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[rattusdomesticus]

You know, I love teaching. I don't mind sitting in my office for an extra four, five, or six hours a week (beyond office hours) privately tutoring individual students who simply don't have the skills, but this is far, far above and beyond what my department is equipped to handle. Some well-meaning (or lazy or easy or codependent) instructor has passed a student in a developmental course that should have never been passed. And she made the very, very poor decision to take the freshman-level course during a five-week summer class (yes, that's five weeks to cram in 16 weeks of learning; same curriculum). And she's failing. Terribly.

This student's skills at all levels (grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure) is so flawed that I cannot even begin to correct her work. When I told her that in my years of teaching, no one at this skill level has been able to improve in such a short time and pass my course, she started to cry. I advised her to drop the course. She kept asking if "there was a way" for her to pass anyway. I indicated that although I'd be happy to work with her one-on-one, refer her to academic counseling and the tutorial center, I did not offer extra-credit work, and that I did not give students' grades they did not earn. She said that her parents would not pay for her to take the course during Fall--to which I was empathetic, but had no way to make her situation easier.

I understand that curriculum varies from course to course. I understand that instructors can develop ways to achieve those goals in many ways. But what I'm talking about here is not eliminating autonomy in teaching--but holding the line when it comes to failing failing students. I understand that some instructors are people-pleasers. I hear that it's horrible to see the tears and the pain that failing students suffer, but is there anyone out there that understands that when we soften curriculum and "help" students by passing those who fail, we ultimately making another instructor's life HELL during the next semester?

My advice: Please, please... when the tears come and you are tempted to "give in" and either start developing extra-credit assignments or soften curriculum to allow failing students to pass, just remember that you are simply putting off impending doom. Yes, you may not have to deal with it (and maybe that is all you are interested in), but someone you like, (someone who may teach next door to you or be your best buddy at faculty functions), may be tearing their hair out, losing sleep, and feeling like the worst instructor in the world because you took the easy way out.

Just say "no" to passing failing students. Please.

[chemchick]

Rattus,

     I agree 100%--nobody is doing anybody any favors by passing students who haven't mastered course material.  I have a feeling the problem is more than just spineless instructors though.  I've been places where a large failure rate (meaning 15% or so) in an introductory/core level course is bad (read:  your fault).  Altough I didn't have to worry about this, I would bet real money that if I consistently had a large failure rate I wouldn't get tenure.  Heaven forbid you start failing majors--then the department gets known for failing majors, because of this the department get less and less majors, and then maybe the department is seen as unnecessary.

It's all so unpleasant.

[anon2]

amen.

[fiona]

I agree with rattus, and the situation she described has caused me a lot of pain, too.

Students who are pleasant, hard-working, and (yes) good-looking often get passed from year to year, getting B's, and sometimes when I get them, they're really not all that literate. They can more or less read, but they can't construct paragraphs or arguments. I teach sophomore and above courses, some gen ed but often for majors.

Here's a sad fact that's rarely mentioned: "Developmental" (what used to be called "Remedial") English mostly doesn't cure illiteracy, lack of school preparation, and/or just not being that bright. But "developmental" students are usually passed on if they're pleasant, hard-working, good-looking. And then I get them, or rattus gets them, or someone like us--and someone has to say No.

It's truly terrible to be the one who says No, the one who puts up the wall. I'm in a sought-after R-1, so we're not trying to retain students to keep up enrollments. But social promotion of illiterate students is wrong.

[adjunk]

I'm not in an R-1.  At my school, we are desperate to retain each and every student because that's how tuition-dependent we are.  Our "admissions" office might be called instead the "acceptance" office because none of the faculty have been able to figure out what, if any, the criteria of rejection are.    Just what does it take for an applicant to get a rejection letter?  No one knows--that's how rare they are.  So, suffice it to say, we see alot of these students in our classes, and when they do poorly, surely all of the blame is to be placed at the incompetent hands of the instructor who has clearly failed to develop effective and innovative pedagogical methodologies to address their individual learning styles.  And that's the exact reason why our students do so well!
IMHO, if the buck stops anywhere, it stops at the admissions office.

[gastr1]

...ahem. I attended a recruiting seminar for our college within the university this past year where they spelled out our freshman admission requirements:
2.0 high school GPA
   or
high school diploma
   or
16 ACT.


   (or...
 ...pulse.)

I am sympathetic to the problem. I was an easy instructor in grad school without knowing it. I have learned, through seeing how much more my students achieved, that being difficult was unpopular but best by far. And yes, someone has to be honest with the student and inform them that trying one's best is not always good enough.  The whole comparative norm process my university does with evaulations chaps my hide, as if getting the highest scores actually meant something other than being a pushover.

[trabb]

I'm going to ask a question that may get me flamed, but oh well:)  Is it ever appropriate to pass a student who has earned a failing grade?

I will (with only a small bit of shame) confess to having done so.  In the case I am thinking of, the student in question earned a failing grade by missing deadlines and by not attending class.  This student's work (when it finally reached my desk), was far superior to anything that I've seen before or since in an introductory writing course. 

I sat down with this student and asked her what was going on.  She said that she was heavily involved in political activities at the local and state level and that her time was better spent there rather than in a class that she didn't need but was required to take.  I happened to know that she was heavily involved in these activities, and I agreed with her that she didn't need to be in the course.  But, if I followed my syllabus to the letter, she should have failed the course. 

She passed - but only barely.  That grade came with a long lecture in which I told her that the main reason I opted to assign a passing grade was that I didn't want to inflict her BS on one of my colleagues the next semester.

This happened early in my teaching career, and I haven't had quite the same situation since.  I'm not sure how I'd handle it a decade later.  My guess is that I'd summarily flunk the student and tell her to suck it up and deal with having to take the course.

[math_geek]

I used to have a really tough time about this. I teach primarily developmental math, and the differences between students' abilities and preparation is remarkable. In every class I've taught, I've always had a few that were so slow to pick up the material, if they'd pick it up at all, it thoroughly amazed me. I would spend countless hours tutoring them, and many of these students tried their best. I would feel like a failure many times if they would not succeed. These students sought my help, did online tutorials, went to the math center for help, but they just could not cut it. I would explain concepts in ten different ways, and some just could not comprehend it. I never, however, considered passing them at that low level of functioning. The main reason, besides it is unethical in my book, is that they would surely fail the next course which depends on the material they could not master in my course. I would be doing them no favors.

My strategy in this instance is to be as honest with them as possible, but of course with tact. I never string students along to think they are going to pass when they have a 34% average or worse. Most understand and are sad, but it amazes me that most still hang in there and try their best anyway. I tell them specific things to do to improve, and many do try these things. I think sometimes it takes another time through a course for some of these students to comprehend the material.

I did have a student like this in one of my first semesters, and she eventually dropped the course. I ran into her the next semester, and she bragged to me about how her new instructor had been so easy, and wow, he didn't even bother with all those story problems. She passed with a high A. In my class, she was at around a 42% average. Am I just that hard of a teacher, or was that other teacher way too easy? Hmmm... I wonder. And the major portion of objectives had to do with story problems; how could he have "skipped" them? I cringed when I heard this, not only because she was passed (could she have improved that much?) but I was certain she'd be so unprepared for the next course. I just smiled and the time and congratulated her. What else could I say?

As for the student you described, who asked if there was any way she could pass, I have had students like this as well. They think you'll go easy on them because of the tears and hard work, and it is difficult not to cave in (and I am a softy), but I just could not do that. I had a student this semester that I tutored who was failing miserably. She kept begging her professor for extra credit and favors and such to pass. She was taking a business calc course on an accelerated 7 week semester (an overwhelming feat for many right there), and she didn't in my opinion even belong in Algebra 1. I made suggestions and told her it was best if she dropped to precalc, but she wouldn't take them. She was determined to pass. She did not. Her highest test grade was a 35%. I could have blamed myself, as I used to do when I was newer, but this student would simply not listen to reason. I'm finally developing a thicker skin.

[rattusdomesticus]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all these comments... I've read and reread these posts several times in the last day. Thanks, my online colleagues.

I've actually been in touch with this student's last instructor. Without rancor, I asked how she did in his course and what his course requirements were. He indicated that he used a text known in the field as "easy," and his syllabus revealed that only 10% of the final grade was based on essays written in-class--which meant that another whopping 40% of the final grade (and the other 50% of work) could be done out of class. This instructor admitted that the student constantly sought help at the writing center for her work--which means that 80% of her final grade could have been done by tutors or others who were too willing to "help" too much; another 10% she could have earned by simply coming to class. Only the 10% earned by writing in class would have really revealed her true abilities... which this instructor confessed were bad. Very bad.

I've agreed to let this student do her in-class midterm essay on Friday and will provide her with a "grade to date" an hour later... which will give her the information necessary to either drop the course or expect a failing grade. I'm already drafting a letter about the information I gathered about the requirements in her last course (not revealing, of course, what the other instructor told me about this particular student), and comments I've received from my dept. head on related information (supporting me on adhering to syllabus, refusing to let one student have preference over others, etc.) so that I'll be ready for Friday.

All in all, it's exhausting that I give a damn about this. I actually lay in bed this a.m. for about an hour, thinking about it. I hope that getting some of this down on paper (and in this forum) will help me let it go.

The good news is that I'm rethinking my own strategies for teaching developmental English... and realizing that using an "easy" text, going over exercises in class without collecting or grading them, and not requiring revealing in-class work can allow us to unintentially give students inflated grades--which come crashing down when they fail the next course. Ugh.

Thanks again all for your suggestions and comments. I will stay strong (but empathetic) in this situation.

[flboy]

Oddly when this subject comes up everyone details the hard line approach. Are you the only one's responding? Are you the only one's reading these messages??

I am like math geek and teach the same subject area. We are the exception.

Where are my colleagues who give take home tests (in developmental math!!)?
Where are my colleagues that give make up tests?
Where are my colleagues that allow "do-overs" (I am not kidding)?
Where are my colleagues that accept excuses like "I slept through the alarm clock"?
Where are my colleagues that allow test grades to be dropped?

I know they exist. I can call their extensions.

[gastr1]

Where are my colleagues who give take home tests (in developmental math!!)?
Where are my colleagues that give make up tests?
Where are my colleagues that allow "do-overs" (I am not kidding)?
Where are my colleagues that accept excuses like "I slept through the alarm clock"?
Where are my colleagues that allow test grades to be dropped?

My colleagues that employ the "in our field" equivalent of those things would not be concerned enough about the consequences of their actions to reflect upon them, which this forum promotes. They have convinced themselves that caring is too much work, or too emotionally wrenching to deal with, or too time consuming; so they do not, which means not opening up the pandora's box of reflection upon the outcomes of being easy, IMO.

Fortunately, in my experience, the good students who have "been around the block" eventually recognize the difference. They stop enrolling for the slacker/easy courses because they enjoy the reward of a class with some challenge and meaning. In short, they enjoy that the results they've seen with certain instructors and want more of it. Those students make it all worthwhile ...and on occasion, being direct with slack or slow students gets through in a positive way. One recent student who in an evaluation, after they almost dropped the class several times but managed to finish strong and come out with a C, that what they liked about the class was that "the instructor REALLY cared about individual students' progress, and stayed on my a$$ about getting my assignments done."

All the confirmation I ever needed, right there.

[bloke]

Where are my colleagues who give take home tests (in developmental math!!)?
Where are my colleagues that give make up tests?
Where are my colleagues that allow "do-overs" (I am not kidding)?
Where are my colleagues that accept excuses like "I slept through the alarm clock"?
Where are my colleagues that allow test grades to be dropped?

You don't give makeup tests and you don't drop test grades?  What happens if a student has a reasonble excuse for missing an exam?

[spicoli]

Am I in trouble for failing two majors this past semester?
I am in my second year of the TT and didn't give it a seconds thought to fail these two. They earned their grades: failing to attend class, failing midterms, etc. However, after reading the above comment about how poorly it looks to Universities to fail majors, I wonder if I am in deep doo doo for failing these students.  One of the students was a graduating senior.  Gulp!

[wowisback]

I sat down with this student and asked her what was going on.  She said that she was heavily involved in political activities at the local and state level and that her time was better spent there rather than in a class that she didn't need but was required to take.  I happened to know that she was heavily involved in these activities, and I agreed with her that she didn't need to be in the course.  But, if I followed my syllabus to the letter, she should have failed the course. 

She passed - but only barely. 

what you did can be described in one word: UNETHICAL.

You assigned a grade to a student that, by your own admission, the student did not deserve. Your "standards" given in your syllabus were apparently a lie, a joke, or both. That is despicable.

Please answer the following questions:

1. Have you flunked anyone since then? If so, were they afforded the same opportunity to pass as that girl was?

2. No doubt you heartily agreed with the policitcal activites of that girl. (May I be so bold as to presume they were "a bit left of center"?) I wonder if you would have been so willing to pass her if you did not agree with her politics?

[trentsands]

rattusdomesticus,

Do you have norming sessions in your department for the developmental writing classes taught there.  Having the dev writing instructors meet and discuss standards, criteria, etc., can really cut down on the disparities in student achievement in these courses.  One school I worked with does this, and the developmental writing student leave the class usually with better writing skills than those who take the standard freshman composition course.