wincherella:

Lately I have had a number of students ask me about their grades being much lower than they expected them to be on a completed assignment. Usually it is phrased as a query “Mrs. W, why did I get 78 out of 100 on my poetry assignment? I worked really hard on it, or Mrs. W., I don’t understand why I…

Oh my goodness- have I been there! Unfortunately it was with two particularly entitled students, twin sons of my supervisor with an extremely protective lawyer of a mother. I received a highly offensive email from their mom, got pulled into the principal’s office, had to produce my grading rubric and project instructions, had two meetings with my academic dean, and then a meeting with the mom where I was told, “They wrote an ‘A’ paper.” When I told her it simply wasn’t, she told me, “Well, I may not be an English teacher, but I am a lawyer.” Needless to say, that was the end of that conversation. The boys received an 83/100. They made an amazing Trojan horse for a creative response after reading the Iliad, but nothing they did was appropriate for the assignment. The horse itself demonstrated so much effort, and I was saddened to have to give them something other than an “A”. But I looked at it as a teachable moment, an opportunity to show them the importance of following directions and meeting requirements. I defended my reasoning, and my grade, with all levels of administration and didn’t change it. I think that effort is important, and should perhaps be an element of the grade, but it shouldn’t be the basis of the grade. The mother made an argument that I am teaching the boys that they need not try hard. But that’s clearly not what I’m doing. I’m pushing your child to improve… I get so frustrated all over again thinking about it.