“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” – Albert Einstein

EXCURSUS … Several years ago, I was taking the “Baby Bar Exam” in California. This is an exam created by the California Bar Association and given to all first-year law students who earn a law degree from one of the many private schools in California that allow them to become a lawyer through study. independent. The exam is given to ensure quality control, and before a student can move on to the second year of law studies, they must first pass this 4-hour exam. Before entering the test site, I was talking to a 60-year-old classmate who was telling me that this was the twelfth time he had taken the test. By the way, he passed the test that day. He is now a lawyer. Forward …

In the following scenario, who is the “toughest” teacher? We will make “you” the student.

1. Is late for an important written assignment; furthermore, the homework is poorly done, as indicated by the rubric “chiseled in granite” that the teacher painstakingly developed. Teacher A, who prides herself on being a “severe teacher,” gives it a zero. The zero is averaged over his other scores and we move on.
2. You forget to turn in a written assignment as indicated above. Teacher B makes you come over after school to finish homework. The work you deliver is sloppy because you are eager to get out of there and start playing basketball. The teacher returns the paper to you and tells you to come one more time after school to redo it … she cheerfully adds that she knows you are a much better student than this sloppy work indicates – and since no one is perfect, you simply must having had a bad day, so you have the right to come and fix this minor issue. You remake it. The teacher gives it back to you again and asks for more corrections and revisions, making some helpful suggestions and showing you some examples of what quality work would look like in this case. Striving to do whatever it takes to make this go away, you work on it diligently, making sure to review it and ask someone you know to read it as well. You think to yourself, “this teacher is crazy man, she’s like a pit bull, she never leaves, I’ll never make this mistake again!” Finally, the teacher agrees that your work is acceptable and you get 85% on paper.

The first question is: In which scenario are you most likely to turn in acceptable work when the next assignment is due? The second question is: Who is the “tougher” foreman: teacher A or teacher B. The third question is: Which scenario creates more work for the teacher? The fourth question is: What setting taught the student the most effective lesson? The fifth question is: What is more important here, the grade or the lesson that has been taught? The sixth question is: What grade, ZERO, or 85% paint a clearer picture of this student’s progress or mastery of the subject?

Here’s a scoop for all so-called “tough foremen” … Zeros don’t make them a tough guy, it just means they’re 1) lazy and 2) unethical, 3) unscientific, and 4) unable to tell the difference. between punishment and achievement. Work is needed to continually return an assignment or project to a student until the work is acceptable. Furthermore, grades are supposed to be a reflection of a student’s mastery of a body of knowledge, such as English literature, European history, or business law. A zero, given because a student failed to turn in something or turned it in past the deadline, or sent it in some unspecified incorrect way, has nothing to do with the student’s mastery of the subject. Among scientists, this neglected document would be called a “statistical anomaly”; among the fishermen, a “rebel wave”. Furthermore, it is an inappropriate form of discipline because it provides the teacher’s angry response to the student’s action, expressed mathematically as part of one’s grade point average. Only from a statistical science point of view, a blow to the butt with a ruler would be more easily justified, at least the numbers would not be distorted by emotions or responses external to the statistical process. The entire evaluation process is supposed to measure achievement accurately. So if there are 5 written reports due in a grading period and the student misses one and a teacher gives the student a zero, watch 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, the result is 76%. If the assessment is supposed to measure a student’s performance or mastery of a subject, what is the most scientifically correct picture of his or her progress? Punitive factors distort the statistical process and do not provide an accurate description of the student’s mastery. So what is the solution? Do we forget about lost or neglected work in an effort to remain mathematically reliable?

Some argue that the way to solve this recurring problem is to reward the student who did not turn in his work on time, or turned in an unsatisfactory work, with 60%. This idea, although humanistic and an attempt to provide less distortion to the statistical measure of student progress, generally meets with a great deal of heated debate. The so-called “tough foremen” will generally argue at this point that … “So what you’re saying is that while all the other students are working hard to get a good grade, this kid can just play video games and sleep and get a 60 % free? What kind of lesson is this we are teaching? (Emphasis on “This” as the foreman with a superior tone assumes the higher moral ground)

As a teacher, you may need to follow the school district procedure in this manner. Perhaps 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 angry and complain to the boss for his too “humanistic” approach.

Many schools have adopted this strategy to paint a much fairer picture of a student’s progress. It is, in a way, a compromise that serves as a milder form of statistical distortion and still gives a message to the student that their GPA will be adversely affected. This is where the teacher comes in as in the initial scenario, where he or she continues to return the work 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 turn in nothing until his GPA approaches 60%, or a D, then he could start working again. The “60% solution” then becomes a placeholder that keeps guidance people happy (they hate “incomplete” ones) and gives the student a chance to get a real grade. In most colleges, this matter is resolved with an IP rating, which stands for In Progress … most professors don’t use it, and they usually give the lowest rating for incomplete or sloppy work … think what What if a student was told that the grade is still an “IP” until the student submits an acceptable project?

By the way, how long do you think the student will remain “unmotivated”, if he knows that, like a pit bull who won’t let go, the teacher will keep returning the paper until it is acceptable to the teacher? one “piloting the plane” – the professor? A teacher may only have to go through this process with a small number of children; the vine will take care of the rest, and your reputation as a “pit bull” will keep lack of motivation to a minimum. In effect, then, the 60% rating is not 60 free points. Instead, it’s like the “IP” or IN PROGRESS grade that colleges regularly use for things like dissertations and theses that take multiple semesters. When it comes to the report card, the reason the guidance office people hate INCOMPLETE grades or zeros if a percentage grade is applied is because they completely mess up the computer for class rank calculations, GPA and designations. of the honor roll. If you as a teacher enter 60% they will be happy and the fact that all final grades are done by computer these days means the teacher could go to the guidance office on a student’s grade NEXT YEAR and tell the person who enters the grades to make the change, and the computer automatically recalculates. So students don’t really get 60 free points. It’s just a placeholder until you get the student to get the actual grade. They become 60 free points if you do not make more demands on the student beyond the deadline for the submission of the work or project and simply give a Pseudo-Taskmaster style ZERO!

The 60-year-old attorney in California took the exam 13 times. Your doctor, accountant, air traffic controller, pilot, police detective probably took your exam more than once as well. If you want to be an effective teacher, keep returning the project until the student does the work that he or she is capable of doing. The first time I could take 12 times as a lawyer in California. Next time it will require far fewer visits to your classroom and you will have learned a lesson.