Student Grade Expectations aren’t on Par with Teacher Realities

February 26, 2009

On February 18, 2008 Max Rooselvelt published an article on student grading in The New York Times. This article titled Student Expectations Seen as causing Grade Disputes explores the expectation of instructors versus those of students. For example, one-third of students in a recent survey at the University of California, Irvine, expected to receive B’s just for attending lectures. Forty percent said they should receive a B just for doing the required reading. Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested that in their k-12 experiences they’ve become “ultra-efficient in test preparation. And this hyper-efficiency has led them to look for a magic formula to get high scores.”

As a college professor and high school instructor, I tend to agree with these assertions. You know the kid. He’s the one who fights you for every point. She’s the one who checks his or her grade on the internet every chance they get. He’s one who asks when a new grade will be posted for an essay turned in 30 minutes beforehand. Students these days, according to Marshall Grossman from the University of Michigan, believe that the their default grade is an A. I see this all of the time. They want to begin with an A, and, as they fail to complete objectives, they expect to be penalized. They don’t like when we begin with a C as the average grade and then reward for going above and beyond. They think as long as they do the minimum, then they are entitled to an A or B.

When my students write essays, a score of 5 (which, for me, equates to a 75%) is the average. I reward them as their prose is more effective, their syntax is more mature, etc… I lower their earned grade when they do not meet the objectives. The students who get a 75% or an 80% and come to me asking, “what did I do wrong?” are incredulous. I tell them they did nothing wrong. They got an average grade, but they don’t want to be average. In an increasingly flat world (ala Friedman), they want to be perfect and blame us when they aren’t. I tell them they earn the grade, and I am just the score keeper. I record the score. I do not “give” grades.

Today’s students have a sense of entitlement that is seen across the country from universities like Vanderbuilt, U Vermont, and the other aforementioned schools, according to Roosevelt. I see it less as a community college instructor since class does play into my experiences there, but at the middle-class, relatively Caucasian high school I see this all of the time. Sure when it comes to objective tests, then it’s more black and white, but as they begin to write and I assess more subjectively, they begin to fight more and more.

Last week a student asked “how many points are we getting on this?”, as I assigned a homework assignment. I just looked at her and said that I didn’t know, and that it didn’t matter. What does matter is did you learn something? If you did, then you pass, and if you did not I fail. Our goal is to creative global, critical thinkers who are able to make meaning and connections between the curriculum and schooling, and too many of them are too worried about the points to really see the learning beyond just “doing school”.

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