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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

The Ugly Warts of Grading


There are numerous aspects of the grading process which are incredibly unattractive. I know we should always try to look beneath grading’s inherent ugliness and find its beauty and we do all really try. We are, after all, good people. But there is no reason we can’t do a little cosmetic surgery to remove some of grading’s ugliest warts. As we move into the spring grading cycle we will examine and attempt to remove…The Ugly Warts of Grading!

Wart #1  LATE WITHDRAWALS
You will be receiving a class list of all your currently registered students for spring 2006. Some of these students will have a W or a WI in the GRD (grade) column. If they have a W grade it means either they withdrew or you withdrew them. If they have a WI grade it means they have been withdrawn by Health Services for not meeting the immunization requirements.

If a student is listed without a W or WI in the grade column, it means they are registered for your course and will need to have a grade at the end of the semester. If they have not been attending and you do not want to give them an F, you will need to withdraw them by April 28, 2006.

Leaving a grade blank on the grade roster or trying to submit a W at grading time is NOT the correct way to deal with students who have not been attending. All students who are registered need to be graded. All withdrawals need to be submitted to Registration and Records by April 28. Once we are in the grading cycle, it is too late to submit a W grade. Not grading a student is not appropriate and will result in unrelenting, and thoroughly justified, hounding from R&R for a grade!

Please look over your most recent class list and if there are students still registered for your class who are not attending and for whom you do not feel comfortable giving an F, please withdraw them ASAP! I can’t tell you how exasperating it is to receive a grade roster with a penciled in W grade and the note, “student never attended”. If a student is not attending, PLEASE, I beg of you, withdraw them by April 28.

Let’s rid grading of this ugly wart and make it one step closer to making the cover of People magazine’s Most Beautiful Academic Processes edition.

 

Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
04/12/2006