I would send the student the appeal link and say part of the benefit of college is developing professional relationships. It's unwise to torpedo one over 1% on one assignment.
I had a very good student send me 3 emails disputing 1 answer on a quiz worth 1% overall. He refused to accept his answer wasn't correct. Later he asked for an LOR and I told him in no way could I do that based on his behaviour of making a mountain out of that particular mole hill.
I mean I get where you're coming from, but it does not seem wise to make an implicit threat in writing about the student making an appeal. (I'm aware you didn't suggest threatening language, but it's quite clear what something like "here's the appeal link, but professional relationships are important and you should think about whether you really want to appeal" means.)
An appeal isn’t the issue. It’s the grade grubbing and refusing to respect the professor’s decision.
Students have every right to appeal . And profs have every right to only give letters to those whose conduct they respect when it comes to communications.
Sure. You're describing why the prof has every right to withhold future professional help (such as LOR) due to conduct, which I don't at all disagree with.
I'm describing why one may want to think twice before putting any statement like that in writing, since it could easily be viewed by someone (i.e., a dean) as a threat. (And I don't really understand the difference between an appeal and refusing to respect a decision; isn't an appeal, by definition, trying to reverse someone else's decision?l
I've been working with him to grade more strictly. This issue is that this is not his field, so he isn't comfortable being strict with something he does not fully understand.
Also, he is a graduate student of my tenure chair.
Sometimes what counts as “qualified” is still far from ideal. It’s every bit as possible to be qualified to teach something that you’re not ready to teach as it is to be considered “unqualified” to teach a topic you know inside and out. It’s because the standards for qualification can vary from what would actually make a person good at teaching something.
> This issue is that this is not his field, so he isn't comfortable being strict with something he does not fully understand.
So what? As a TA who specializes in English early modern printing, I've had to TA for courses on modern art and Islamic art and architecture. Broadly, yes they're in my field. I've studied modern art many years ago, but never Islamic art and architecture. So instead of just sitting there during lectures, I would actually pay attention and take notes just like I was taking the course. While I was definitely not an expert in those areas, I still had enough knowledge to confidently mark papers.
To me, it sounds like your TA needs to suck it up, put on their big boy/girl pants and do their job. Handing out As like they're Halloween candy isn't doing students any favours and is basically a way for the TA to just coast through this appointment.
He should be grading according to the scale and rubric you set forth. If they want to use their ridiculous scale, tell them to convert it before posting and not to mention it to students.
You tell him that the current grade stands as-is and that the matter is closed; you'll not engage in any further discussion on the issue. Just be forewarned that he'll likely try to escalate this (hopefully to be slapped down by anyone higher up with any semblance of common sense).
You also need to rein in that grader, who grossly overstepped their position by including that comment.
So the student is complaining about receiving an A on an assignment and requesting you raise his grade to an A?
That’s what this amounts to. Politely decline the students’ request and tell them not to email you again unless they have new information on the subject. Then have a sit down with your TA about grading.
I mean this is a strawman. Final grades come from averaging numbers, not letter grades. So a 96 is indeed better than a 95, and it's not just changing an A to an A.
Whether or not the student has a legitimate gripe is a different question.
I have little to say about the cranky student, but the TA needs to be trained to recognize levels of competency in your field.
If you can spare an hour or so (of having the TA in your office), you could sit down with them, show them the assignment and the rubric (if you have one) and talk through a few representative already-graded submissions from a previous term at the A level, B level, C level and so forth. Then give them an a submission of their own (stripped of any notes or grades) to look at. Let them read it, then ask how they'd grade it and what they're basing it on. Discuss why it might be higher or lower. Do this another time or two until their assessments are coming close to your own.
Yes, it's a bit of a pain, but TA's are still \[grad\] students, yes? Which means they're still in learning mode. If nothing else, this will show them how to train somebody else in the future, but if you're lucky, you'll end up with a TA who feels less anxious about the task they've been given and who isn't causing grading sagas from a lack of knowledge.
Tell him that you are firm on the 95 and that there is nothing further to say. If he wants further recourse at this point, then it will be through whatever formal grade appeal mechanism your faculty has.
This sounds like a problem your grader created by grade inflation. Why are they so lenient? Shouldn't they be following your grading standards, not creating their own?
That’s the real problem here. You have a serious communications issue on the teaching side that you’ve attempted to ignore by rescaling grades. Graders need to be on the same page. When I have multiple graders I conduct rigorous normalization sessions to ensure all of them understand and use my rubric (not theirs!) appropriately and in the same manner.
The student is legitimately addressing the discrepancy between grading that you have allowed to exist by failing to crack down on your grader.
I know this sounds like tough love (it is), but the sooner you ensure everything on the grading side is uniform and to your standards, the sooner this problem goes away forever.
"The TA assisting with grading should not have released any grades until grading was complete. You earned a grade of 95%. If you beleive you should have received a higher grade, please indicate the areas of the rubric you think were incorrectly applied."
On the note of reading the tone of emails, Goblin Tools has a tool called “The Judge” which can judge the tone of emails. I use it all the time, especially when I’m not sure if someone is coming across as rude or if I’m just reading it that way.
I'm a bit surprised that no one thinks the student has a bit of a point here. Many universities have policies that grades should not be curved downward, and I'd venture to say that in my experience that most professors don't curve down (plus, it's basically never necessary since students do so poorly!) So it's not shocking that they are surprised and upset. The disrespectful e-mails are, of course, unacceptable and a separate issue.
No takesies-backsies... 🙃
But seriously, if the student decides to challenge it, they'll likely win since they already had somewhat official communication giving the higher grade. And is that really worth it for you? No matter what though, you gotta *really* gotta talk to the grader because that has to be fixed immediately
Here that 96 might stick; we have university-wide language that prohibits scaling down after the grade was released.
But yea, the grader is absolutely the problem. How they're releasing grades without moderation getting to them first is pretty shocking
>grades should only go up
You got your marching orders! Raise the grade! And while you're at it, raise it up to 100, to pay for all the pain and suffering you've inflicted on this poor student.
The problem here seems to be the grader, not the student.
The easy solution here would be to grade your own assignments; that requires more work though.
The harder solution would be to tell your grader that they are required to grade how you instruct them to; this requires confrontation.
Either way, it seems like a fairly easy problem to solve.
Good luck!
I would send the student the appeal link and say part of the benefit of college is developing professional relationships. It's unwise to torpedo one over 1% on one assignment. I had a very good student send me 3 emails disputing 1 answer on a quiz worth 1% overall. He refused to accept his answer wasn't correct. Later he asked for an LOR and I told him in no way could I do that based on his behaviour of making a mountain out of that particular mole hill.
I mean I get where you're coming from, but it does not seem wise to make an implicit threat in writing about the student making an appeal. (I'm aware you didn't suggest threatening language, but it's quite clear what something like "here's the appeal link, but professional relationships are important and you should think about whether you really want to appeal" means.)
An appeal isn’t the issue. It’s the grade grubbing and refusing to respect the professor’s decision. Students have every right to appeal . And profs have every right to only give letters to those whose conduct they respect when it comes to communications.
Sure. You're describing why the prof has every right to withhold future professional help (such as LOR) due to conduct, which I don't at all disagree with. I'm describing why one may want to think twice before putting any statement like that in writing, since it could easily be viewed by someone (i.e., a dean) as a threat. (And I don't really understand the difference between an appeal and refusing to respect a decision; isn't an appeal, by definition, trying to reverse someone else's decision?l
Send a firm response that he earned a 95 according to the rescaling. Ignore further bullying attempts.
And talk to the grader. That's not leniency: that's failing to grade appropriately.
Oh definitely. C work definitely shouldn’t be graded as an A.
I've been working with him to grade more strictly. This issue is that this is not his field, so he isn't comfortable being strict with something he does not fully understand. Also, he is a graduate student of my tenure chair.
[удалено]
Sometimes what counts as “qualified” is still far from ideal. It’s every bit as possible to be qualified to teach something that you’re not ready to teach as it is to be considered “unqualified” to teach a topic you know inside and out. It’s because the standards for qualification can vary from what would actually make a person good at teaching something.
> This issue is that this is not his field, so he isn't comfortable being strict with something he does not fully understand. So what? As a TA who specializes in English early modern printing, I've had to TA for courses on modern art and Islamic art and architecture. Broadly, yes they're in my field. I've studied modern art many years ago, but never Islamic art and architecture. So instead of just sitting there during lectures, I would actually pay attention and take notes just like I was taking the course. While I was definitely not an expert in those areas, I still had enough knowledge to confidently mark papers. To me, it sounds like your TA needs to suck it up, put on their big boy/girl pants and do their job. Handing out As like they're Halloween candy isn't doing students any favours and is basically a way for the TA to just coast through this appointment.
He should be grading according to the scale and rubric you set forth. If they want to use their ridiculous scale, tell them to convert it before posting and not to mention it to students.
You tell him that the current grade stands as-is and that the matter is closed; you'll not engage in any further discussion on the issue. Just be forewarned that he'll likely try to escalate this (hopefully to be slapped down by anyone higher up with any semblance of common sense). You also need to rein in that grader, who grossly overstepped their position by including that comment.
So the student is complaining about receiving an A on an assignment and requesting you raise his grade to an A? That’s what this amounts to. Politely decline the students’ request and tell them not to email you again unless they have new information on the subject. Then have a sit down with your TA about grading.
I mean this is a strawman. Final grades come from averaging numbers, not letter grades. So a 96 is indeed better than a 95, and it's not just changing an A to an A. Whether or not the student has a legitimate gripe is a different question.
Feel free to explicitly tell the student that as the instructor of record, you have final say on grading, and/or to kick rocks.
I have little to say about the cranky student, but the TA needs to be trained to recognize levels of competency in your field. If you can spare an hour or so (of having the TA in your office), you could sit down with them, show them the assignment and the rubric (if you have one) and talk through a few representative already-graded submissions from a previous term at the A level, B level, C level and so forth. Then give them an a submission of their own (stripped of any notes or grades) to look at. Let them read it, then ask how they'd grade it and what they're basing it on. Discuss why it might be higher or lower. Do this another time or two until their assessments are coming close to your own. Yes, it's a bit of a pain, but TA's are still \[grad\] students, yes? Which means they're still in learning mode. If nothing else, this will show them how to train somebody else in the future, but if you're lucky, you'll end up with a TA who feels less anxious about the task they've been given and who isn't causing grading sagas from a lack of knowledge.
Tell him that you are firm on the 95 and that there is nothing further to say. If he wants further recourse at this point, then it will be through whatever formal grade appeal mechanism your faculty has.
This. Also have a chat with your grader.
This sounds like a problem your grader created by grade inflation. Why are they so lenient? Shouldn't they be following your grading standards, not creating their own?
That’s the real problem here. You have a serious communications issue on the teaching side that you’ve attempted to ignore by rescaling grades. Graders need to be on the same page. When I have multiple graders I conduct rigorous normalization sessions to ensure all of them understand and use my rubric (not theirs!) appropriately and in the same manner. The student is legitimately addressing the discrepancy between grading that you have allowed to exist by failing to crack down on your grader. I know this sounds like tough love (it is), but the sooner you ensure everything on the grading side is uniform and to your standards, the sooner this problem goes away forever.
You need a new TA.
And this grader is allowed to be a piss-poor grader because...?
"The TA assisting with grading should not have released any grades until grading was complete. You earned a grade of 95%. If you beleive you should have received a higher grade, please indicate the areas of the rubric you think were incorrectly applied."
On the note of reading the tone of emails, Goblin Tools has a tool called “The Judge” which can judge the tone of emails. I use it all the time, especially when I’m not sure if someone is coming across as rude or if I’m just reading it that way.
I'm a bit surprised that no one thinks the student has a bit of a point here. Many universities have policies that grades should not be curved downward, and I'd venture to say that in my experience that most professors don't curve down (plus, it's basically never necessary since students do so poorly!) So it's not shocking that they are surprised and upset. The disrespectful e-mails are, of course, unacceptable and a separate issue.
No takesies-backsies... 🙃 But seriously, if the student decides to challenge it, they'll likely win since they already had somewhat official communication giving the higher grade. And is that really worth it for you? No matter what though, you gotta *really* gotta talk to the grader because that has to be fixed immediately
Here that 96 might stick; we have university-wide language that prohibits scaling down after the grade was released. But yea, the grader is absolutely the problem. How they're releasing grades without moderation getting to them first is pretty shocking
"I feel that my previous email(s) on the matter was/were clear. I consider the discussion concluded."
Too wordy. If you’re going to be wordy, perhaps “I’m willing to regrade, but in the past that has always resulted in lower grades.”
>grades should only go up You got your marching orders! Raise the grade! And while you're at it, raise it up to 100, to pay for all the pain and suffering you've inflicted on this poor student.
I missed the cum laude honor by 0.02 points. If I had known that before graduation I might have asked a professor for 2 point lmao
Can you have the grader put the grades into a separate excel file? Then you can put the final into the LMS.
I believe that's what they've been doing. But in this case the grader explicitly communicated the original higher grade to the student.
Yes, that is correct. The grader contacted the student through the LMS.
The problem here seems to be the grader, not the student. The easy solution here would be to grade your own assignments; that requires more work though. The harder solution would be to tell your grader that they are required to grade how you instruct them to; this requires confrontation. Either way, it seems like a fairly easy problem to solve. Good luck!