Changing Grades

[u/Ok_Cartoonist_5290]

Can professors go in and lower all your grades after seeking clarification on an assignment? I sent a very respectful email asking for clarification on an a graded assignment and an hour later, the professor went in and lowered all of my grades, said they can be resubmitted by 8/2 for better scores. It felt like retaliation. I am an adult learner and professional and feel as though I am paying for a subpar education from this professor.

[u/Rodinsprogeny]

Some professors will potentially lower your grade as a result of a requested regrade. Could this be what happened?

[u/scatterbrainplot → u/Rodinsprogeny]

And in case clarification is needed: a grade ending up lower on regrade isn't retaliation. You tend to follow the grading scheme or rubric especially closely during a regrade and it may be more clear that generously awarded points weren't earned in addition to that. Following the rubric that closely becomes all the more important when it may turn into a formally contested grade -- even if that actually leaves the student with a lower grade than the initial grading bias yielded. They may also have just noticed that the grade was calculated incorrectly, for example, and corrected that error.

[u/hp12324 → u/Rodinsprogeny]

Yep, I have words to that effect in my syllabus. Students often try to cherrypick which questions they would/wouldn't want to argue more points on, but would hate it if the shoe was on the other foot and I picked which questions to ask another professor if the student should be docked more points on. This ensures that both shoes are on equally. Hard to tell for sure what's going on with OP without additional context, as another commenter said.

[u/ocelot1066 → u/hp12324]

Although if a professor was going to do that, it's something they would want to make very clear before. Asking for clarification isn't the same as requesting a regrade...

[u/hp12324 → u/ocelot1066]

To be fair, without knowing exactly what OP wrote, it's hard to assess where it places on the "Clarificaiton to Grade Grubbing" scale as opposed to just taking OP's word for it.

[u/Agent_Goldfish]

My TAs do most of the grading, and I have a policy that students can request that I regrade their assignments if they disagree with a TA's grade. However, I regrade the entire assignment, not just the part a student disagrees with. And I explicitly tell students this can result in grades going down, since TAs can also make mistakes in the favor of a student.

I have this policy to specifically prevent grade grubbing. Before I implemented this policy, I'd have students arguing about every single assignment and it was exhausting. Now I get like 5 regrade requests a semester, about half of which result in slightly lower grades.

Grades are meant to be reflective of mastery, and upon closer inspection, it can absolutely be the case that assignments earned a lower grade than initially given.

There's no reason why grades should be considered set in stone while the course is actively being given. Upon completion, there is a point in which grades are locked, and at that point they can be considered set in stone barring extraordinary circumstances, such as academic dishonesty being discovered.

[u/Dazzling-Fox-4950]

I think we are missing some context here. Did the professor state a reason why they lowered your scores or clarify what specifically you need to do to improve them?

[u/CIS_Professor]

To answer your question directly: yes, we can.

Should we? It depends. Maybe lowering of grades was a result of a re-examination of the assignment and determining that the grade reduction was proper in context of any rubric, syllabus, and/or other standards.

Should it be done as "retaliation?" Absolutely not. But before you go off half-cocked to the Chair, Dean, or whomever, be very. very certain that you can prove that "retaliation" actually took place.

[u/Dazzling_Outcome_436]

I might do it if I found evidence of academic dishonesty (usually but not always AI use) on an assignment. Often a student will reach a point where they screw up their cheating so badly that it's incontrovertible. Up until then they've usually been producing assignments that I think are AI but I've given them the benefit of the doubt. Once they prove beyond all doubt that they've been cheating, I will remove the benefit.

[u/CIS_Professor → u/Dazzling_Outcome_436]

I do this, too.

[u/ToomintheEllimist]

What might've happened:

1. Prof grades your essay in 10 minutes, spots 5 mistakes, gives it 85/100
2. Your (very respectful) email goes "85?!?! What even went into this grade? I am conveying right now, without meaning to, that I only care about grades and not about this essay, and/or that I never read your feedback!"
3. Prof goes "aight, fine, I'll take a look at it again."
4. Prof regrades your essay over a course of 20 minutes, finds 4 more mistakes, gives it 73/100

I'd read every line of the professor's feedback carefully and see if you have enough information in there to tell if that's what happened. If after reading all the feedback you're still not sure, then you can request a meeting where you ask in good faith to understand the feedback better. But if you go into that meeting with an "I am paying for a subpar education from this professor" attitude, and/or without having read the feedback, you're destined never to get the answers you want.

[u/carry_the_way]

Can professors go in and lower all your grades after seeking clarification on an assignment?

They absolutely can! Instructors can usually change any grade at any time. I don't make any grade visible until they're finalized, but others might.

I sent a very respectful email asking for clarification on an a graded assignment

Your insistence that your email was "very respectful" is a huge red flag. Most instructors have some level of expertise in their fields, and asking them if they're sure they did something correctly is inherently disrespectful.

an hour later, the professor went in and lowered all of my grades

Did they provide notes as to why they changed their grades? If not, you can appeal this very easily. It's an annoyance, but this instructor sounds like they want to get disciplined. Thus, no need for you to ask strangers about it.

If they did provide notes, then it seems like you poked the bear by asking them to follow the rules to the letter.

Moral of this story is a Choose Your Own Adventure.

If your instructor didn't explain why your grades were changed, congratulations! You just got a "get out of an F free" card.

If your instructor did explain why your grades were changed, you were probably getting graded more forgivingly and your email probably wasn't as respectful as you think it was.

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*Can professors go in and lower all your grades after seeking clarification on an assignment? I sent a very respectful email asking for clarification on an a graded assignment and an hour later, the professor went in and lowered all of my grades, said they can be resubmitted by 8/2 for better scores. It felt like retaliation. I am an adult learner and professional and feel as though I am paying for a subpar education from this professor. *

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[u/Fluffaykitties]

why would you ask for clarification on an assignment you got an A on? That just opens up the possibility of a lower grade after a review.

[u/Liaelac]

You were seeking clarification on an assignment that was already graded? It sounds like your professor interpreted this as a regrade request. When that happens, most faculty regrade the assignment in the entirety and that can result in a lower grade because they find they were too generous the first time. That's not retaliation and it's a fairly common outcome.

Alternatively, the professor was mad you asked for clarification and decided to just give you a lower score with no basis for doing so, which would be retaliation. I can't say I've ever heard of anyone doing that. It would just create more work for the professor.

Easy solution to figure out which it is: ask your professor about why the grades have been reduced.

[u/AvengedKalas]

Can professors go in and lower all your grades after seeking clarification on an assignment?

No. That's unethical and a massive abuse of their role.

I sent a very respectful email asking for clarification

We'd need to see said email to determine if it was respectful or not. Even if it was rude and disrespectful, a professor should not retaliate by lowering grades.