Work Stories - The Lost Quiz

While I am not the single most organized individual, I have learned enough skills to function as a teacher. I teach Geometry to 108 different students and have collected at least 20 papers from each over the course of 1st Quarter (feel free to do the math).

This week, I discovered I lost a quiz.

Here's how it played out.

While my error rate was below 1%, the quiz was 100% gone for the student. Telling someone, "Sorry I lost yours. At least I have the quiz for 107 others" is not comforting of student focused.

I started off with apologizing. I said I remembered the student coming in and asked if they remembered taking the quiz. They said they had, so I replied, "I believe you." Then I told them I was going to give them a choice. I would excuse the quiz so that it didn't affect their grade no matter what. If they thought they could ace it, they could retake it at their leisure. It wouldn't be required, since I was the one who made the mistake (I allow students to retake anything as long as some time passes in between. I want them thinking, not saying "I guess A last time, so how about B?").

I got a concerned email from a parent the next day. They were upset about the lost test and that it would affect their student's grade and frustrated, etc.

It's important not to view an email like that as an attack. It's natural for a parent to want to support their child.

I wrote back and explained what happened. Yes, their student had taken the quiz. Yes, I had lost it. No, it would not affect the grade. If the student wanted to retake the grade, here's how it would affect the numbers. I recommended if they retook anything, it would be a different quiz they scored low on, because that would improve their grade much quicker (especially with the lost quiz exempted).

Their reply was in a much friendlier tone with the situation clarified.

I would never chose to lose a quiz, but the goal in that situation is to demonstrate how to accept responsibility, build trust, and offer solutions. I'm not going to give an instant 100%, because it wasn't earned, but I'm not going to do anything that would harm a grade based on my mistake.

I do compliment any student who talks to me about what happened. I want students to learn to advocate for themselves. One of the things I teach/preach is, "I grade hundreds of papers. If I have a 1% error rate....that's pretty good! I teach over a hundred students, though, so that means I make a mistake every time. What if it's you? What should you do?"

I found the quiz later, by the way. I'd brought it home to grade. It had been done a couple of weeks late in a study hall rather than with all the others. It raised the student's grade by less than 0.5% when I typed it in.

I felt good about finding it....and ironically I lost a second quiz! It galls me each time it happens! It was another make-up quiz done in a study hall, so I know where the weakness is in my system.

My plan is to not lose anything else!