Pro
Wendy Wasserstrom
Staff Reporter
The high school environment can be very competitive, especially when it comes to receiving a grade in a class. High school students tend to define themselves based on their test scores, despite grades having nothing to do with more important matters such as their morals or integrity. Teachers should make extra credit available to students to motivate them and allow students to learn the material in creative ways.
According to the website Research, around 75% of high school students experience stress due to a test grade every week. Test anxiety is a significant factor when it comes to how students perform academically. Students who know the material may not be able to show their knowledge through an assessment, so some teachers choose to provide additional opportunities to allow the student to display their understanding in a way that works for them.
Extra credit encourages students to boost their grades and work harder, according to the website Study. These projects allow students to learn the material without feeling the need to compete with their classmates for an A.
The students who accept the extra credit prove themselves as hard-working individuals to their teacher. According to Performance Learning System, these students tend to be the ones who are most successful in their future careers.
It is important for students to have the support of their instructors. According to The Purple Tide, teachers offer extra credit to ensure that their students feel confident in their knowledge and receive a grade that is worthy of their character. Those who do not believe in extra credit say that it can cause students to have unrealistic expectations that they will be able to earn points back in the future. However, extra credit not only allows students to succeed but also provides them the opportunity to learn more about the material.
Thus, teachers should offer extra credit opportunities to their students.
Con
Tate Stark
Staff Reporter
Extra credit is interpreted differently by teachers throughout the high school.
It can come in the form of passes that award credit for turning work in on time, through participating in class or correctly answering questions. Extra credit causes shifts in students’ grades and can result in unfair advantages that benefit certain students over others in the gradebook.
Additionally, offering extra credit provides an opportunity for students to use laziness to their advantage and gain leverage over other students through illegitimate points.
According to Chantilly News, extra credit often has nothing to do with the curriculum of the course and can be harder than what students are usually used to.
If extra credit work contains ideas that stray away from the class curriculum, certain students may benefit more than others.
Additionally, according to Education Week, students can become less motivated to do assigned work if their teachers offer extra credit in the classroom. For example, if a student were to have a homework assignment they did not want to do, they could use an extra credit pass to bail themselves out. They would continue to achieve good grades despite failing to complete actual assignments.
Learning should not be about who can do the most busy work, but instead be about increasing one’s knowledge. If students focus in class and work to better their skills, their test scores will show that extra credit is completely unnecessary.
In college, students need to establish good work habits because in the real world there is no extra credit.
According to Faculty Focus, few college professors choose to give extra credit to their students for these very reasons.
Extra credit teaches students that it is okay to not do work and does not provide an equal opportunity for all students to achieve the same scores.
Extra credit does not impact students equally. Therefore, it should not be available to students.
“Yes. If a student is struggling in a class and is putting in effort to improve, a teacher should give them the opportunity to do so.”
“Yes. Not only does extra credit help your grade but you can learn even more about the subject with different opportunities.”
“Yes. It allows students to show how much work they put into a class.”
“Yes. Some hard-working students aren’t great test takers and need other options in order to show their work.”
“No. Students won’t have extra credit opportunities in the real world.”