The NDP is against penalizing students for handing things in late

Submitted by David on Fri, 2010-01-15 11:30

*sigh*

Manitoba's NDP government strongly discourages teachers from deducting marks from students who are late in submitting assignments.

A letter from former education minister Peter Bjornson sent on June 22, 2009 to Tory MLA Blaine Pedersen says students shouldn't be deducted marks for missing deadlines. The Tories released the letter Thursday.

Bjornson said that if a teacher deducts 10 or 20 per cent because a student turns work in late, then that mark is not "an accurate indicator of what the student has learned or achieved."

He said that while it is important to learn personal responsibility and good work habits, the lateness of assignments should be reported separately.

- Excerpted from the Calgary Herald

Comments

Sarennah

Fri, 2010-01-15 20:03

It's weird that they'd actually take this into a public statement or policy but there was an entire chapter of my Assessment class dedicated to this topic. The question is: What ARE you marking? Are you marking knowledge or behaviour? I should dig out my textbook to find more information about it. I can see it from both viewpoints--but really, there has to be some type of consequence for late assignments. Plus, if you don't receieve an assignment to mark you can't give a mark! It's not possible!... do you just average the others? If you get nine marks that are 100% and one that is 0% the average plummets unrealistically.

Pilgrim (not verified)

Sun, 2010-01-17 23:33

Sure it's an accurate indicator of what the student has learned or achieved--it shows they haven't learned how to do things on time, and have not achieved that ability.

Sarennah

Sat, 2010-01-23 02:57

Is it a Study Skills Class? A Career & Personal Planning Class? Or a Math class? I am not sure I agree with either viewpoint but there are valid points on both sides.