Vignette 11: Mean or Median?

Joy Chang is a strong student who receives near perfect scores on her work.  Joy is an ESL student and receives a fair amount of "out-of-class" support.  Because of this support, she often misses in-class assignments and quizzes.  Joy ended up taking an extended winter break which caused her to miss a major assignment.  Joy's teacher gave her zeroes for all assignments and quizzes that she missed.  If Joy's teacher uses the means score Joy would receive 63%.  If he uses the median score she would receive 97%.


Think and Discuss
How should the teacher calculate Joy's final grade?
I think the teacher should use the median to calculate Joy's score.  She is undeserving of the zeros as the reasons for her missing those assignments and quizzes were out of her control.  Why should she be penalized for being a student that needs ESL support or because her family make a choice for her regarding her travel?  The teacher could have given Joy the opportunity to catch up, that to me would be fair and make the most sense.  Joy is a high achiever and giving her a mark based on the mean is not an accurate indicator of her learning.


Self-Reflection
I think the biggest factor to consider when determining a final grade is what method (mean, median, mode) is the best way to reflect an accurate description of student learning.  I think the grades assigned should fit student achievement and should not be skewed by zeros.  As stated in the textbook, assigning zeroes shows that students have learned absolutely nothing, and there is no possible way to be certain of that.  Grades need to be determined based on solid evidence of student learning and should be justifiable and supportable however they are arrived at.