What to do if a teacher loses your work?

My chemistry teacher lost my lab report, but is claiming I just never handed it in and so is giving me a 0/20 on it. For one, I did the lab in late January and he is only getting around to grading them now, and two the third marking period ended two weeks ago and this is the last grade that he put in on Friday, and had to override the system to do it which is frustrating in it of itself because report cards were supposed to be finalized. Anyway, it brought my grade from a 96 (high A) to an 89.6 (low A-). I asked him about it and he said “I don’t have it so you must’ve never given it to me.” I have never missed a lab, activity, or homework assignment in any class. I checked my entire room, binder, and backpack. I also haven’t been absent. I know I handed in the lab. He has also lost several other kids labs, in my class and others but is simply claiming that we never handed them in. What do I do? Making up the lab would take hours of my time that I don’t have, and it would be hard considering we did the lab months ago. And at this point I don’t even know if he would accept it, considering grades were due last week.

Yeah, some teachers never admit they lose stuff, you’re just gonna have to swallow the pill. After a bad experience, I now photocopy every assignment, tedious, but it’s saved me far more times then I would have hoped it would.

No. With grades like yours I would not swallow the pill. If you are 100% sure you did the work see if your parent will intervene. Gather the names of other students this has happened to. I would have your parent first contact the teacher and if he refuses to change the grade go above his head to guidance counselor or vice principal.

At my son’s school I was warned about a particular teacher who “loses” assignments. A lot of homework is done on line so my son saved a file of his work. If it was a worksheet he photocopied it. This was last year and something was lost once and my son could immediately send the work again. We knew ahead of time this was an issue with this teacher so he was able to handle it on his own.

I cannot understand how a teacher can be so unprofessional. How hard is it to keep papers in one file? The administration needs to know about this poor performance. What’s to stop him from deciding he doesn’t like a student and sabotaging the student’s GPA?

These days it’s too easy to take images of your important assignments with your smart phone. With an image, you can at least recreate the work if necessary.

In this case, I do not think it is the student’s responsibility to be extra cautious. To take a picture of every assignment would be impractical, not to mention tedious. It was the teacher’s responsibility to keep track of assignments and grade them accordingly. The student did his/her part by doing the work and turning it in, the teacher then needs to keep his end of the bargain.

Nope. Click. Click. It’s too easy, Shawn.

That doesn’t help the OP now. Don’t accept that grade. Take it over his head if you have to.

I agree with @bodangles . If you want credit for your work you should take action but don’t take too long or else it could work against you and even make you look suspicious.

Speak to your guidance counselor.