Grade discrepancy and how to handle it

[Anonymous]

If it’s just an input error, follow-up. I was an earlier PP and I misunderstood and thought it was a teacher judgement decision. I’m a little confused why you needed the whole backstory in this situation- you’ve made it unnecessarily confusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it’s just an input error, follow-up. I was an earlier PP and I misunderstood and thought it was a teacher judgement decision. I’m a little confused why you needed the whole backstory in this situation- you’ve made it unnecessarily confusing.

Yeah, I realize I probably didn't need to provide all the backstory. It doesn't change the underlying issue.

[Anonymous]

I would make the effort to contact someone at the school and present it purely as a mathematical issue/error. If you don’t get the resolution you want, I would let it go and enjoy the summer, especially since your child is changing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher just wanted to give your kid a certain grade. Certainly they manipulated it. Certainly it won't change anything to call them out on it. Teachers revel in this power. Often not fair but it happens in all aspects of life, especially small environments.

It depends on the administration. If it’s obvious and the administration isn’t somehow beholden to the teacher, they will make the teacher change it. Yes bring up the other kids. While they obviously can’t discuss other kids grades, admin can look and teacher may not want to get caught if you make it clear in a calm and direct manner that you will escalate.

[Anonymous]

That's like saying parents revel in the power that they can get a teacher to change grades or they will complain to admin to try to get us fired.

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering if this isn’t a case of different weights to sub scores. Like your kid got 9/10 on content and 9/10 in grammar/mechanics so it looks like a 90%. If the content is weighted higher than mechanics, the overall grade is different from a kid with 10/10 on content snd 8/10 on mechanics.

Maybe check to make sure there weren’t weighted subscores. It would be on a rubric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insist, OP. You've got nothing to lose. It doesn't matter if you're *that* parent. It's not like your child's grade is going to get lower.

It’s grade grubbing and teachers hate that. Don’t forget that you only have one side of the story. Talk to the teacher without thinking there’s some kind of conspiracy you’ve uncovered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Look, I never said my kid was "constantly rude." I could add much more backstory that would make my kid seem much more sympathetic in terms of their overall relationship with the teacher, but I will concede my kid didn't act perfectly, and to the extent they made mistakes, I've addressed it with them. Ultimately, how my kid acted or didn't act is mostly irrelevant to my question, which was (to put it more succinctly): There is an irregularity in the input of one assignment grade that has no obvious explanation other than error and that I am 95% sure the teacher would change on their own if alerted to it in time. Because my kid was on the borderline between grades, it turns out to make a big difference to their overall grade in the class. We tried to communicate with the teacher but suspect the teacher is no longer checking e-mail. Should we let it go as a life lesson or take further action? I appreciate everyone who's weighed in on both sides of that question and will consider what you have to say. I really don't want to end up IDing anyone involved so don't plan to elaborate any further.

Why can’t you just tell what the formula was and change the percentages and task name. Like 30% midterm and 70% final becomes, 40% lab and 60% homework.

That would not be at all identifiable. It’s kind of silly to expect an answer but dance around endlessly about what the situation is.

If your issue is your kid and another one did 7/10 correct questions on homework and yours got 65% and the friend got 75%, then you can’t do much because the teacher might give partial credit and or take credit away from the correct answer because the explanation was not satisfactory.

But seriously if you’re not capable to explain the situation clearly (yeah even without identifying yourself) you probably won’t be persuasive enough to the teacher or the administrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insist, OP. You've got nothing to lose. It doesn't matter if you're *that* parent. It's not like your child's grade is going to get lower.

It’s grade grubbing and teachers hate that. Don’t forget that you only have one side of the story. Talk to the teacher without thinking there’s some kind of conspiracy you’ve uncovered.

Exactly. I’m guessing the teacher has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the grade.

OP can escalate it. Then the teacher can weigh in and it’ll be all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insist, OP. You've got nothing to lose. It doesn't matter if you're *that* parent. It's not like your child's grade is going to get lower.

It’s grade grubbing and teachers hate that. Don’t forget that you only have one side of the story. Talk to the teacher without thinking there’s some kind of conspiracy you’ve uncovered.

Exactly. I’m guessing the teacher has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the grade.

OP can escalate it. Then the teacher can weigh in and it’ll be all over.

That’s right. If he knew he was borderline he should have talked to the teacher for extra credit work.
What grade is he in? I had my six grader write to his teacher directly when an assignment was not included in the grade and it got sorted out right away. Not sure why you should write to the teacher instead, unless your kid doesn’t care and it’s more your fight at this point.

Unless there’s a clear mathematical error in the calculation, but it doesn’t sound like this is the issue. Check the class syllabus it usually explains the grading policy and what percentages go into the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a rounding issue? Like rounded up for some kids but not yours? Nothing you can really say there. Otherwise you’re going to need to explain more.

No, it's basically like the raw score was plugged into a certain formula to get a percentage grade, and my kid's raw score was plugged into that formula slightly differently than other students' raw scores were. The issue is NOT that other students got higher grades or more credit. Also, the issue is quite obvious (I'm being a little evasive in explaining it to protect privacy) and doesn't require scrutiny of anyone else's grades. It may well be a simple error, but I'm not sure we'll be able to get in touch with the teacher in time to ask.

I’ve been teaching high school for a very long time and I don’t understand this. I’m also having a hard time believing you have access to other students’ grades, at least enough of them to determine some type of pattern.

Her teen talked to other teens in the class that’s how she got her info. Perfectly reliable, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a rounding issue? Like rounded up for some kids but not yours? Nothing you can really say there. Otherwise you’re going to need to explain more.

No, it's basically like the raw score was plugged into a certain formula to get a percentage grade, and my kid's raw score was plugged into that formula slightly differently than other students' raw scores were. The issue is NOT that other students got higher grades or more credit. Also, the issue is quite obvious (I'm being a little evasive in explaining it to protect privacy) and doesn't require scrutiny of anyone else's grades. It may well be a simple error, but I'm not sure we'll be able to get in touch with the teacher in time to ask.

I’ve been teaching high school for a very long time and I don’t understand this. I’m also having a hard time believing you have access to other students’ grades, at least enough of them to determine some type of pattern.

Her teen talked to other teens in the class that’s how she got her info. Perfectly reliable, right?

Not very useful. Unless you talked to everyone, the sample size is only 2-3. And students lie.

[Anonymous]

When I am entering grades for a final project for literally hundreds of students, the last thing I care about is twisting it to affect their final grade negatively. I’ve got nine million tasks the last two weeks of school, I’m pounding those grades into the gradebook and letting the computer calculate so I can get on with my list of end of year tasks.

By all means, have your child contact the principal, it’s their right. Perhaps the teacher did enter the grade incorrectly, accidentally or on purpose. But I would definitely have your child do the legwork so they know how to self advocate.

[Anonymous]

I thought I'd follow up to say that we never did hear back from the teacher, but my kid ended up with the higher grade so presumably the teacher fixed the error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Look, I never said my kid was "constantly rude." I could add much more backstory that would make my kid seem much more sympathetic in terms of their overall relationship with the teacher, but I will concede my kid didn't act perfectly, and to the extent they made mistakes, I've addressed it with them. Ultimately, how my kid acted or didn't act is mostly irrelevant to my question, which was (to put it more succinctly): There is an irregularity in the input of one assignment grade that has no obvious explanation other than error and that I am 95% sure the teacher would change on their own if alerted to it in time. Because my kid was on the borderline between grades, it turns out to make a big difference to their overall grade in the class. We tried to communicate with the teacher but suspect the teacher is no longer checking e-mail. Should we let it go as a life lesson or take further action? I appreciate everyone who's weighed in on both sides of that question and will consider what you have to say. I really don't want to end up IDing anyone involved so don't plan to elaborate any further.

I would escalate at the school. The teachers weighing in that this is a life lesson are behind the curve and are not getting the bigger picture. College is ridiculously competitive at even thr state schools and with the costs rising, it is more important than ever for middle class kids to get in. When parents freak out about grades, this is the underlying driver. They are worried about college and future job opportunities in a world where it feels everyone is falling behind. I get that this has led to grade inflation, but this can’t be fixed by one teacher or even school alone. Also, teachers are just like everyone else and some are amazing while others can be petty or incompetent.