Of three sections of English, nine students handed in identical essays to my daughter. She spoke to the assistant principal about it which she now regrets, since she is leaving the school after this year anyway.

The idea of not letting them drop below where they were appeals to me, and her district has mandated no student fails this term.

This opinion isn’t likely to be popular but here it is...

I feel they should move everyone to pass/fail. I get that we want to reward those who continue to work and so the idea of raising grades for kids who do the work makes sense. But it is rewarding privilege. We have students in our district who have no access to technology or WiFi. We have students who are working 60 hour weeks at grocery stores because their parents have lost their jobs due to the crisis but grocery store workers are in high demand. We have students who are being abused at home and now have no means of escaping their abusers. So while it sounds good to say that kids will just get the mark they had in March, but can raise it if they are working now, you are punishing those who are in circumstances beyond their control. If you move to pass/fail for everyone (and I love their “in progress” line for those who were struggling before this hit) then it removes one more barrier for kids who already have too many.

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Of three sections of English, nine students handed in identical essays to my daughter. She spoke to the assistant principal about it which she now regrets, since she is leaving the school after this year anyway.

What do you mean, someone stole someone's (your daughter's?) essay and they all turned in the same one??

At my university, the provost instituted several policies in light of the corona impacts.

1. Instructors have the option to cancel final exams if they so choose. In response, I canceled my exams but students are required to complete their final projects (which includes a presentation and paper). Partly this is because they need those for their senior portfolios, partly because of how central the projects are to the class. I also have told everyone that I won't count off points for late work, and anyone who wants to take an incomplete can do so providing they complete their projects by the end of May (the project due date is today, and I am required to submit grades next Wednesday). So far more than half of the students have turned in all elements of their projects, a few students have down everything up to the paper itself, and two students have contacted me to take incomplete.

2. My university generally does not allow pass/fail grades for any class that is used to meet a major, minor or gen ed, or numerical credit requirement. (Yes, that's almost any class unless someone truly wants to enroll in something just for their own reasons and not have it count as part of their degree requirements). In light of the coronavirus, the provost is allowing students to choose a pass option *after* their grades are posted. If a student feels the grade they received will have a negative affect on their GPA, they may convert the grade to a P if they received a C or higher, or to an SP (special pass) if they received a D. Grades of P or SP will allow the course to count toward degree completion, and will not impact the GPA. If the student received a F, they may convert the grade to "no grade," they will not receive course credit but there will be no impact on the student's GPA.

So I think this gives students a lot of flexibility, and allows them to for example maintain financial aid, athletic, and honors program eligibility, as well as continue making progress toward degree completion.

I think students and faculty would be up in arms if a pass/fail policy were implemented across the board without any other choices.

The problems you (Dol) mention are certainly present in college students, so there's no perfect solution, but I'm pleased with what our university is doing.

I think all of those ideas are very reasonable, SK! And I love that they can choose to take a pass that doesn’t impact GPA. That allows for someone struggling to not lose their credit but also not impact them long term.

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to not lose their credit but also not impact them long term.

Exactly!

I actually think our provost and uni president have done a really great job given the circumstances (which include an idiot governor and a super conservative board of trustees...)

I do not have a strong opinion on this one way or another.
I have seen one proposal about basically going to "pass/fail" by default, but allow individual students to opt into receiving letter grades (possibly by subject).
Wondering how you (the general you) feel about this "opt in" approach.

It's not a normal world for them. Normal expectations and normal evaluative processes should be out the window.

Our students will have a few days after they receive grades to exercise the option of changing any class to Pass or No Pass.

I like it that the option kicks in after the fact, so that the students don't have to gamble. ("I might not perform to my standards in this class, so I'm going to give up my chance at a good grade to forestall a GPA-killing disaster.")

I've got one diligent student whose job and family issues are just killing them. Under normal circumstances, they'd have to get a C in my class, since it's an elective within the major. They were just planning to give up and focus on other classes, but we worked out a scenario where I could feel justified giving a D, and then they can convert it to a Pass. I'm very happy to have this option.

I have another student who was already slacking off. The lame excuses have been endless, so is this morning's story that a cousin has died of COVID true? Heck if I know. I can't bring myself to fail anybody at a time like this, so I feel sure that this student will be exercising that Pass/No Pass option, as well.

I know that several of my students are living at home or with grandparents or with the parents of friends, and several of them have terrible internet connections. Some are still working, a lot of them in retail positions that are risky. This is not a good time to be sacrificing people's futures on the altar of academic rigor.

Ax,

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I have seen one proposal about basically going to "pass/fail" by default, but allow individual students to opt into receiving letter grades (possibly by subject).
Wondering how you (the general you) feel about this "opt in" approach.

I don't like this opt in approach. First of all, I think it might be de-motivizing for students to be thinking from the beginning, well, I'm not going to be getting a letter grade anyway so who cares? Sure they could opt back into the grade, but I think the way our uni is doing is better for maintaining as much normalcy as possible up to the last minute. Also, as someone grading, I think it would be kind of de-moralizing for me as well, why work really hard to do all this grading when I could just eye ball everything and give almost all of the students a C and call it done? (wow, my job would be so much easier if that's how I were grading!)

Mary Anna,

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I know that several of my students are living at home or with grandparents or with the parents of friends, and several of them have terrible internet connections. Some are still working, a lot of them in retail positions that are risky.

I also have a fair number of students for whom this is true. Yesterday I was doing an advising meeting with a student on Zoom, and he suddenly stopped talking and sort of leaned over and started yelling "NO MOM, I'M DOING MY ADVISING APPOINTMENT. NO. YEAH. NO I'M DOING MY ADVISING. ADVISING. AD-VI-ZING. YEAH." It was kind of cute. But very disruptive. Imagine having that happening in the middle of class where the class moves on without you and you come back and are totally lost.

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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Of three sections of English, nine students handed in identical essays to my daughter. She spoke to the assistant principal about it which she now regrets, since she is leaving the school after this year anyway.

What do you mean, someone stole someone's (your daughter's?) essay and they all turned in the same one??

My daughter is the teacher.

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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
It's not a normal world for them. Normal expectations and normal evaluative processes should be out the window.

Absolutely.

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Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Of three sections of English, nine students handed in identical essays to my daughter. She spoke to the assistant principal about it which she now regrets, since she is leaving the school after this year anyway.

As a former teacher, I cannot imagine NOT speaking to the Assistant Principal about blatant cheating. Isn't maintaining the integrity of the classroom central to the job?

jf

Ordinarily I would say yes. In today's environment? Maybe not so much. Especially given that this is a very well-heeled - read entitled - district. The parents will get out the torches and pitchforks to defend their little darlings.