The Education Edge Court: Another FAWeb trick

Valentina Barbesta

Presenting the case of the mysterious changing grade!



In Faculty Access to the Web, you as the teacher have the option to keep individual assignment grades from showing until you are finished grading the papers, immediately, or for a specific date in the future… and it's a good thing too!  As a former history teacher, I remember those papers I used to assign which would take me at least 2 weeks to grade. FAWeb gave me the ability to enter the few papers I would grade at a time, but not allow my students to see their grades until I was done with grading everyone’s paper.  Great, right? 

It can be…. But what happens when a student who monitors their "Running Total" carefully notices that his or her overall grade has changed, but doesn't see any new grades added to their daily assignment grades in NetClassroom.  


 

Case #2: Ms. Barbesta, why has my grade changed?
Plaintiff:  Students and Parents
Defense: 50 term papers that can't get graded in a day. 

The background:  You have just collected 50 term papers (or projects…. Or ANY assignment that will take a while to grade).  After a long day of work, you go to your favorite café to have a nice cup of coffee and grade a few papers.  After an hour or so you go into FAWeb and enter the 4 student’s paper grades  you managed to finish.  The "Show Grade" date for the students to view their grade in NetClassroom is set to two weeks from today.  Kristen, Laurie Jo, and Jessica all receive grades above a 90 which makes their overall average go up a few points.  However, poor Michael forgot to submit his works sited page and overall his paper just wasn't up to par.  You enter a grade of 65…. Mike's overall average now drops from an 80 to a 70. 

 


 

 

 

"MS. BARBESTA!?!?  WHY DID MY GRADE GO DOWN 10 POINTS?" says a frantic Michael as he comes into your classroom the next day.

 Uh-oh…. Now you have to explain to Michael why his grade dropped, except you don't want him to know what he got yet because it wouldn't be fair to the other students whose papers you have yet to grade.  Then Michael's parents call and demand you tell him his grade.  Then Sally's parents call to ask why you haven't gotten around to grading her paper. 

What a mess!   

We the jury recommend: 

1.       When you are grading an assignment, paper, project or anything where you do not want the students to be able to see their grade, nor do you want it to affect their overall grade until you are finished grading everyone's assignment, you simply have to change the factor to 0.  What this will allow you to do is to keep track of the papers you have graded as you go, but NOT affect the student's running total, which they are able to view via NetClassroom (depending on your school settings of course).  Once you are finished grading all the papers, you simply change the factor back to 1, and the FAWeb will now recalculate the grade to include the assignment. 

 

The Verdict:  Now as you hand the papers back you can address low performances and/or contact the parents beforehand so there is no magical changing grade!  The result:  A much calmer student and/or parent.