{"id":149298,"date":"2022-10-19T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/?p=149298"},"modified":"2022-10-17T07:52:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T12:52:38","slug":"late-work-policy-credit-score-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/late-work-policy-credit-score-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending the late work debate: try issuing students a \u201ccredit score\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

With late work, it’s tough to find the balance between offering empathy and encouraging accountability.<\/h4>\n

Here’s what I discovered when I experimented with a different approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The problem I had with late work<\/h3>\n

There seems to be an ongoing debate that teachers engage in \u2014 what to do about late work. Dealing with late assignments can range from moderately annoying to absolutely overwhelming, and there are many schools of thought about the right way to handle it.<\/p>\n

There is the zero-tolerance crowd that insists this type of policy prepares kids for the real world. There are those who impose a grade penalty for each day an assignment is late to encourage accountability.<\/p>\n

Then, there are those who count all late work for full credit because the goal is to assess mastery rather than speed. While I fell into the final category, I struggled for many years early in my career trying to find something that worked<\/i> for my students and for me.<\/p>\n

How I found a better late work process<\/h3>\n

In my quest to find this holy grail of late-work policies, I looked towards the \u201creal world\u201d argument, despite my opposing viewpoint. I determined that, in the \u201creal world,\u201d turning something in late, like a water bill payment, would not immediately result in one\u2019s water being shut off. In my mind, this was the equivalent of a student earning a zero for a late assignment.<\/p>\n

The truth is that companies do not want to shut off their clients\u2019 water, they want the payment owed, just as I wanted my students\u2019 work to be able to assess their level of mastery. So what happens in this scenario when the bill goes unpaid after a short grace period? There may be a fee placed on the account, and the failure to pay may be reported to the credit bureau. Thus, the idea of the classroom credit score was born.<\/p>\n

The late work solution that I use in my classroom<\/h3>\n

I decided to input a grade into my grade book for a student\u2019s \u201ccredit score.\u201d I taught a mini-lesson on what a credit score is, what it does, and why it matters in the \u201creal world.\u201d I told my students that in the real world, they all start with a credit score of nothing because they have to prove themselves to be trustworthy, but for me,<\/i> they had already completed this process by showing up for class, participating, and because I just liked them in general.<\/p>\n

I started every student off with perfect credit or a 100% grade. From there, if they turned in their assignments on time, their \u201ccredit score\u201d stayed at 100%. If an assignment was turned in late, I would grade it for full credit, because again, it was always my goal to assess student mastery, and I wanted their assignment grade to reflect that. However, their credit score would be reduced by a predetermined amount (see variations for options on this element<\/i>).<\/p>\n

At the end of the grading period, students had the opportunity to view their credit scores and \u201cpetition the credit bureau\u201d to have something removed from their scores. If students showed improvement in their ability to turn in work on time over the course of the quarter, they could earn points back.<\/p>\n

Why this late work system works for me and my students<\/h3>\n

This system accomplished multiple things:<\/p>\n