Second Chances

Rebecca, I agree – that’s exactly the dilemma of such situations. For me personally, there are two basic factors which might persuade me to ‘nudge’ a grade. (1) The ‘earned’ grade has to be pretty close to passing, and they have to have given me SOMETHING over the course of the semester that demonstrates they’re capable of interest, attention, engagement, etc. In other words, if they’d had 1 or 2 more ‘good days’, they’d have passed. (2) There’s reason to believe it could help the student beyond simply giving them a credit they didn’t quite earn – some specific situation outside of school, or an involved family member working with them, etc. I confess in a very few situations, I’ve been persuaded by an informal essay from the student reflecting on the school year and demonstrating some introspection about choices.

Good question, though – I don’t think I did the “wrong” thing, but I’d never argue against anyone who chose the opposite.