Eye of the Editors: Student Absence Dilemma
May 20, 2014
Teachers should not give different tests to students who were absent, but should let them take the original test.
Keeping up with school’s hefty workload is a real struggle for students at Diamond Bar High School. Surprise quizzes, frequent exams and the rigor of AP classes make it all the more difficult. Hence, students try not to miss classes, but unfortunately, they do not have control over their health.
Making the students’ plights worse is the failure by some teachers to realize that they are forcing students to drag themselves to school even when they are extremely ill. This is achieved when teachers pose threats to their students, saying that absent students will not be able to make up for an in-class assignment or exam upon their return. Although this may only be a measure taken by teachers to try to encourage perfect attendance (we could find no evidence of a student’s grade actually being affected), the majority of students take it to heart and never miss a day of school. Some students pass up extra-curricular activities that would force them to miss class time because they fear for their grades.
Some teachers obligate students to attend school by means of assigning a more difficult or totally different exam to those who are absent. For example, a regular exam in an AP science class may consist of 50 multiple choice questions and one free-response question, while the make-up exam is three free-response questions. Because this is Diamond Bar and many students are overly concerned with their grades, they stay away from things that may be a disadvantage to their grades. This consequently leads to ill students forcing themselves to come to class just for the sake of their grade.
Because students come to school sick, it is not uncommon to see a student coughing on Monday and the student sitting right behind him or her coughing the next day. It is against school policy for students to come to school with a fever, so essentially, teachers are urging students to break that policy.
Teachers may argue that because a student who was absent has more time to study than the students who were not, it is only fair for them to take a much harder or completely different exam. But how can teachers assume that absent students actually had more time to study? They cannot judge as to whether or not a student was really sick. Hence, teachers should not give out different or harder assignments or exams to absent students, but give them the same assignment or exam, or at least those with the same level of difficulty.
Loading ...Teachers need to rethink how they deal with absent students. It is not fair for teachers to penalize or even threaten students for lying ill in bed.
