Handling Students Who Complains About Grades

A student questioning a grade isn’t a problem. In fact, it should be promoted. Inquiring why they received a particular grade shows initiative and the feeling to do well.

Following up with how they believe they deserve a higher grade is, in my book, also okay.

Mere complaining, however, is not.

Because it carries with it an component of rudeness and disrespect. The desire here isn’t to learn for future reference or to have an earnest discussion of standards.

No, it’s to guilt, persuade, or intimidate you into changing the grade.

Still, it must be handled exquisitely and delicately. Because, you see, fretful complaining does show that they care, which you never want to stifle.

What follows is a response that discourages complaining but doesn’t suppress their chutzpah and thirst to succeed.

Stay cool and refrain from shutting

At the end of the day when a student approaches you about their grade, it means that they care about it. So it is always better to keep your cool and refrain from shutting them down.

Ignore their bluster for the time being and just listen.

It is said that teacher should remain open minded to their concerns and keep your options open as well. This is key because the student may have a good point hidden within their grievance.

Don’t react immediately.

Most institutions advise that you should never respond to a complaint during your first meeting with the student. Just give them a chance to vent. It happens that when they pause for your reaction, say:

“Let me do some research and get back to you.”

Well this response adds a level of seriousness to their charge while at the same time reminding them of your position as an authority. As a teacher it puts you in control and gives them time to cool off.

It also flips a psychological switch that causes them to be more respectful. Okay so they’ll almost always thank you and may even apologize for their aggressiveness.

Give the facts to your students.

Perhaps you already knew what the reality were. No matter. It pays to wait a few hours or even a day to respond. When you’re ready, approach the learner and give only the facts:

“Here is a copy of the rubric. You didn’t complete number five, which is why you got a ‘B’ on the essay.”

It’s okay to explain further as long as you stick with the data. After a smile and a reassuring “I know you’ll get an ‘A’ next time,” walk away.

If you’re still teaching online because of Covid, this can also be done through email.

Powerfully Teach your class.

Verbally sending a message to one or more students via the entire class is a powerful classroom management strategy .

The way it works in this case is that you would teach your entire class how to respectfully ask about a grade—when and how to approach you, what to say, how to be prepared, etc.

It only takes a few minutes, but it sends an unforgettable message to the complaining student as well as the rest of the class. The result is that few if any students will ever approach you disrespectfully about a grade again.

When student says “I met all the criteria in the assignment. Why did I only get a ‘C’?”

So here what it is meeting the minimal criteria isn’t always enough to guarantee a great mark. A great assignment (essay, test answer, etc.) will often carefully elaborate on issues that are missing from a more basic assignment. However, sometimes the problem is that the assignment is filled with irrelevancies. Being brief is as important as saying enough. Knowing the appropriate level of detail is part of what is being evaluated. Also…students need to know that there is nothing wrong with a “C” grade. According to the Faculty of Arts and Science grading scale, this level of achievement indicates “intellectually adequate performance”.

Helpful strategies:

• As stated above, make sure the student is aware that many faculties (i.e., Arts and Science) identify a C paper as one that fulfills all assignment requirements in a competent fashion.
• As wonderful as you are approach a student who has performed well on an assignment and seek his or her permission to use the assignment as a model for the class. With the student’s express permission, photocopy a portion of the assignment and use it anonymously in class to model a good paper/test answer/lab report/calculation, etc. Show this to students so that they can identify a goal towards which they should be striving, and so that they know what they need to do to improve. This may be better than the answer key originally provided by the professor.
• If possible, ask that the course supervisor provide anonymous representative examples of great assignments from past classes, so that students have a clearer idea of what is expected of them.

When student says“Your standards are too high.”

This may actually be true.Generally if most of the class is doing poorly according to your method of marking, then perhaps something was misunderstood when the assignment was explained to students, or perhaps they have too little experience with this kind of writing. You (and the course supervisor) will have to decide whether there are extenuating circumstances or not.

If your standards are fair, it helps to describe the general performance of the class to the complaintive student. This is where showing (anonymous) copies of high and mid-scoring assignments would be useful: if would demonstrate to students that others in the course understood the requirements. To excel, they will have to meet a higher standard of performance.

Helpful strategies:

• Go over the assignment with the student to identify where improvement is needed.
• Teacher should try not to be overly negative. Focus on 2 or 3 of the more urgent problems. Be sure to point out 1 or 2 positive aspects of the student’s work.
• It is said that you should focus the interaction on real examples of good assignments (make some copies in advance—don’t show the whole assignment, only sections of it). If you do not have accession to examples of work from real students, invent something yourself to be used as a model.
• Avoid focus the interaction on defending your marking style or on issues of authority. You should be sure to write up your comments on longer assignments (if possible, type them up and save them on your computer) so that you have written documentation of your grading that you can fall back on when discussing assignments with students.
• Teacher should keep an open mind. Teaching is complex and sometimes the student may be right. ? Being open-minded and hearing carefully to students’ concerns does not mean that you should secondguess your grades. Be prepared to change a grade only after very careful thinking. If there is no clear justification for changing the mark, stand firmly by your original decision.
• Ask that students study grade distributions and answer keys before disputing a mark.
• Ask students to review the course objectives before disputing a grade or discussing your marking standards. Your standards must fit into a set of guidelines for your department, your faculty and the university. You are part of a larger system, as are the students.