to turn in a written assignment as above. Teacher B makes you come after school to finish the assignment. The work you turn in is sloppy because you are anxious to get out of there and get to basketball practice. The teacher returns the paper to you and tells you that you must once again come after school to redo it...she cheerfully adds that she knows that you are a much better student than is indicated by this sloppy work- and since nobody is perfect, you simply must have had a bad day, so you are entitled to come in and fix this minor problem. You redo it. The teacher returns it to you again and requests more corrections and revisions, making some helpful suggestions and showing you some examples of what quality work would look like in this instance. Striving to do anything it takes to make this go away, you work at it diligently, making sure to proof read it and you ask someone you know to proof read it as well. You think to yourself, "this teacher is crazy, man, she's like a pit bull, she never goes away- I'll never make this mistake again!"Finally, the teacher agrees that your work is acceptable and you get an 85% on the paper.
The first question is: Under which scenario are you most likely to turn in acceptable work when the next assignment is due? The second question is: Who is the "sterner" taskmaster- Teacher A, or Teacher B. The third question is: Which scenario creates more work for the teacher? The fourth question is: Which scenario taught the most effective lesson to the student? The fifth question is: What is more important here- the grade or the lesson that has been taught? The sixth question is: Which grade- the ZERO or the 85% paints a clearer picture of this student's progress or mastery of the subject?
Here's a scoop for all of you alleged "stern taskmasters"...Zeros do not make you into a tough guy- it just means you are 1) Lazy, and 2)Unethical, 3) Unscientific, and 4) Unable to see the difference between punishment and accomplishment. It takes work to continually return a paper or project back to a student until the work becomes acceptable. Also, grades are supposed to be a reflection of a student's mastery of a body of knowledge- like English Literature, European History, or Business Law. A zero, given because a student failed to turn something in or turned it in beyond the deadline, or submitted it in some unspecified improper form has nothing to do with a student's mastery of the subject matter. Among scientists, this sloppy paper would be referred to as a "statistical anomaly"; among fisherman, a "rogue wave". Also, it is an improper form of discipline because it provides the teacher's angry response to the student's action, expressed mathematically as part of one's average grade. Just from the standpoint of statistical science, a whack on the butt with a ruler would be more easily justified- at least the numbers would not be distorted by emotions or responses from outside the statistical process. The whole assessment process is supposed to measure achievement accurately. Thus if there are 5 written reports due in a marking period and the student fails to turn one in and a teacher gives the student a zero, notice what happens to the grade.
STUDENT A's grades are 100,90,0,100,90. If the total of 380 is divided by 4, STUDENT A's average is 95%. If STUDENT A's total of 380 is divided by 5, it comes out to 76%. If assessment is supposed to measure student achievement or mastery of a subject, which is the most scientifically correct picture of his or her progress? Punitive factors distort the statistical process and do not provide an accurate portrayal of student mastery. So what is the solution? Do we just forget about the missed or sloppy work in an effort to remain mathematically reliable?
Some argue that the way to resolve this oft-recurring problem is to award the student who failed to submit his work on time, or submitted unsatisfactory work, with a 60%. This idea, while humanistic and an attempt to provide less of a distortion to the statistical measure of student progress, generally meets with a great deal of heated debate. The alleged "stern taskmasters" will usually argue at this juncture that..."So, what you are saying is that while all other students are working hard to get a good grade, this kid can just play video games and sleep and get a free 60%? What kind of lesson is this that we are teaching?(Emphasis on the "This" as the taskmaster with a superior tone assumes the moral high ground)
As a teacher, you may have to follow the school district's procedure in this manner. Maybe there is a departmental procedure to follow...you can add your own level of academic freedom- the science of statistical analysis is on your side when your lazier colleagues get upset and complain to the boss about your overly "humanistic" approach.
Many schools have adopted such a strategy for painting a much fairer picture of a student's progress. It is, in one way, a compromise that serves as a milder form of statistical distortion and still gives a message to the student that his average will be negatively impacted. This is where the teacher comes in as in the beginning scenario, where he or she continues to return the paper or project until the student makes it acceptable. If the teacher chooses not to apply this strategy, then an unmotivated student will be encouraged to keep turning in nothing until his average gets close to 60%- or a D-, then he might start working again. The "60% solution" then becomes a placeholder that keeps the guidance folks happy (they hate "incompletes" )and gives the student the opportunity to get a real grade. In most colleges, this matter is resolved with a grade of IP- meaning In Progress...most professors don't use it, and usually give the lower grade for incomplete or sloppy work...think what would happen if they told a student that the grade remains an "IP" till the student turns in an acceptable project?
How long do you think the student will remain "unmotivated", by the way, if he or she knows that, like a pit bull who won't let go, the teacher is going to keep returning the paper until it is acceptable to the one "flying the plane"- the teacher? A teacher may only have to go through such a process with a small number of kids- the grapevine will take care of the rest, and your reputation as a "pit bull" will keep the lack of motivation to a minimum. In effect then, the 60% grade is not a free 60 points. Instead it is just like the "IP" or IN PROGRESS grade that colleges regularly use for things like dissertations and theses that take multiple semesters. At report card time, the reason why the folks in the guidance office hate grades of INCOMPLETE or zeros if a percent grade is applied is because they completely mess up the computer for calculations of class rank, GPA, and honor roll designations. If you as the teacher put a number of 60% in, they will be happy and the fact that all final grading is done by computer these days means that the teacher could go to the guidance office about a student's grade NEXT YEAR and tell the person who enters grades to make the change, and the computer automatically recalculates. So, the students are not really getting a free 60 points. It is just a place holder until you make the student attain the real grade. It becomes a free 60 points if you make no further demands of the student beyond the deadline for submission of the paper or project and you merely give a ZERO in Pseudo-Taskmaster fashion!
The 60 year old lawyer in California took the exam 13 times. Your Doctor, Accountant, Air Traffic Controller, Pilot, Police Detective, also probably took his or her exam more than once. If you want to be an effective teacher- keep giving the project back till the student does the work he is capable of doing. The first time it might take 12 times like lawyer in California. The next time will require a lot less visits to your classroom and a lesson will have been learned.
Dr. Dan Chandler is an Assistant Professor of Physical Education Pedagogy at The College of New Jersey. In previous careers he was an Elementary Classroom Teacher, a Middle School Social Studies, English, and Health/PE Teacher, a High School Health and PE Teacher, and a teacher in Graduate Education and Administration. Dan was also a High School and Middle School Principal for 18 years.
