by: Winfred Odhiambo
At 3:38 pm on December 10th, 2021, I was shuffling between my uncomfortable seat on the school bus, my violin in one hand and my messenger bag in the other, and I overheard a student sitting right behind me, evidently in distress and disturbed, talking to their friend about their low performance so far in school academically.
“Man I wish grading was how it was during virtual, or at least less strict than it is now, I mean c’mon! why it late work only accepted as a 70?? what do you think?” Their friend agreed, also giving their own point of view on the matter. Interesting.
This raises my concern — Does everyone agree? Do people think the new policy is fair? Should we just give students A’s for nothing? Kidding. (Kind of). Anyways, we know this school year is a little different then last year, or I guess “back to normal” to say the least. And one thing that has drastically changed is the grading penalties, more or less. Let’s look into it.
The Fulton County school board says that some late work can be recovered up to a 70% and quizzes and test can be recovered up to a 79%. Now I am going to go out on a limb here and say that late work policy is the upsetting one.
“I get the test redemption policy, but the late work policy is sooooooo annoying, why does it have to be that low,” said one sophomore (who did not want to be named). She believes the 70% received on all late work is extremely uncalled for. “It’s not like they are tests or something!” She added, “All I’m saying is that the penalty should not be that low, if all my answers are right then what’s the big deal?”
It seems to be that some may think that minor assessments are not as huge of a deal as major assessments, because out of everyone that I interviewed, the majority did not seem to upset about receiving up to a 79% on all major test, the response was, “It is what it is. I’d rather have a 79 then an extremely low grade” said Aria Byrd, a sophomore.
So, what I am getting here is yay to major assingment 79s but nays to late work 70s. Honestly who can blame them? It can make an enormous difference.
Soem have an opinion about why they think the penalty for late work is so low this year. “I think they are trying to punish us; formatives didn’t count last year. We could’ve turned it in whenever we wanted to, but obviously it’s now different” said one junior who wished to remain anonymous (but who had a pretty evil scowl while saying that). For context, “formatives” were minor assessments during virtual days; they never counted towards our grades and did not have any late penalties. It is clear that we know some people are just not fond of the new law, but as always, not everyone is going to agree on the same idea.
Some people who have a different view on the matter. Mapalo Chileshe, a junior, states, “I mean, I ‘m kinda glad we have this penalty, it makes me remember to turn my work in on time, I never did this last year during virtual, it cost me a lot, y’know?” Contrary to other people’s opinion, this person seemed to think of the policy as beneficial, not only for them but their schoolwork as well.
I tried talking to a few people who may have shared the same opinion as her, and well… I definitely found one (kind of): “It doesn’t matter to me, I got good grades with or without the penalty, I’m just built like that” said one sophomore. ”
I’m just built like that” built with confidence? If so, please lend me some, thanks, but overall, it is great that there are some neutral point-of -views, because there will be a consensus on grades after a pendemic.
