Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Nancy -
Assuming that
1) the syllabus is explicit and unambiguous in stating the basis for
determining the final grade,
AND
2) The policies on your syllabus are consistent with the institution's
grading policies
AND
3) that you did not say things in class that could have confused students
about whether the policy on the syllabus was being changed or reconsidered,
I would strongly urge you NOT to change the basis upon which grades are
calculated. If you do, then you are opening yourself to complaints of
unfairness from other students, and potentially starting a free-for-all of
having to negotiate with any student who wants their grade calculated on
some basis other than what you have specified. It is a classic Pandora's
box.
You're the instructor, and it's up to you to determine the best method for
evaluating a student's performance in the class. As long as your system is
public, complies with the institutions policies, and you have applied it
consistently, there is no rational basis for overriding your decisions.
Instructors who want to offer menu systems or build-your-own grading schemes
should be free to do so, but students cannot be the ones who decide how
grades are to be determined, either by declaration or by getting away with
pretending something is what it isn't.
If your syllabus spells out how grades WILL be determined, I don't see any
reasonable way that you could be required to spell out all of the possible
ways that grades will NOT be determined.
I know it seems like a hard lesson to let a student keep a lower grade then
they would probably have earned by following the instructions, but maybe it
will save them a bigger hard lesson later.
Stay cool (the facts are on your side), stick to your guns (students can
smell fear), and don't let some administrator intimidate you (we're not to
be trusted, you know :-) ). If they want to change your grade, make THEM do
it; many times, saying you "should" change it is an unenforceable opinion,
no matter how much they try to make it sound like an official ruling.
Best,
Michael Renner
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Michael J. Renner, Ph.D.
Interim Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs
Professor of Psychology
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Telephone: 610-436-3310
Fax: 610-436-2763
http://www.wcupa.edu/_facstaff/facdev/
"The path of least resistance is always downhill."
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