Saturday, November 19, 2011

Paying For Grades

With some of the stories I hear, this just doesn't surprise me anymore:
In a story traditionally reserved for high school urban legends, Florida math teacher Jeff Spires was suspended over allegations that the veteran educator was actually allowing students to pay for their grades on quizzes and tests.

Mr. Spires, a teacher at Charlotte County High School in Charlotte County, Florida since 2002, was suspended without pay on October 14 and resigned two weeks later after several students came forward with pay-for-grade scheme allegations.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet teachers will give extra credit for bringing kleenex, reams of paper,
recyclables, etc...

Its still paying for a grade, but just using a different currency.

Darren said...

I agree with you, which is why I don't do those things.

mrelliott said...

I knew a Social Studies teacher whose students sold candy for extra credit. The more candy sold the more points earned, and guess who pocketed the money?

I also knew a science teacher, also a volleyball coach, who told his students if they went to his games he would give them extra credit.

Yep, these are not good practices. But, in their defense, they probably got the ideas from other teachers who had been doing it for years, or administrators when they went to them to ask for money. Maybe if money weren't diverted into administrative pockets so much, stupid things like this wouldn't occur.

maxutils said...

The ONLY reason for extra credit is exceptional performance in the form of either blowing the doors off a difficult text or doing an extra project that demonstrates understanding of the subject matter. My daughter is currently in junior high, and a couple of her teachers are giving extra credit for stupid crap like this; despite the fact that she has all As, she feels compelled to do it. So . . more work for her, amounting to nothing, and a free ride to the 'D' math student who will be failing Alg 2 next year.