Dropping The Lowest Grade

[HigherEd7]

Should we drop the lowest grade on an assignment?

[downer]

No.

[dismalist]

Aaaaahh, drop them all!

[OneMoreYear]

Sometimes; it depends on the assignment.

[HigherEd7]

Sometimes I drop the lowest quiz grade, I don't want to come across as being mean, and again I don't want to give a student a grade they don't deserve.

[aside]

Should you?  Not necessarily.  Would you be doing something wrong if you do (giving a student a grade the student does not "deserve")?  Not necessarily.

[Vkw10]

Should we drop the lowest grade on an assignment?

Should you drop grades? I have no idea. I don't know anything about your course objectives, your assessment plan, the type and number of assignments you give.

I teach a required course for majors which focuses on several skills needed to succeed in upper level courses in program. I have multiple assignments for the four course modules. All assignments require students to practice the skill for that module. All are "open book" assignments. Each module offers 750 points worth of assignments. A C in the course requires 2000 points, a B requires 2250 points, and an A requires 2500 points. Students complete assignments as desired to earn the grade they want. For this assessment structure, dropping grades would make no sense.

My seminar courses typically require two short papers and one long paper. Dropping a grade makes no sense with so few assignments, but adding assignments wouldn't help meet course objectives.

I occasionally teach an intro course where I give seven quizzes and a final. I drop the two lowest quiz grades. I also point out to students that the final is comprehensive, so those low quiz grades indicate areas they need to study. The comprehensive final serves as a second chance to assess learning, allowing me to offer some mercy during the semester. The seven quizzes are intended to help my first year students transition from high school to college, by encouraging them to study despite the freedom from parental rules, and to help them build a study guide for final which is drawn directly from the quizzes.

Think about your overall assessment plan, then decide whether dropping grades makes sense.

[HigherEd7]

Great responses by all. Thank you

[lightning]

You can use Dropping The Lowest Grade to keep you from going insane.

Instead of wasting time fielding lame excuses for why someone didn't show up for a quiz or in-class activity, or didn't turn in an assignment, simply state at the beginning of the semester, that students get the lowest assessment dropped, and that would include a zero for being a no-show or a non-submission of an assessment. This is better than fielding lame excuses and managing stragglers when you do grant mercy. Sometimes the excuse is legit, but it's also a waste of time and energy to have to play cop and figure who is lying and who is not.

Dropping The Lowest Grade is especially useful if you are at one of those customer-oriented colleges, where students routinely complain to the higher-ups about "mean" faculty (like the ones that take in spoiled entitled kids who couldn't get in anywhere else and whose parents are willing and able to pay close to full price).

[bio-nonymous]

I have 5 exams and a comprehensive final, all at equal weight. I grade on the best 5. Practically what happens is that students (most) who are fine with their grades after the 5 content exams skip the final and take a zero (their lowest grade), and it gives some few students a second chance if they bombed an exam or are on the cusp of a better grade. It works for me...and the students have less anxiety.

[Aster]

For courses where the cherry picking of student course assessments is deemed wise, I use an alternative approach.

Rather than "drop the lowest X number of assessment(s)", I "keep the highest X number of scored assessment(s)".

This allows me to insert additional assessments without disrupting the grading system.

[mamselle]

That would be a good addition to the Jedi Mind Tricks thread...

M.

[the_geneticist]

For formative assessments (quizzes, weekly updates, reading summaries, etc), I think it's very reasonable to drop the lowest score or two.  Why?  Because formative assessments are a way to learn how much/how well you understand something.  Sometimes the answer is "not well at all".  And that's OK because that's part of learning something new.
For summative assessments (exams, projects, presentations), my vote is "NO".  I can't justify not holding students accountable for understanding a big chunk of course material.  I really dislike the "you don't have to take the final if you like your grade" UNLESS there was an exam that already tested their understanding of the most recent materials.  Otherwise, a savvy student could just skip the last 2-4 weeks of class.

[Hibush]

A different context, but sometimes I feel like I'm working in a system where all but the lowest grade are dropped.

[bio-nonymous]

For formative assessments (quizzes, weekly updates, reading summaries, etc), I think it's very reasonable to drop the lowest score or two.  Why?  Because formative assessments are a way to learn how much/how well you understand something.  Sometimes the answer is "not well at all".  And that's OK because that's part of learning something new.
For summative assessments (exams, projects, presentations), my vote is "NO".  I can't justify not holding students accountable for understanding a big chunk of course material.  I really dislike the "you don't have to take the final if you like your grade" UNLESS there was an exam that already tested their understanding of the most recent materials.  Otherwise, a savvy student could just skip the last 2-4 weeks of class.

Clarification: I understand your point and agree. In my system the final exam is a cumulative exam, they have already been tested on all of the material in the exams during the semester. The final is harder and longer than the regular exams, but is a second chance for students (can drop one of the semester grades and substitute the final). Thus, they still need to learn all of the material. But, since they need a "B" to pass the class, if they have a bad day on an exam, at least this gives them another shot.