Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Retake Madness A teacher works in a school with a mandatory retake policy. Students enrolled in this school may retake or turn in any assignment up to twice in the ten days following the original due date of the assignment. Many students abuse this policy by not putting effort into their tests and waiting until 10 days past the due date of an assignment before turning anything in. This creates a grading nightmare for teachers, and students who wait for retakes or turn in assignments so far beyond the due date tend to perform poorly on the assessments. The teacher feels that this policy is unrealistic and removes accountability from the equation for students, who ultimately will be the ones to suffer for it. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I have tried many things over the past few years battling this same issue. Students would not study for tests, say they were "tired", etc. (I have heard some interesting excuses) for being unable to take a scheduled test they knew about well in advance. Some of my colleagues and I implemented a new policy. Without a parent or doctors note, the highest grade a student would be able to make on a make-up assignment is a 70. So, for instance, if students turn in a late homework or refuse to take a test on the assigned day, when they choose to make it up, though it is still graded out of the same total number of points, if the grade achieved is >70%, their score is a 70%. If they score <70%, that grade is awarded. This was a good way to hold students accountable for doing what was simply expected of them, rather than giving them chance after chance after chance without the risk of facing a penalty. After a semester went by, students realized that "just passing" was not good enough to pass the course, while for others, it was not enough to promote them to a subsequent honors/advanced course.