On 12/29/98, Larry Appleman <larry[_at_]world.std.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 28 Dec 1998, Dan L. Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I should point out, however that most schools now prohibit
> > retroactive grade adjustments except for "mechanical errors"
> > in calculation. For example, had I been the prof in the story,
> > the most I could do would be to offer a shamefaced apology -- but
> > no credit. ...
>
> I know this is a bit off-topic for the copyright list, but could
> someone explain the pedagogical rationale for "most schools now
> prohibit[ing] retroactive grade adjustments except for 'mechanical
> errors' in calculation"? (And, incidentally, is that really true
> at "most schools" now?)
My guess is that there are a couple of reasons. First, final exams are often curved, and a change later would throw off the curve. Second, it sets up some very subjective and potentially unfair dynamics. You have 100 students in a class. Everyone gets a grade. Only a small subset of students come complaining to the prof about the unfairness of this or that part of the prof's review of the exam. In a private and somewhat charged setting, do you want the prof to cave to the pressure of the unhappy student?
> That seems awfully unfair, particular in a case like the original
> anecdote, where the professor's grading criterion had been based on
> unambiguously incorrect information.
This particular example sets up a situation in which I think the prof has a responsibility to review and regrade everyone's exam. If I were the student and were denied a change in grade, I would petition the dean. How far that would get me, I don't know, but I think you are correct in your sense of injustice at what happened (or might have happened). In the real-life example Terry gave us, no doubt the friend was happy, but what about the other students? Did any of them do what the friend did? Did the prof look at the other exams and reevaluate them. This is one of those cases where both answers (the new correct one and the old prof-given one) should be given credit. It is unfair to blame the enterprising, up-to-date students, just as it is unfair to blame the others who are properly regurgitating what they were taught.
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