Week 9

Vignette 10: Mme. Wagner's Dilemma

This is a great vignette for me because earlier this afternoon I read a juicy article about aggregated and disaggregated grading systems (I'm still not sure which one is which).

What I think Wagner should do in this situation is give Pierre an overall mark of 70%, which is a product of Pierre's 50% final exam mark, which is a product of his personal choices.

Pierre is in grade 8, which is an extremely young age to work. I don't believe that he is doing it because his family is desperate for money; his father owns his own business which is likely capable of carrying out their daily duties without Pierre's help. His father may have come to some sort of agreement (about working for the company) with Pierre in hopes that Pierre would learn about responsibility & the realities of the working world, as well as earn some money for himself. I don't think Pierre will learn very much about responsibility if Wagner adjusts his grade because she feels sorry for him. Would she do it for the rest of the class? If the answer is no, and it is, then she should not do it for Pierre.

The article I read, Grading to Communicate by Tony Winger, suggests having separate sections of each mark which represent academic and non-academic factors, with the ample majority falling into the former category. Although, even if Mme. Wagner had a system such as this in place, she may be faced with the same problem of Pierre's one-off poor performance. She could express her thoughts and concerns to him and offer him a chance to re-write the exam and produce something that is more indicative of his actual ability.

I do agree that there can be subjectivity in grading practices when circumstances arise, such as illness or other extenuating circumstances. Illness is, more often than not, out of one's control. School sports are very touchy because they are important and valuable experiences for students, but at the same time they boil down to a 'do I or don't I' choice such as Pierre's.

Changing grades on account of circumstance arising from students' personal choice, in my humble opinion, is a slippery slope best steered clear of.