Mistakenly passing a student

Question

I miscalculated the mark of one of my students and mistakenly notified him that he passed the class. However, I noticed my mistake after some hours and fixed it, thereby resulting in him failing the class. Obviously, the student is very upset now. Should I have left the mistake and pretend I hadn't noticed it?

Answer 1

On the few occasions where I've accidentally mis-reported a grade, mercifully the computational error was not great, and it was within my authority to change the pass-fail line (or other relevant line) by a small-but-sufficient amount to make my initial report "become correct". Of course, I correspondingly "improved" other peoples' grades to match. That is, if we are talking about a small adjustment, I feel that the initial grade announcement should be "made true" by changing the grade line.

My rationale for this is that precise gradelines are pretty meaningless, so a small change (in favor of students) is completely harmless, and thus avoids the very-bad fallout from recanting on a grade.

If some bizarre, large computational mistake occurs, so that one has reported an "A" instead of "F", it's probably not feasible to make the better grade "true". Whatever your local policies allow/require, do be sure to manifest the same "adjustment" (and only upward, by my thinking...) for every student in the course. Large errors, and/or large changes, should probably be discussed with other people in your department so that they'll not be "surprised" at any further fallout.

Answer 2

In my opinion, mistakenly passing a student is no different from mistakenly failing a student. Both are mistakes.

As humans, we all make mistakes. What should we do after we find out we made a mistake? We admit we made a mistake. we report it if necessary. We correct it if we can. We apologize to the person who was hurt by the mistake. We accept the consequences due to the mistake.

You should have a syllabus at the beginning of the semester which contains how the students will be graded. Both of your students and you as the lecturer should follow it as the game rule.

You made a calculation error which changed the student's grade by mistake. You found it out and you changed it back. I see nothing wrong here.

What you have not done is to communicate to the student to explain to him why his grade was changed from pass to fail. And you should report it to your department that you made a mistake by making a calculation error.

Yes, the student will be upset because he now learns that he failed the class. He probably would go to your department to complain. How the department would handle it is up to them. They should have an established process. You follow that process.

If the department says it’s up to the lecturer for the final decision. I would give the student the grade he deserves, that is, I would fail the student in your particular case. This is because of correctness, fairness and consistency.

For the sake of correctness, I must give the student the correct grade he should receive. For the sake of fairness, I should grade every student the same way, the way in the syllabus.

For the sake of consistency, I must consider the case: what if I mistakenly fail a student next time? Do I not change his grade from fail to pass after I find out I made a mistake?

Having said all these, I would like to tell you what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would fail the student and then send him an email to apologize and offer him help, such as giving him private sessions so that it would be easier for him to re-take the class next semester, etc. After all, you messed it up and you need to do something to clean it up.

Answer 3

I think that the best way to go is to talk with other professors/lecturers in your department to know what they would do in that case because the best thing to do may depends on the policy at your department about how to handle grades. Personnally, I would not let the student pass if he don't deserve it.

Answer 4

Since you didn't communicate directly with the student: You need to talk to the professor in charge of the course. Being an authority figure in the eye's of the student, more experienced with the university's policies, and in the position to make the necessary decisions to smooth things over (i.e. extra credit, or making it a take it or leave it situation), the most appropriate course of action is to just pass by your professor's office and discuss it with her/him tete-a-tete.

You sound very remorseful; empathy is good, but take it easy, these things happen, and it's a beneficial experience for all parties involved since some day you or the student may be put in similar situations.

Good luck.

EDIT: In response to O.R. Mapper (Due to comment length restrictions): You're right, the student did have the chance and failed. I'm only giving advice based on OP's general direction. I've seen young professors dismissed because of a collective number of small mistakes, but also because they were consistently tough/harsh. Hence, why I'm giving advice based on what I can infer is what the OP wants to do, but does not know how to do. This is a course of action I've seen put to use in a variety of occasions by several professors that have the same empathetic regard towards all of their students; regardless of their academic standing. In regards to the larger decision of being tough or lenient; that is a much larger question that only the OP can decide. I'm only working with what is apparent to us.