Evaluation - Grading - Dropping or not Dropping a Low Grade

Should a low grade be dropped? Focus Questions

• How does dropping a grade help students learn?
• How does dropping a grade help students, who may not yet achieved at an acceptable level, improve?
• What does this communicate to students about grades vs. understanding?
• Why did the instructor give the quiz in the first place if she or he was going to ignore the assessment information it yielded?
• Selecting the lowest score would probably result in a different assessment being dropped for each student. Is that fair?
• If dropping a grade results in raised grades, then how does - raising all grades - affect students' achievement? Does it help, hurt, confuse, or bewilder students?
• Does this practice actually raise students' grades?
• What does a grade mean, if it can be raised at the teacher's discretion?
• Oops, perhaps that gives too much of a clue.