I was at the Casino for a bit tonight and ran in to a friend from my old college. The faculty member is one I’ve always liked and appreciated largely as a mentor. His loudest message is to remain out of the political fray and focus on the students. The students are why we teach, and so long as we remember that there is always someone in the class who needs you, there is still value in doing the job.
But it is the rest of the riff raff that make the work tough. Here are the basic facts of Community College:
- There is no admission screening which means that anyone (of age) can get in.
- There is a perception, based on the above, that the quality of education is somehow less than what you get in university.
- This perception is often shared by faculty.
- Often the quality of students affects the way a class is run, giving credence to the perception of a ‘lesser learning environment’
- CC students often are in it for a grade and nothing more.
If you put these six areas together, you are looking at a high rate of faculty burn out. Truth be told, I am there. I just ended a situation where a student wanted a better grade than what that student earned–largely based on extra credit. I did not want to give up the A. I want the A to mean something, but I very reluctantly yielded, and it made me super angry. This is not about the student, but about the situation. See, the students the semester largely did not care about what they learned and completely railed on me on ratemyprofessor about how they didn’t learn a thing. Yet come grade time it is all about what they ‘deserve’. I have tried a plethora of ways to take the grade out of the picture and get to the core learning but nothing I do is working. It is always about the grade.
As I write I am trying to work out how to make a course, which is essentially about improving through process, a graded course that is not about the grade. I’ve thought about starting everyone with an A and dropping grades down based on quality of work. Basically, they look at the grading sheet and see A, but as work is graded, the 100% grade is rewritten to reflect a true score. Still, this is confusing and this is grading.
Another method that misleads is the running total. Students see a few low value assignments and say, oh I have an A. Once the first big essay is due, A becomes D and anger ensues. I cannot hope to solve centuries of grading drama in a 10 minute blog. I can vent. I can voice opinions. I can air out my options. I cannot get a ‘right’ answer. So, here is what I’ll do. I am going to make it all about the grades this semester. If grades are motivational tools and so deeply important to student performance, I want to see what grades actually do to student performance when they are being constantly brought up and assessed. Starting with week 3 and onward each week through the semester, students are going to have to take a long look at their grade and reflect on what got them in the fix they are in (assuming something short of a perfect grade) and write about their plans to adjust that number upward. I can even make that personal reflection a part of the grade (complete it and get XX points the essays will serve as evidence for your final and will also be used as evidence to determine your final grade should you be a borderline grade). It isn’t the end all, but it makes me feel better. I don’t want to be in a situation again where people are negotiating for grades after the semester ends.
That is not cool.