<p>I was just on the phone with a local friend, and our conversation turned from organizational business of our parent association to what grading standards are in high schools these days. She mentioned that her daughter, a sophomore (tenth grader) in an honors Spanish 2 class, was told that she could raise her course grade for the current term from an A- to an A by bringing to class a box of facial tissues to be shared by the class. Have you ever heard of extra credit for facial tissues? Do you know of other examples of student tasks that are not academically related to a course that nonetheless can gain a student extra credit? The mom was rather appalled that the Spanish teacher would offer such a deal for boosting a grade, but is this normal practice these days?</p>
<p>Yes. S got something at the beginning of the school year that stated up to 50 extra credit points could be had, in the first quarter only, by bringing in one or more of the following items (10 points for each), with the following items being things like tissues, whiteboard markers, paper towels, and such, this for an honors science class.</p>
<p>Don’t know if it’s a “normal” practice, but it certainly happens. </p>
<p>Not supplies, but there are plenty of times that homework/projects in classes are basically art projects, or at least, are seen that way by S. Examples: making an “about me” poster for a health class, making a design with string (I’m sure there’s a name for these things, but I don’t know what it is) for a math class, having to create a visual something (poster, CD cover, etc.) for a music class.</p>
<p>S scorns such projects, which is why the “about me” poster was about the size of a playing card and stayed tucked in his binder until the last day of the quarter, whereupon he turned it in with several other homework assignments solely because he needed the points to bring his grade up.</p>
<p>My S got extra credit once for bringing in copy paper. Apparantly the teachers were only alotted so much per semester and then were responsible for buying their own. So the offer of extra credit for paper was a plus for both the teacher and the student. I think the sch. has put a halt to that kind of thing now. </p>
<p>He also once ( in mid. sch) got extra credit for bringing in books to donate to the school library.</p>
<p>Some of my teachers offered extra credit for bringing things like tissues when the budget cuts were especially bad. At the time the teachers would have had to purchase these things themselves, something I doubt they wanted to do.</p>
<p>So, while it’s a rather ridiculous thing to get extra credit for, I can kind of understand where some teachers are coming from.</p>
<p>When I did my student teaching in middle school, nearly all of the teachers in all subject areas had “bring in…” as their first or first two HW assignments. Basically the same idea as extra credit.</p>
<p>At my son’s high school Spanish class they had six hall passes a semester. Each one they did not use was worth 1 point - not much out of hundreds of points but helpful with a marginal grade. Of course my ADD son managed to lose them so the teacher would not give him the points even though she knew he had not used them. 0.1 from the next grade so it would have been nice.</p>
<p>There were other odd points - like covering books etc - in other classes. They would only make a difference in classes where they were a decimal point away from a different grade. </p>
<p>Of course in my experience my kid that always has excellent grades also did every ‘extra credit’ activity ‘just in case’. The one who needed the extra points didn’t.</p>
<p>token… I have seen this in a couple of situations. But both times, the difference between grades was so small that the teacher basically used this to add a point or two out of hundreds to help lift the grade. Some teachers like to throw out the worse grade or allow a student to turn in homework that is weeks old just to give them those few points. Could be that the student is otherwise exemplary. I think that it is fine that a teacher look beyond just the numbers, we all hope that colleges will do the same thing when it comes to acceptances.</p>
<p>Not facial tissues, but I remember getting a letter grade boost for weekly picking up, setting up and running the slide projector in my undergrad Art History course.</p>
<p>My kids had these kinds of “opportunities” their entire grade/middle/high school career. Realizing how much money public school teachers pay out of pocket each year (at least the really good ones)… I would have donated if asked, but we always had a mantra in our household…" Never turn down any opportunity to get extra credit." I agree with the above posters that the Extra credit earned by this was never enough to really influence one’s grade…but helped with an occasional brain cramp on a quiz… One daughter noted (as a sophomore) that the people who did things for extra credit were usually the ones who needed it least. The students who didn’t care about their grades didn’t usually feel any need to get extra credit…</p>
<p>This definitely takes grade inflation to a whole new level…And here I thought counting homework completed was ridiculous…</p>
<p>Not to vent, but, out there in CC land, you have no idea what it’s like to have grade deflation…Only quizzes and tests count and no rounding up under ANY circumstances…(oh, and only 5% on average get A’s in AP’s and honors)…</p>
<p>Yes, “we all hope that colleges will do the same thing when it comes to acceptances.”</p>
<p>crosspost with astrophysics: and “extra credit” was never on the agenda here…</p>
<p>It doesn’t surprise me. I know we have given tissues on several occasions. Don’t think it was for extra credit though.
Things I have seen. Extra Credit points if your parent came to back to school night and signed in. One of the best was extra credit for turning something in the the Due Date.
When my oldest was in Honors Chem they got extra credit if they brought a dozen donuts to the 7 am study session on exam day.</p>
<p>How about extra credit in AP courses? Teacher requires seven “project” type assignments which can range from writing an essay to reading books like “Guns Germs & Steel” with an accompanying paper. If you want to, you can do all of the projects and raise your grade by one full level (so if you are scoring “Ds” on the tests, by doing the extra credit you can raise your grade to a “C”.) Your parent attends a breakfast discussion with you? Extra credit. How is that going to help you in college? Or on the exam for that matter?</p>
<p>Our local high school kids with straight As and no more than 2 absences got exemptions from final exams. Much as the good students love it I have always thought it was a really bad idea. Heck of a shock for those kids when they take their first real final in college.</p>
<p>There are so many subjective ways of adding or taking points that the discussion of tissues, donuts or copy paper really does not make a bit of difference. Class participation, presentations, essays, short answers, art projects, etc. etc. are all examples of assigning points. I will never forget two final exams I had in high school; both 1 question exams where we had two hours to finish. In biology it was: “Why is a carrot?” and in Public Policy it was: “Discuss the political and social ramifications of Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. Both of these weighed heavily on our final grade.</p>
<p>I think this is ridiculous. D’s school allows no extra credit of any kind. No curving, either. The kids have to hit the ground running in every class.</p>
<p>There is a point system in place, where the girls sign in at every game or match or event, and the parents sing in at open houses and the like. Girls who donate to food drives get points, etc. The grade with the most points at the end of the year is given a day off.</p>
<p>Atg: What happened to a kid who wasn’t familiar with Goldilocks? Did the exam include the story? If the story was included, I think it’s a good question for a public policy class.</p>
<p>I’m lost on the “Why is a carrot?” question.</p>
<p>That is one of the most absurd school stories I have ever heard, although I do believe it.
I am familiar with lower elementary school teachers asking, at the beginning of each school year, for each family to contribute a box of facial tissues and for each family to occasionally provide snack. If some families do not contribute, it is left alone. To tie that in to a grade in an academic area is absurd IMO.
If that were to take place in my kids’ district I am sure there would be swift complaints and a reversal of the offer. Only academic work should be considered for an academic grade. This is tantamount to paying for a grade IMO.
My final objection is that such a policy discriminates against families of lower income.
But, on the other side, it certainly is a relatively inexpensive way to get a grade improvement! ;)</p>
<p>I think this anecdote is fodder for a “soft” news story. Please have the source inform a newspaper education journalist. Or perhaps submit the situation to the *NY Times’ *“Ethicist” column. I of course also recommend making a protest to the school principal and the school board.
It is this kind of thing that gives our educational system a bad rep.
I have been both a teacher in public and private schools as well as an education editor. My blood pressure went up when reading this.</p>
<p>Many extra credit assignments *are *busywork. My kids usually never bothered with them. But over spring break my son had a EC opportunity to see a DVD of a certain movie and respond to a series of short essay questions on it. The course was AP econ and the questions related to some economic principles demonstrated in the movie. I was OK with that as it did have some relevance, mostly due to the nature of the questions.</p>
<p>I think this just shows one of the many ways that GPA and by extension, class rank can be gamed. I wonder, were all the kids in the class given the same opportunity to raise their grade by bringing a box of tissue or something similar? I don’t agree with atg that this is insignificant. In some schools, the difference between each rank is miniscule, maybe .001. In smaller schools, this can be the difference between being in top 5%, 10%, etc. Unless every kid was offered the same opportunity, I don’t think we can assume it was insignificant. However, I think extra credit should only be offered for academic type things i.e. writing a paragraph in spanish for a spanish class, doing extra problems in math class, etc.</p>
<p>stickershock… I thought it was a good question for a public policy class as well. Everyone knew the story as it was read in the first 5 minutes of class. We had also used The Three Little Pigs in a class discussion. Since the carrot question was for biology, you had to discuss how a carrot becomes one; covering such things as germination, photosynthesis, nutrients, blah, blah, blah. </p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that points can be given one way or the other. It may seem horrible for a teacher to give a couple of EC points for bringing in tissues, but a point or two in a presentation is OK. The inverse is also possible; I can name several times that my S did not receive all the points he could have obtained in comparison to others because the teacher “expected more from him”. I hold nothing against these teachers if their desire was to challenge my S.</p>