Grade Appeal Battle! Duking it out with Prof.

Transfer Students UC Transfers
21

<p>This is her grading policy word for word- </p>

<p>“To insure a grade of C or better, your overall average must be 75% or higher. Those students with averages in the 70-75% range may receive a D if I feel they did not put forth the adequate effort. Also, any student who does not score at least 60% on the final will receive a D, regardless of their other test scores.”</p>

<p>So its really vague on the “adequate effort” part. From my understanding effort means trying and trying means at least completing all homework and attended all classes.</p>

22

<p>but in the same sense that vagueness can also be used against you. I think that you deserve the C because of the effort you obviously put in, but because she seems so reluctant to give it to you I think it may be incredibly difficult. Challenging a professor on her own syllabus is very hard as it is, but I think that the dean or whoever you take it up with will look at the second chance she gave you to take the final and decide against you. But most likely, whoever looks over it will tell her to be more clear on her grading policy with what adequate effor means.</p>

<p>Either way, I say you try and really push on the vagueness and the fact that you think you made an adequate effort by attending each lecture and doing all the homework.</p>

23

<p>You should have fought adequate effort part till the end without doing the retake… if there was any chance that you couldnt get 80%… Saying yes to the retake meant no turning around… and now she has leverage on you that you agreed to retake the final and you didnt meet the limit.</p>

24

<p>“you might be able to make a discrimination argument.”</p>

<p>???</p>

25

<p>yea that was a bad decision in retrospect. But she did say that the final I will be retaking will be again “comparable” to the one taken during the winter course. However the 2nd final was significantly harder. For example applied derivatives- related rates and optimization problems on the retake final was not on the class final or test. I am talking about the type of problem. I understand that she can’t have the exact same problem. But nonetheless it was harder.</p>

26

<p>What?? No related rates or optimization on a calculus I final? Are you guys doing limits and power rule for the final? LOL</p>

27

<p>no, no, no. What I’m saying it the problems were harder. Related rates and opt. were covered. But think… optimizing area for rectangle and optimizing area for a circle inscribed in a triangle. Plus there was a time lag between winter intercession and the final retake. about a month. Just had too much work. 20units this semester.</p>

28

<p>job well done</p>

29

<p>OP, as much as I would like it for you to actually win this argument, it’s really no excuse to say that the final was a bit “harder.” Overall I think your odds of actually being successful in getting an appeal for the grade is pretty slim since you were given a chance to redeem yourself, but I also think it’s a terrible grading system if they don’t follow the standard 70-75% is a C type of deal. All I can say is that I wish you the best of luck no matter how your situation ends up.</p>

30

<p>Ok, so the CCC grants final authority on grading to the instructor, except in cases involving mistakes, bad faith, fraud, or incompetency. So you have to prove one of those occurred in order to be successful.</p>

<p>The CCC policy requires professors’ grading policies to adhere to state law and regulations.</p>

<p>Check out California Administrative Code Title 5, Section 55002(a)(2)(A): [California</a> Administrative Code Title 5_ § 55002 BARCLAYS OFFICIAL](<a href=“http://www.docstoc.com/docs/26694331/California-Administrative-Code-Title-5_--55002-BARCLAYS-OFFICIAL]California”>http://www.docstoc.com/docs/26694331/California-Administrative-Code-Title-5_--55002-BARCLAYS-OFFICIAL)</p>

<p>Note the key word: uniform. If you can find a student with your percentage or below who received a C, I think you win. This would not be a case of uniform grading. See, it would be allowed if she modified your score based on her perception of your effort (a participation score), but she didn’t. </p>

<p>I believe a policy where she can assign two students with the same score different letter grades would be inconsistent with the uniformity requirement. She could, in theory, modify the score for any reason, but that’s not what she’s doing. She’s arbitrarily assigning different grades to students with the same score (at least, her policy allows her to do so).</p>

<p>Now, ideally you’d find the C student with a lower score than you, but you still have a chance even if such a person doesn’t exist because her policy allows for a lack of uniformity. Therefore the policy itself is invalid. The way the policy is written, you receive a D if she decides you didn’t put forth enough effort. No grade is specified in the other scenario. In that case, I think voiding the policy gets you a C. If it were written the other way (“Those students with averages in the 70-75% range will receive a D, unless I feel they put forth the adequate effort.”), voiding the section wouldn’t help you.</p>

<p>I actually think you’d be arguing incompetence here–the professor’s grading policy failed to adhere to state regulations, which is a requirement of her job. That makes her incompetent.</p>

31

<p>^ good stuff!</p>

32

<p>@ nick_scheu: Future lawyer? lol</p>

33

<p>The other angle you could use is “proficiency in subject matter.” The grade must be based on proficiency, not on her perception of your effort. So, again, that policy of hers is void and cannot change your C into a D.</p>

<p>The exception to this would be if “effort” was a defined element of the subject matter of the course, but I believe that would have to be present in the course’s outline (which applies to all sections of the course at your CCC).</p>

34

<p>@goingmeta</p>

<p>If the student is black, the professor white, and the professor gave a white student with the same score or a lower score a higher letter grade, you could argue the decision was based on race. IMHO this is a weak argument, but colleges tend to be particularly sensitive to allegations of racial bias.</p>

<p>@blackmamba</p>

<p>Yep.</p>

<p>EDIT:
One more thing on my long post above… She might argue that since the policy is written down, and everyone was subjected to the same policy, it is therefore uniform. This doesn’t work. Simply writing something down doesn’t automatically make it uniform. </p>

<p>If her policy was “I will assign grades in a non-uniform manner,” she could then argue “I uniformly assign grades non-uniformly.” This clearly doesn’t work. The question is whether the policy allows for for non-uniformity. This professor has a uniform policy that mandates non-uniformity–a violation of 55502, in my opinion.</p>

35

<p>^ Nice, I see a bright future ahead of you.</p>

36

<p>Lol Jesus Christ.</p>

<p>Getting a bad grade does not automatically make you a victim. It’s absolutely hideous that somebody should even suggest that you should attempt to make this into an issue of discrimination or race.</p>

<p>You had control over your decisions. Take responsibility for them.</p>

37

<p>^I’m not trying to choose only fair or moral arguments. I’m trying to point out anything that might be effective. That’s what’s really hideous to me–that it could work. Whether the student goes that route is up to him/her… I’m just trying to provide options.</p>

38

<p>It might be effective to kidnap the professor’s family and hold them hostage for an A+ too.</p>

39

<p>^Yes, but that would be illegal. It’s not illegal to ask if race was a factor in arbitrarily assigning two students with the same score different letter grades.</p>

40

<p>up your standards rather than making your professor downgrade her standards.</p>