PART FOUR: Why Some Students Are Dropped And Others Aren't
One of the most common laments we hear at grading is: I dropped these students for non-attendance at the beginning of the semester and they are still on my grade roster. They should have been dropped.
Not necessarily true.
When you mark a student as absent, this is just the first step in the 'should we drop her' decision. The 'a' does not guarantee she will be dropped from the class. This "absent" designation just gets the student on to the 'to be considered' list. After that there is a whole complicated procedure to determine who to drop and who to retain. There is a (boring) 3-page project plan that lists day by day all the steps in the attendance process. There are dozens of people involved behind the scenes. There are 11 different programs involved. There are lists to be checked; financial aid status to be examined; payment methods and amounts to be calculated before the decision is made to drop a student for nonattendance. Not everyone marked as absent will be dropped.
Great. So you turn in your forms (accurate and on time!!), we go through some kind of voodoo type procedure with the students you marked as absent and you have no idea what happened to whom. Wrong! After the attendance drop we send all the students who were dropped a letter (and if you made a mistake you can expect to hear from them) and we send YOU more paper!
We send every professor who turned in a scannable attendance form or filled out an MAT screen (ON TIME) and marked at least one student absent, hard copy feedback. The day after the students are dropped for nonattendance, based on your reporting, we send you two lists. One list contains the names of the students who you indicated were absent and who we dropped. The other list contains the names of the students who you indicated were absent who were NOT dropped. Why weren't they dropped? We don't know.
For some financially based reason, they didn't make it through the 11 programs, misc. lists and dozens of people behind the scenes to qualify for a drop. Bottom line: they are still in your class. They don't come to your class but they are still registered and unless they or you do something (more paperwork), they will remain in your class, appear on your grade roster, and need to be graded.
You don't want to give an "F" to a student you never met? I don't blame you. The list with the students who you didn't get rid of lets you know that you can still get them out of your class by filling out a faculty initiated withdrawal form. This must be done by the date indicated in the note, which is May 7 for the spring 2004 semester.
If you withdraw them by May 7 they will appear on your grade roster already graded with a "W" and you don't have to give them an "F". If you decide not to withdraw them, they will appear on your grade roster with no grade and you will need to grade them or spend the rest of your MCC career and into your retirement being stalked by us until we get a grade. We've been known to call across the country tracking down grades-from ex-wives to girlfriends to new employers. You can run but you can't hide forever. We are trained professionals.
It would appear now that we have said all that there is to say. This is probably true. But, being professional deliverers of information to the masses, you realize the all important last step is yet to come-telling you what I already told you: the summation.
(Earlier articles in this series are available in the Daily Tribune archive. See the link at the bottom of the right hand column.)
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
02/13/2004 |