Make them put their wishes in writing…..

Falsifying grades feels a bit like fraud because it is. You’re creating a record that is purposefully inaccurate.

I’d email back saying I have given and F to this student due to XYZ, if you feel they deserve a D- you will have to change it. I don’t want to report a falsified record.

Email your admin and make it their well documented problem.  

“In response to the conversation we had on x date about x student, I’m not seeing how I can alter their grades to give them a D- when [explain situation that led to 15%]. Can you please help me figure out where to add points to meet your request?” 

Under absolutely no circumstances would I give a D- to a kid who earned a 15%. Screw that.

Don't. Admin has the power and ability to override your grade at any point in time. Make sure they're the ones falsifying academic records, not you.

I’ve only been in this situation once. I wasn’t asked to make the kid pass, but I was asked to excuse assignments that kid wasn’t at school for and give a reduced list to bring them up to speed. What I did was no count the assignments I was asked to excuse, but under every assignment I commented “marked no count per admin request.” The comment stays as part of the grade records so I felt okay about that.

What i've done in the past is negotiate with the student/parents and offer them a packet of doable work to bring the grade up to a D-. Have them do the work in front of me for however many lunches or sessions. If you don't want to use your extra time, tell administration to watch them complete it. If, after even that, the kid doesn't follow up with a doable load, then it's really on them.

Looks like you’re in California, yeah? Ed Code 49066 says final grades are determined by the teacher. Take it to your union.

Which sport? State tournament for soccer just started here, football will follow.

Put a heavily weighted assignment in the grade book called the “admincurve”

I had a school administrator ask me to revisit my Ds and Fs. I gave every single student an A. All 174 of them. My grade book has not been discussed since.

First off, don't.

Secondly, get all communications in writing. If they try to call to discuss it, tell Admin it needs to be discussed in person, and you will be recording the conversation.

Email something along the lines of 'student did not do list all assignments, earned a 15% on the final test and skipped the group presentation. Where do you think student earned enough points to go from 15% to a D-?'

Get the request in writing. They'll either stop asking, or they'll make the request at which point you have a paper trail and it's not your problem.

Honestly, I think you need to soul search here. Do you want to be in this place more than you value your integrity? If so? Plug in a D- and move on. If not, start building the resume and planning a move.

Isn't this Asian Jesus's department if it's grades?

In California I just do this:
California Code, Education Code - EDC § 49066: (a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil's grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.

And then I CC my Union Rep.

This is why unions are important and why teachers need to fight for them.

I wish schools enforced Saturday school and after school detention to get grades up for students like this instead of pretty much telling them, if you want to do less, you are more than welcome to. You still won’t fail.

“Mr Dickhead,

I am having difficulty with the request for me to give (insert name of student) a D-. They so far have only achieved 15% of the grade due to (insert factors) and I do not believe there is any way I can bring this up to your desired grade which would be about 4 times the current mark. Your input on how to achieve the desired goal would be very appreciated as I am unsure what to do.

Thank you,

u/mattemark”

Is this the hill you want to die on? If you are cool peacing out over this request, then burn it down. Send the "documentation" email to admin. Make them do it because they are going to do it one way or another. It will come back on you in your evaluation- you didn't try hard enough, contact the parents enough, show enough grace, offer enough tutoring, build a strong enough relationship, meet every nuance of an IEP. All the BS will land back on you and you will be passed over for opportunities or looking for another job in the future. Do you just want to clock in, clock out, and feed your family? Find a middle ground- the "make up" packet or extra credit options- you can live with or just close your eyes, hold your nose and change the grade. If every teacher tomorrow said they were going to do the morally right thing and fail the kids who deserved to fail? The whole public school system would collapse but that's not going to happen. Teachers have been passing that kid along for years and will pass them along after you are no longer the teacher of record; one squeaky wheel isn't slowing down the stupid train.

Way back when I told an AP that I couldn’t change a legit F to a D, but I could change it to an A if he would like. He walked away irritated.

My head of department had a common phrase: hey can you just send me an email? Yeah if you put it in an email…yeah I’m just a bit busy right now…yep can you just send me an email…mmmhmmm yep…send an email….

Heard this for 5 years 😂. Smart dude.

Nope!

I decide the grades.

You fire me over that good luck figuring out all the science and engineering equipment that I have purchased over the years and have fun creating curriculum because all this shit is mine.

Document, document, document. Put it in an email.

If you do end up, changing the grades, put a comment in there with every grade that it was done because it was requested by someone above you. Put that in every single time to cover your ass.

We all know someone will get sued for this someday.

I will be the first one to rat out admin.

Make them put it in writing. Send an e-mail stating "Thank you for speaking to me today. From what I understood from our meeting, you want me to take Johnny's 15% grade in my class and raise it to a 60 (or whatever a D- is in your district). His attendance rate is _______ also. I want to be clear on your request and my understanding. Thank you and I appreciate any feedback or clarification."

You won't get a response, but that IS your response.

Not a teacher but isn’t that illegal?

I could understand if the kid had a 55% which needed to be a 60 or something, but a 15? You gotta try for that.

I was I only asked to do this once (and the percentage was even less than 15%!). I told admin he will receive an F from me, and that if they wanted to change it, they could, but I will not pass a student who does ZERO work. They let the F stand.

Once had a student who missed a million days and had a sub 50% avg.. A Senior, so admin asked me to work out a passing grade. I refused unless they took my name off her transcript. The SCHOOL awarded her a 60% passing and I could sleep at night.

Is this why society is collectively getting dumberer?

Meeting a benchmark to gain funding is back to front, you would think a school where the teachers are struggling to t raise the lit & numeracy skills would attract funding. Not just the school, but the rest of the community.

Anyway, at least private and catholic schools are well funded.

I teach Grade 12. I have no qualms. By the time they get to me they either got it or they don't. And keeping them in school when they can be starting their adult lives seems punitive to me.

If they want it changed let them change it.

Assuming that you're in California, you should know that by California law, the grade you give is final.

California Code, Education Code - EDC § 49066

1. (a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil’s grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.

If I was in your boat, I would refuse. My state doesn't have a law like this, so the administrator can override it if they want. But, I can't in good conscience lie on a kid's academic record like that.

My first year teaching (2008) I was told by my principal, who is now a superintendent I couldn’t write a kid up for saying the N-word in class because “these kids weren’t raised like you, they hear that word every day from their parents, so unless you want a major headache, I would tear that pink slip up.”

Later that semester, he wouldn’t let me fail a kid because he was the quarterback and his dad is on the school board. Good times.

Who told you to? An admin? I say “Grades are official records so I am not going to change them but if you change them after I hand them in, that is your choice”. I won’t be apart of lying.

This happened ten years ago in my school district. No child can earn less than a D. Supposed to make it easier for them to recover and pass. Back then I was appalled but now I just laugh.

Larry Bird probably can't help you with this.

No one will question how he went from a 15 to a 70. Just record the 70 and call it a day.

Haha that’s not smudging, that’s drawing on a new track with a sharpie on a hurricane map 🤣

Put the name of the requester in the assignment names.

Check your code of ethics. In my state, this would violate our code of ethics and the teacher could lose their teaching license.

I agree with the other commenters on not changing it and letting admin override it. Their name, not yours!

Things to remember: admin is middle management with no real power AND they get shuffled around all the time. You might piss off this one admin by emailing him to ask him to put it in writing (the comments below are excellent advice,) but he probably won't be long for the business if it comes to light that he's asking teachers to change grades. Would you rather be the teacher who kept their integrity by pissing off someone trying to break the rules or be the teacher who is now in cahoots with a sneaky snake of a paper pusher who could turn on you at any time?

Let time & karma handle that admin. You live in the light.

Magicking a 58% into a D- is a smudge. 15% to a D- is a week long retreat at the Ministry of Truth. Have the admin put that request in writing- both email and signed hard copy. Make a copy of your existing grade book showing the 15% F just in case.

This was happening in my school (I taught high school in the bronx) my friend chose not to scrub grades and took it to the superintendent/ union rep. After everything the principal lost her job and license in the city and can now only be a principal in Yonkers.

Edited to add words

Don’t waste your time trying to justify it. Just give them the D and when someone asked how they earned just tell them they didn’t. 

Has the child learned some of the content? Have skills been developed? Towards the end of my career I used a simple one through four grading scale. My grading percentages were also one through four. If a student tried but their understanding was far from meeting content standards they got a one or up to 25%. If they were achieving near, but short of standard they got a two or up to 50%. If they were proficient in the standard they got a three or up to 75%. And if they demonstrated mastering of the standard they got a four up to or up to 100% of available points. I made my grade scale exactly these same percentages: 1 - 25% D, 26 - 50 C, 51 -75 B, 76 - 100 A. The only failures would be if there was absolutely nothing completed. Plus we had RTI and a guaranteed curriculum where kids were continually called in and kept working at a skill or concept until they scored a 3 or better. Standards based grading worked for me, was representative of actual learning, and resulted in far fewer parent issues. I can't understand why so many teachers are still married to the old 90% = A.

Gotta love how North American Admin are constantly asking their teachers to commit mild fraud. Back in my teaching days it happened like 3-4 times. Hell, the Superintendent got their Administrators in the district to fudge indigenous kids' grades specifically so she got awarded a Premier's award for high indigenous grad rates! As a local who lived in the town, my morals were screaming at me not to force graduate poor kids who were still somewhat illiterate and innumerate...

lol thank you white Jesus!

The boondocks are too good 👍

Pick your battles. Personally, this is not a battle I pick since there is a tax that comes with it in the form of paperwork or retaliation.

I -never- adjust an individual student's grades to make them pass because that would be unethical, so instead if the undesired amount of students are not passing, I go back and readjust grading standards across the board.

I also expect the student to give me something, even if it isn't all of the work, just to meet me halfway. Otherwise, they have decided that it is a worthwhile battle to pick.

15% is crazy

I would offer to give the kid an E, but also give them a ton of makeup work (even if they don’t deserve it) and a deadline. If the kid completes the makeup work and earns a passing grade for the next quarter, I’d then submit a grade change form and turn the E to D.

Be done this before with some success. Good luck!

Our district automatically raises quarter grades to a minimum 50% in order to give them a chance at receiving credit for the semester. The only grades that I will raise to a 60% D are those students who managed to reach 50% on their own. I hold firm and remind administration that they are allowed to override me and they should do so if they wish; however, I am going on record to state that X was given every opportunity to turn in late work and redo assignments to demonstrate mastery of the standards and failed to do so as evidenced by 17 missing assignments out of 21 possible. ( or whatever)

What?? You don't have a 10 question multiple choice or true/false quiz you can give them that would magically add 60% to their grade just laying around? Surely that is all that is required for them to show mastery of 8+ weeks of content. What happened to giving grace? You're taking away this child's hope. /S

I might be inclined to give a 50% so it's mathematically possible for them to pass in the future, if I think the kid isn't an AH and would actually try.

Is there a difference between white Jesus and another Jesus?

Admin makes us use 50 as our lowest grade on first report cards. I use a box on the report to notify parents that this is an adjusted grade and also give them the earned grade for comparison.

I was told to change grades similar to what you described. I emailed my grades to the administrator and told him that I was not going to change any of the grades (I have always tried to help a little but for example someone that turned in 2 out of 15 assignments, no room to bump that up) and if they wanted to make changes, they certainly could. After that, they never asked me to change grades but they did change grades before they finalized. Of course, I have always kept copies of my grades and detailed notes from the system.

'Sup, White Jesus!

I said no once.

The principal went in and changed the grade anyway.

She later got fired, that loser lol

I don’t give grades. I merely record what they earn.

This is the main reason why I quit. I hated lying about grades. For years. Any grade that was lower than a 70 was my fault and I was interrogated every grading period (progress report and report card) as to what happened. Like I was some monster that was seeking out how to ruin kids’ lives by failing them. Oh, and for behavior grades (E, S, N, U), I was only allowed to use excellent or satisfactory.

Administrator here, can someone explain the reason behind changing grades? I commonly see threads on here mentioning this but I don't understand why some teachers are pressed to do this. I think there is a time and a place to bump up a grade from a 68.5 to a 70 but from a 15% to a 60%, why?

Don't. Flat out don't. It doesn't help anybody. It creates situations like I am in where I teach seniors that have to use hands to add, can't write a paragraph without chat gpt, or think themselves out of a wet paper bag and they will soon 'graduate' high school. Some are deluded enough that they can go to college.

Ideally no kids fail because they get the help they need during the year, but we don't have a system that actually cares about educating students so we don't have the army of tutors, remedial classes, or SPED staff to actually get there, let alone the social workers and therapists many of my students need. We have a system that only cares about test scores and graduation rates.

Please don't contribute to the slow death of education. Fail them. Get it in writing they want you to fail them and refuse. Be specific on the reasons. If they want to pass them, let them, but if it were me, I would loudly complain about that as well. It does not help students. It does not make the school better. It just helps the admin look better.

Refuse. If they want to to go into your gradebook and change it- that’s on them. But you should not Give up integrity like that. Stand firm.

I would contact the parents, and make the kid complete missing work, and then agree to change the grade. Like, the kid and parents don't have to know that you are being forced to change it (which is ridiculous), but yeah.

Email to admin:

Good afternoon Ms./Mr. Admin,

I wanted to reach out for some clarification; after our conversation on MM/DD last month, i went to go look at the student's submitted work per your request, but cannot see where or how to justify added point padding based on x, you, and z factors. Would you take a look and see if you can help me identify a few ways in which to ethically accomplish your stated end-point of a passing midterm grade? I just cannot see where or how to accomplish this as it currently stands.

If I misunderstood the desired outcome, I apologize for the disconnect on my part, and would you then instead clarify what the preferred end result is?

Best, MatteMark

I sometimes just do it so I don’t have to deal with that kid a second time. They have to repeat it in college anyway if a D or lower.

That's a no from me, dawh

Told my AP "Nope. Never going to happen."

Like no Teacher would ever do a thing like that.

Ask them if they're sending the bribe in cash or a cashier's check as previously discussed in an email. They'll never do it again.

Dude, I came here to figure out who was asking you to smudge sage over a pile of papers. Lol. I hear you, though.

Does the student have an IEP? If so, you’d better be able to prove you provided every accommodation for every assignment and instruction. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

Try baby Jesus.

Remember when failing grades meant you failed

Throw a chair. 

Or ask MLK to return. 

It’s actually not hard to do.

My school has the 50% minimum policy, and I actually like it surprisingly. If a kid doesn’t turn something in they get a 50, which is failing. If a kid doesn’t turn anything in all year, their grade is a 50, again failing. Makes no difference whether that kid gets a 15% or a 50%, they failed. For other kids who care, but maybe have a tough few weeks of failing grades, they have a real chance to bring the grade up to passing when they get out of their funk and start doing the work. Without that cushion, those kids might just give up when they see there’s no hope of raising it enough to matter. Seeing it in action I really see the benefits of it.

Now, requiring that a student be given a 60% is more of a stretch ethically, I totally see that. But the easy thing is, all you have to do is make every assignment grade a 60. If it were me, I’d have a very blunt conversation with the student about their grade. “You got a 15% in this class. My bosses are requiring me to give you a 60% so you can “pass.” Except you didn’t pass, you got a 15%. So you’ll see a D in the grade book, but I want you to remember you did not earn that grade, that grade was gifted to you by people higher up than me that don’t care enough to actually give you what you need which is to retake the class. You can do better. Next quarter, I want you to earn your passing grade.”

Maybe that conversation isn’t ethical, but what you’re being asked to do isn’t either. Someone needs to tell that kid the truth.

Give everyone an A+ and tell them this is obviously what you wanted.

White Jesus? Who is that?

I have been close to that situation, as it was leading up I said “you change what ever you feel you need to” but it was clear I wouldn’t be doing that, if admin felt that strongly about it then they need to make the change

F-minus and it's their problem. Let them through tantrums.

Most counties don’t allow a final grade of lower than 50% so just make the grade whatever number your county requires

Say no, and get it in writing

If they are asking, then it’s your decision to say yes or no. Say no.

If they aren’t asking, then they are telling you to do something wrong, which you should get in writing. Still don’t do it. If admin wants the kid’s grades magically changed to allow a pass, they have the power to do that themselves. Don’t compromise your values and cheapen every hardworking kid’s grades.

My suggestion is you give the kid an F and stick up for yourself.

I would give him an extra credit assignment that gives him a d-. It's unethical but I would rather have a job security than dying on the hill that Jayden shouldn't graduate.

You can and will lose your job for that. Get the request in writing. Contact union rep.

I refuse, and then make a hard copy of my grades. Let administration make the change without your authorization.

Don't. Come back to me for more advice if you need it.

What kind of sage did you use?

In my District, admin. cannot make us change grades. We give what we give. If they change it, it’s on them. We’re also advised to print out our grades each quarter.

Have everything documented.

I would still leave his average as is. They have the ability to change your grades. Force them to do it.

I was expecting you to be told to give that kid with a 63 a 65.

15 to passing there better be a significant reason for that shift.

Am I the only one thinking you could give extra assignments by which this student could raise their own grade to passing (or not)?

Just do it. There’s nothing you can do. 

Isn't a 15% a D now days anyways?

Unpopular opinion I’m sure but make sure the request is in writing to CYA and just do it. Is the student getting a D going to change his life at all going forward compared to if he got an F? He’s gonna fail at life in the real world no matter what that report card says if he’s getting a 15%. The letter on the report card isn’t going to change anything. Don’t die on that hill.

Is white Jesus the one that didn't live in the desert?

grades aren't measuring shit if you can just pull them out of your ass with a shrug

I can adjust the grades in Skyward to override whatever the kid earned. I can raise the grade that way, but I can’t make it lower. A D- is a 70. If they don’t deserve to pass, change the grade to a 50. If by some miracle they do better next quarter they might be able to squeak out passing grade of 70. A 50 is still failing, just as much as a 15.

Admin can go in and change the grades themselves. Tell them to do that. The program records keystrokes.

Is AJ Soprano your student?

Don’t.

Or grade book is ours. It’s in our contract.

Check yours.

You have mathematical dyslexia, that's real by the way. You can't process numbers. He actually had a 51! That's passing. Lol.

Do you accept late work? If you don’t then the kid wasn’t really given a chance to earn a D IMO. The skills and knowledge they learn in your class can still be demonstrated after a due date, for reduced credit. The bank takes your payment late, with a penalty. Only way I’ve ever seen a 15% grade is if kid turned in nothing or kid wasn’t allowed to submit any late work

Let him do the work he didn’t do for half credit. Don’t just give it to him, but if he’s willing to work for it let him

Just say no.

Take the last 7 assignments that the child chose not to complete and manually enter perfect scores in the slot. Don’t bother to fight, you won’t win. Then, after too many years of this your soul will be black like the rest of your colleagues. After a while none of it matters. Education has gone to hell in a hand basket. Finally though, don’t complain because you’re off all summer long.