Making the Grade in a 12 Step Program

          This week, making out final grade reports, I thought about Mom’s telling us, the day she was tested for Alzheimer’s, “I don’t want to brag, but I think I got an A.”

          See how important grades are? 

          I was thinking this morning that I'd like to have a book club to discuss gradebooks.  It would really be a time to get together at midterm and at the end of the semester and read and discuss students' papers and discuss their skills and their needs.   

           Then I thought, "No, what we need is a support group, and I have to begin by saying, 'My name is Tina Martin, and I'm a grade Worry-holic.'"  The aim  of the 12-step program--one paper, one student, one grade at a time --would be to abstain from worry by focusing on more constructive things.  I would tell you about E.M.,  my wonderful Project Shine student from Downtown non-credit, who's taking only ESL 140 and a non-credit class, fewer than 12 units, and whose English skills are really just C but whose mind and character and efforts are definitely A.   

          How much do we grade on skills, and how much do we grade on needs--theirs and ours?  At the beginning of the semester, we tell them how their grades will be calculated, but do we follow that?  The 72.9 and 75.2 are the grades that came of the calculations.  What now?  E.M.'s average is 86.9.  I can make that an 87, but can I make an 87 and A when his departmental exams show C on reading and C on grammar?  Some of the 86.9 grade is already inflated because it's the result, not of his English skill but of extra credit reports he wrote and re-wrote.  I told the students that I couldn't give them higher grades just because they did extra work because their grades had to reflect their skills.  So I would read their extra-credit reports and give them a grade.  If it wasn't an A or a B, I'd give them the chance to re-write it so that their extra effort would really help their grade.  Was that fudging a bit?  Another student's grade wouldn't be as high as 72.9 (73) if I hadn't made her extra-credit reports part of the grade.  Doesn't the English Department beg us to send students with good English language skills?  

       I had a  Vietnamese friend who was so outstanding in every way that I could perceive but couldn't get beyond an entry-level job, which mystified me--until I saw something she'd written.  Her writing was so awful that I wouldn't have let her out of my ESL 140 class, and yet she'd been passed on through all the ESL writing classes at CCSF and at SFSU--probably by teachers who were impressed by her delightful personality and valiant efforts if not her skills.   I think they did her an injustice.  But I fear that I will do that too.  Will do.  Have done.  Am doing. 

            I really do think a support group for grade worry-holics would be wonderful.