A student sits refreshing the grades tab on her Schoology page. She awaits the input of her latest assignment, hoping to receive a good score. She refreshes a final time and sees that her grade was input as a 95%, with no indication as to where she lost points. 

Teachers throughout MCHS have all kinds of different grading methods, but one that particularly upsets students is when teachers refuse to give full credit on assignments. There are several different iterations of this grading technique, including iterations where teachers will give 100% on assignments, but only after students revise their work. That being said, some teachers outright refuse to give 100% full credit, even if the work is deserving of such a grade. 

When teachers refuse to give students 100% on assignments regardless of the quality of work or the amount of effort put into the assignment, the effort feels futile. Oftentimes, students stop trying to get 100% on assignments that they know won’t receive the credit they deserve. Giving full credit on assignments is a way of telling students that they’re doing a good job, thus encouraging them to keep up their efforts to receive good grades on their work. Revoking the possibility of receiving full credit on any assignment will discourage students from trying to achieve the best grade that they can.

Sometimes 100% on an assignment is the final push that a student needs to get their grade up. In many cases, a single assignment can make or break a grade, and when teachers don’t give full credit on those assignments it often leads towards the latter. It can be extremely difficult and frustrating to raise a grade from one letter up to the next, especially towards the end of the semester. Students need all the help they can get in order to keep their grades as high as possible. Not that teachers should intentionally boost students’ scores just to raise their grades, but giving full credit on assignments is a small step towards better overall grades amongst students. 

Some teachers offer extra credit only after revisions have been made on an assignment. The idea this instills is that nothing can be perfect the first time it’s done, which is a good argument that encourages students to work hard to evolve their work. The issue with this method of grading is that some students will never revise work that they aren’t required to look over just to get a slightly better grade. Teachers should not raise grades that don’t deserve that recognition, but they should recognize that even the best students don’t always have time to continue working on assignments that have already been turned in and graded. 

All in all, not allowing students to receive 100% is an all around discouraging tactic on the teachers part. Students work hard for their grades, and deserve to get the proper recognition for their efforts. If a teacher allows students to revise their work in order to get a higher grade, then the problem fixes itself, but teachers who outright refuse to give full credit for no reason are barring their students from giving their all in school.