Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: test grades



----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael N. Monce" <mnmon@CONNCOLL.EDU>
Just another note on following your syllabus: in today's world
that syllabus can be considered a contract. If you deviate very far from
the grading scheme you laid out at the beginning of the course, the
student may have some sort of recourse for action against you. I
intentionally try to make my grading scheme have a few loopholes. for
example I don't state what I do if the course average is, say 89.7.
Rounding is at my discretion, so that grade could go to an A- or a B+.

This is why my syllabus always lays out the MINIMUM grading scale. I work
off a 1000 point system and my I show my grading scale as
930-1000 points = A
900-929 points = A-
etc. with 600 points being the pass cutoff. I reserve the right to lower
the cutoffs, but NEVER raise them.

Just to emphasis a point I tried to make earlier. If you are going to base
passing/failing entirely on the test results, then be sure of a couple of
things.
1) That you really believe that it is necessary to be able to perform in
_your_ type of test conditions in order to show minimal mastery of the
subject.
2) That you are confident that your tests _really_ give a fair assessment
of a student's learning/skills in your course.

In other words, are you confident that the form and substance of your tests
are accurate assessments of a student's learning and their skills and that
these have some relationship to their future 'needs'.

Rick