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Show lessons, Fail 2003 page 15 put on probation. A hold will be placed on his registration until he meets with an advisor in University College; a time-consuming meeting for two individuals if not needed. And if John were already on probation, your late grade means he'll be suspended from the University for a minimum of two terms; that's an eternity in young adult time. He will need to leave the institution, and go through re-admission when you report the grade. There will be no guarantee of his re-admittance in this period of admission restraint. Consider Jane Student, in good academic standing, and receiving both scholarship funds and financial aid. The terms of her scholarship require a minimum GPA, and her financial aid package requires that she carry a minimum number of credits. She has earned four credits of A from you. If the grade is late, though, her scholarship will be jeopardized and the receipt of her financial aid money will be delayed. Most students don't have a cushion of money to carry them through a delay in aid money, or difficulties with scholarship funds. Macaroni and cheese without the cheese every night for her until you get your grades in. Jane may not be able to pay her rent on time. In the worst of all cases, she could lose both sources of financial support and would have to withdraw from the University. And your protege, Jack Student, is hoping for honors on graduation, the Dean's list on his transcript, and admission into a professional school. Due to a late grade in a required course, he will enjoy none of these. His graduation will be delayed a semester, because degrees cannot be issued until all required courses are on the official transcript. If the course is not required for graduation, Jack will miss out on honors at graduation and will not make the Dean's list. The late grade may jeopardize his admission into professional school. At such a high price, why do grades get turned in late? Occasionally, things certainly can happen that understandably and unavoidably result in late grades: a misdirected grade sheet, a personal emergency or tragedy, an illness. A colleague of mine was activated for Desert Storm, resulting in very late grades for the class she taught that quarter. Understandable. And if you teach off-campus, have distance students, or come to campus very seldom, it can be difficult to turn in grades on time. Difficult, yet not really impossible. Other reasons for late grades are understandable and avoidable. If you are unlucky enough to have your final exam scheduled for the last day of finals, it can be difficult to record grades on time. Can you use your last class period for the final exam? Can you shorten the final, so you truly sample their knowledge as opposed to making sure they know everything? Can you get and accept help with grading? Do you already have enough graded material from students that you can confidently evaluate their learning, assign a grade, and thus eliminate the final? (Students will really hate that.) Late grades are serious enough to consider all solutions, and find one that fits you. If you have trouble getting grades in on time because a final paper is due during exam week and you don't have sufficient time to grade so many long papers, consider moving the due date forward, or reducing the size of the paper. You are in charge of the class, unless you are having a very, very bad semester, and you can make that decision. Alternatively, perhaps you can ask for and accept reading/grading help. It is possible that some of us delay our grades because we find the act of evaluation so distasteful. For those of us who have carefully deconstructed every aspect of our classrooms to distribute the power and responsibility for learning onto the student, grading represents the last, unchangeable source of instructor power. Also, assigning a failing grade (and for some students, anything less than an A is a failure) can be distressing, unless the student really bugged you, and then it can be quite refreshing. Seriously, we can acknowledge that, for many of us, grading is the least fun aspect of the job, get it over with, and move on. You at least have my sympathy here, if that helps. You may have turned in your grades on time to an administrative assistant, and they delay delivery to the Registrar's office. I urge every department chair to determine if this is happening in their area, and find a solution. Perhaps a reassignment of the delivery duty is in order. Certainly electronic grade submission will eliminate this source of late grades. Perhaps not understanding the negative effects on students allows us to prioritize away from timely reporting of grades; we think it doesn't matter much and we are very busy. We are very busy, that's true. However, now that you have read this article, you know that the consequences of late grades for students can be quite serious, and timely grades are worth our effort. I'm interested in how individuals and departments have successfully addressed this problem affecting so many students, and so many departments. In departments where turning in grades on time is part of the culture, how was that created and how is that reinforced now? For departments where late grades are the norm, what needs to change before the norm can be altered? stephanie.richardson@nurs.utah.edu Artwork: Allegory of Britannia Benjamin West (1738-1820) Courtesy Mary Francey at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts |