A friend of mine teaches at a private Christian school. The principal at this school requires the teachers to give 10 bonus points to each student who purchases a yearbook. This incentive is to encourage more students to buy yearbooks so that the school can then pay for computers and such needed to produce the yearbooks. This principal also provides similar incentives for students if they purchase school logoed shirts, sports paraphernalia, etc. to help fund various school functions.
To me, buying points is wrong. Yet, I have to imagine that the parents are aware that their kids are buying grade changes, so there must be people out there who are Ok with this.
What the fuck? Of course that’s not ethical. I really hope that the OP has misunderstood the situation and that these bonus “points” are just some kind of competition thing and not towards academic credit, because if it’s for academic credit that’s completely fucked up.
I’d be OK with the points applying to some sort of House Cup or other bragging rights. But they absolutely should not be applied towards grades, at least if the school wants to remain accredited.
I feel the same way. Giving students rewards for funding school activities I find a bit distasteful (if a private school needs more money, raise tuition a tiny bit on every student, don’t “suggest” that they buy crap from you). But directly selling grades for money is beyond the pale. It’s absolutely revolting.
It also happens in every public school I know of. It’s the only way to get the supplies you need. I’m not comfortable with it myself, and I’ve moved away from doing it (so my kids just don’t have tissue available–not sure if that’s better or worse)–but I am not that bent out of shape that others do it. It generally speaking it plays such a small role in final grades–as in much less than half a percentage point on the semester grade–that it’s really pretty meaningless.
I can assure you it doesn’t happen at my kids’ public school, and if it did, I would personally be mounting a public awareness campaign to shame them into stopping it. We have plenty of fundraisers. None of them involve paying for academic credit. I have never even heard of such a thing before this thread.
What does “bonus points” mean? If you’re talking about changing a student’s final grade in a course from 75% to 85%, that’s ridiculous. But if you’re talking about changing the grade on one out of a dozen quizzes, well, it’s still wrong, but I wouldn’t really care.
I don’t see the relevance of it being a private Christian school. Pay for grades is unethical in any school. If, of course, that’s actually what’s going on.
Are your kids in elementary? It may be different there because elementary schools kids are not motivated by grades particularly (and still want stickers) but I can’t imagine a high school where no teacher is offering five bonus points on a daily quiz if you bring in a box of tissue.
At my Catholic elementary school, we used to have a point system, where each table in our class was in competition with one another. We got points for being the first table to shut up, packing our bags up quickest. Stuff like that. The winners at the end of the week got Archie comics and tootsie rolls and crap like that.
Buying school material should count towards THIS. NOT school grades.
At most universities students in the Psychology department can earn extra credit by participating in research studies. I don’t view this much differently than that - what is 10 points worth? A full letter grade difference? Because that would be bad. But if it’s a small increase I don’t really think it’s a big deal.
One could argue that a student participating in a research study in his or her field is learning and gaining hands on experience. It’s not the same as purchasing a yearbook for points, IMO.
The principal was complaining that the students’ final exam grades were all significantly lower than their quarterly averages and that the principal wanted the teacher to make the quarterly/final exams easier. The teacher has refused to change the quarterly/final exams to be easier “because you have to draw the line somewhere”. The teacher was explaining to me that the students’ quarterly averages were higher because there were so many ways for the students to buy bonus points to enhance their scores.
The reason that the principal is applying pressure is because the parents have internet access and can see their child going into the quarterly/final exam with a certain grade but ending up with a lower final grade. The teacher explained to me that the final exams aren’t particularly hard, but that students having access to their running average and knowing the weight of the final will choose to perform to the level necessary to get the grade that they want. For instance, Billy might need a C to stay out of trouble with his parents. He’ll buy all of the available points to push his grade to maybe an 80. Then if the final is a third of the grade, Billy will make a 60 earning 73, a solid C for the course.
Chronos, I agree that the “private Christian” description of the school shouldn’t matter. But it is especially puzzling to me because I would have thought that “private Christian” schools would be more concerned with ethics. Certainly I would have thought that the parents would have gone en masse to the principal to express their displeasure.
The school is small but not tiny. It puzzled me that the parents hadn’t put a stop to the buying of grades. So I thought maybe I was over reacting to the visceral shock I felt. I’m glad to see that most people find the practice unacceptable. In all fairness, the students at the school do well on their standardized tests. Maybe that is why the parents overlook this flaw.
So basically the problem is that the kids are buying grades for their quizzes, but can’t apply the points to final exams. The principal needs to accept that grades are not for sale at any school with any pretensions of academic honesty, and put a stop to selling points that can be applied to grades at any point. Does he have ANY education in education at all? Has he ever been a teacher, or VP or principal in another school? Or is this a charter school?
smilies, to be applied as needed.