There is a growing sentiment among educational leaders that students should be able to turn in work anytime without penalty, even weeks after the due date.
The reason, they say, is that removing deadlines evens the playing field. It addresses racial grading disparities and benefits struggling students.
How it does this beyond “it gives them more chances to succeed” is never fully explained.
Nevertheless, here at SCM we think it’s a bad idea.
Here’s why:
Deadlines motivate.
Mountains of research confirm what your instincts are probably already telling you: Deadlines improve motivation, produce greater effort, and result in better performance.
Conversely, the absence of deadlines cause apathy, suppress urgency and energy, and encourage and reward procrastination.
Compounding work discourages.
Seeing work pile up causes immense stress. It creates discouragement and hopelessness as the task becomes more daunting as time goes on.
Relief comes only when it’s no longer doable, thus encouraging its non-completion.
If it is eventually completed, either through dogged determination or threat of failure, the quality will suffer—as it does with nearly all chronic procrastinators.
Students will fall behind.
By removing deadlines, it’s a virtual guarantee that more students will fall behind academically.
After all, if they don’t keep up with the work, and become proficient as it’s taught and practiced, then they’ll be unprepared for more advanced learning.
They’ll have no prerequisite skill-base to build on or move forward with. The possibility for success then becomes almost nonexistent.
Discipline prepares students for the future.
The discipline needed to meet deadlines trains students in critical life and success skills like time-management, punctuality, responsibility, and integrity.
—No matter the field, business, or level of education they wish to pursue.
Learning the importance of getting their work turned in on time—sometimes through missteps and hard lessons—will benefit them long after they leave your classroom.
The Guise of Standards
If your first reaction to removing deadlines was “That doesn’t make any sense,” I’m with you. That was my first reaction too.
And it hasn’t changed.
But what is even more galling, besides the potential for teachers to become even more overwhelmed with work, is that it’s done under the guise of “standards-based grading.”
That’s right. The powers that be are hiding a removal of standards by calling them standards. They’re also stating that deadlines are discriminatory against certain groups of students.
How this is so, again, is never explained.
But what will be clear in time, I have no doubt, is that more and more students are going to be either left behind or passed along without basic reading, writing, and success skills.
That last phrase is what I suspect this really is all about.
They’re trying to pressure teachers to give grades students don’t deserve while insulating themselves from criticism by couching it all under the guise of standards and racial equality.
They’re abdicating responsibility for poor results by pointing the finger away from them and at yet another absurd red herring.
So they can look good and virtuous, tout their grand successes, and keep the Benjamins flowing.
Note: Of course, if students have excused absences, connectivity issues, special circumstances, etc., then teachers should adjust deadlines accordingly.
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AGREE! Thank you for saying this!
I allow my students to submit late work up until the end of the current grading period. If the work is worth doing, then I want my students to do it, even if they turn it in late. If it is not worth doing, then why did I assign it in the first place? If I dock them points for lateness, they are less inclined to do it. It is those very students who are likely to do it late that most need to do it in order to learn. I want them to do the work, because doing the work leads to mastery of the material, which is my end goal.
If my principal asks for a report from me and I turn it in late, does she fire me? Does she dock my pay? Or does she accept the late work and gently chastise me for missing the deadline? Why should I treat my students any differently than my boss treats me?
I have questions about this statement. Most jobs will accept late work on occasion, however if you are constantly late would most bosses continue to keep you? Would you not be considered unreliable? And, would that, at the very least, be taken into consideration when people are passing you by for promotions (even this applies to the education world)? And, when we are concerned about the learning of our students, should we not consider learning outside of the standards? It concerns me that we are TEACHING kids that deadlines in life are unimportant and flexible. We are NOT teaching organization, responsibility, time management, and the value of heard work. We ARE teaching them to accept constant coddling and that little effort is excusable.
I love teaching. I love my students. But, I worry about the lack of accountability that students and parents now have.
Amen! We are setting our students up to fail when they are out of school. Most all adults have deadlines, accountability & responsibilities. We can’t just get things done when (or if) we feel like it.
Totally agree!
@Tim: unfortunately, the real world outside of some school settings, is not as forgiving. In most other jobs, you can and often will get fired if work is perpetually late. I told the parents of my students that I wanted their kids to learn about deadlines before the IRS and the credit card companies (and the mortgage company) taught them very forcibly about deadlines. Turning in work any old time is NOT the real world. And think of the grading headaches it gives teachers to grade that late stuff. Oh, wait! Let’s go back to last week’s article…😁
Oops-Tom.
Agree 100%
That’s a bit much to give students an entire term to complete assignments. And your boss may be ok with an occasional late report just as a teacher is ok with an occasional late assignment. However, if your late reports to the boss continued I would bet in time you would be out of a job.
Actually he said grading period and not term. In my district, there are 3 grading periods per term. Think of the first two as progress reports and the final one as the semester grade. Many teachers at our school will allow late work up to the end of the grading period (progress report) since we are a project based school and grading periods and major projects tend to align.
Tom, as an adult you already can differentiate the deadliness of not turning in work on time, we need to teach these values to our children so they can understand that it’s not always acceptable to turn work in late, it reflects a lack of consistency.
I hear you and being in K-12 school is definitely different than being in the workplace or higher education–it is their preparatory path to doing so. I just ask that students are made aware of this reality. Two examples:
First, my oldest in now in college as a freshman and he just hit a dose of reality with his work. His high school would often accept late work and be lenient on deadlines for the very reasons you are stating. I told him that his syllabi clearly stated late work would be penalized for some classes and not accepted for others; he replied that his high school syllabi stated the same and it was rarely enforced. Then the reality check–he received serious late penalties for numerous assignments. Next, he missed a three day window to take an economics test. “I’ll contact the professor and asked him to turn it back on and then take it.” The professor declined and it remains a zero, killing his grade as his other two tests that he scored over 90% on are averaged out. Needless to say, he figured out how to better time manage and is now turning in all of his work on time now as he was not happy with these penalties.
Second example: I was in the business world prior to changing to my love of teaching and new career. Working for a multi-million dollar company, if I or one of my sales people did not have the proposal done for the customer by the deadline, which was opened to numerous companies competing for the contracts, you were eliminated from the competition. As the sales support director working directly for the VP of the company, we most definitely would fire employees (and did) for jeopardizing the success of the company in this way as all of our jobs were on the line.
These are all the tired talking points of the reform movement. However, it does not address any of the concerns raised in the articles: the reduction of quality due last minute submissions at the end, the mounting stress procrastination causes as the student to do list mounts, and the lowering of total learning/skills it produces upon completion of the course. Please comment on those.
Are you talking to the previous commenters or to Michael?
I agree
I agree, Tom. It sends the message that the work is worth doing. While we are helping to raise responsible adults, we have to remember that kids are not adults and their brains do not function as adults. While I do believe in deadlines, I also know that students need to learn and if the material is worth assigning then I would assume it is worth doing. Does this take into account of students with IEPs or executive functioning delays? While these are not excuses, they will take longer to learn the deadlines and organization than those that are not struggling. They are often bright students who don’t fit into the box of school. This sometimes makes them feel like failures or presents gaps in their learning where if they had completed the assignment, late or not they would have learned the material. So if the point of the assignment is to teach them deadlines, then go for it. I’m guessing the author isn’t a fan of PBL? I have found PBL to be a life saver in teaching. I’m sure that this is just a portion of the authors smart management. I have read several post and a majority of them I do agree with but this is where I would shift slightly, especially in the time of COVID.
i agree sir there is not point to put a due date bc it is basically tellign your students that you r tyng to rush them
Because you are an educator with far more lenient standards of performance than what most in the world outside of academia expect. Please know that I understand what a challenging job you have, I couldn’t do it. But, as an organizational psychologist working for a Fortune 100 company, work ethic and accountability (even more so than education or raw talent) are the traits that we find are predictors for career success.
Because you will be overwhelmed with all the late assignments you need to grade.
Tom- I disagree with your thinking. Totally. You are not accomplishing one of the most basic and essential tools a child needs to succeed. Like it or not you’re partially responsible for helping prepare young people for the real world. And I don’t believe this is helping to accomplish that task.
We saw an increase in cheating once we changed to accepting guidelines. Students were not learning from the content.
I am at witt’s end with the whole grading issue. Maybe it is me, maybe it is the students I teach, maybe it is online teaching. We are 100% remote. These are the things I note. What we do together, with interactive apps, everyone seeing that others are doing it is working.
What is not working: As in less than 10% compliance…and hey, they can’t ALL be rotten assignments.
* asynchronous work – never even gets opened
* anything, they don’t think they are good at, anything that needs a bit of perseverance, anything they don’t KNOW how to do.
* Anything they are asked to do independently
The ability to watch TV, check out Tik Tok, or just leave as in fade away… is happening during class. The moment that they are not actively involved with me, they are with that.
There are a huge number of students that do not have parents that get kids to do stuff. And their education is being lost, and they do not value it or see the point.
So, right now, my grades look like a sieve. Truthfully, none of them are passing if I were grading traditionally, few things are done, some are just turned in without anything there. Absences as in all day, or just durning math are at an insane level.
So while I agree with you, I do think that due dates are important, and kids cannot learn it all in the last week of class, I have such a bigger crisis out here.
Any suggestions? I have a solid group that come most of the time, they want to be with me. We have routines, we use pear deck, padlet, and whiteboard.fi with a great deal of success…but anything else, is very limited. I have added and extra half hour at the end of the day – got a few more things done by a few more kids, but this really is not a quality education.
I am trying.
Monica Knuppe
Monica, I could have written this myself. In NYC, teachers have been told to allow make up work at any time. We have a very hands on school, that will deliver technology and wifi to every family. However, only half of them are logging in, and even less completing assignments. I offer live lessons, recorded lessons and extended office hours for support. I’ve decided to continue to offer the help and not compromise my beliefs and principles. Working on an action plan as we speak. Good Luck to you!
Monica,
Have you tried offering choice boards & multiple ways to access information? For example, they could watch a video about a topic, or read a report, or listen to a podcast. Then they could select the medium by which to respond, from a list you prepare. Or maybe make it like a Bingo board, so that they must do certain types of work, but can choose when. Just a thought I gleaned as I’m going through my Teach United training.
~Tara Kronland
I also allow students to turn work in late without penalty within a grading period. The tasks I assign are essential to student learning regardless of when they complete it. However, I completely agree with that compounding work is discouraging and sometimes motivating for students. I do not penalize the learning grade for late work. I do reflect lack of meeting deadlines in a student’s life skill assessment on their report card under responsibility. Late assignments are also reflected in my electronic grade book for parents to view at any time. We are an SBL school.
In many jobs, not submitting required work on time would definitely be grounds for termination. I’m not sure what you are talking about… not turning report card grades in on time would cause huge problems and bring much more serious consequences than “gentle chastisement” in every school I have ever worked! Same goes for responding to parent emails or phone calls. Not responding to either in a very timely manner would have severe consequences for most teachers I know. Additionally, on the rare occasions I do accept work late, I find that I may have forgotten exactly what I was looking for when I initially graded the work. I may have focused primarily on number 2, for example, but one month later I may have forgotten that. Letting students do whatever they want, like ignore deadlines, is a big part of what has gone wrong in our society. We have created a generation that has no respect or value for rules and one that feels justified and entitled to disrespect and question authority. Flexibility is one thing, but complete disregard for due dates and/or expectations is ridiculous and even harmful to our students Abe their future.
“Entitled to question authority” what?! If there is a reason to question authority it should be questioned!
I allow students to turn in work late with no penalty. The majority of students turn work in on time and those who don’t are apologetic and grateful. My assignments are worthwhile and important regardless of how long it takes them to complete. I leave my workday feeling good about the job I do, and those of you worried about what you are teaching students…stop worrying. Kindness, compassion, and forgiveness need to be modeled just as much as timeliness.
I agree wholeheartedly, though I am torn.
This is what I do, but I don’t think it is the “magic bullet”, nor do I think it’s the best way to do things, it’s just the best I have found works for most of my population so far: I accept all work until the end of the grading period, but I do impose late penalties. My logic is this: some deadlines in life are flexible, some impose late fees, while other deadlines are firm. Extenuating circumstances warrant flexibility in the deadlines for course work without penalty (right now that is our at risk populations: students with IEP/504/ILLP or those who are receiving services under McKinney-Vento). Procrastination causes students without extenuating circumstances to pay a “late fee” of a late work penalty that is -10% for work less than 1 week late, and -40% for work that is more than 1 week late. Their work will always receive a minimum of a passing grade if it demonstrates a thorough understanding of the material and the skills I am assessing. If the work is phenomenal, I always end up awarding full points (but they don’t know that.) I think that’s my soft-heartedness. The grading period deadline is firm.
However, I have noticed what you mention Michael. My students’ work piles up, they get discouraged, and then some students do everything poorly. So, I don’t think what I’m doing is the best thing for them but it’s all I’ve got right now.
Perhaps the answer would be standards based grading WITH firm deadlines. Students have multiple chances over the course of the year to demonstrate proficiency with the standards, so if they miss 1 opportunity, more will follow and their grade still reflects their ability while maintaining a manageable workload for students and teachers.
Hello Micheal: It is interesting to note here your observation that it is the administration telling teachers to extend deadlines. I might add to that, the helicopter parents looking to excuse their special little snowflake, and once the kids learn this they take advantage of it. Heaven forbid we as professionals ask for an extension to get our work done because it won’t happen. And in the work place deadlines are a reality. I agree that we are not doing our students and good by allowing floating due dates.
Do we grade students on meeting deadlines or on learning a concept? This said, all students have the deadline of a semester, or however long the class lasts. Students do need to learn “employability skills.” This includes meeting requirements. However, should we punish a student who needs more time to learn or master a concept. This is when knowing each student and meeting the needs of each student comes into play. There is no black/white answer to this question. Know your students and do what you think is best for each of them.
Ahhhh, I see the comparison with adults and work settings. Yes, we want to train children to become responsible adults and work within deadlines when necessary. However, we must remember that they are children, not adults. Their brains are not fully developed and we are training them for success. Part of that means understanding their circumstances, and guiding them until circumstances are more in their control. If you wish to compare children to fully developed adults in a rigid deadlines, work oriented space, even then, you must consider that not all work spaces are the same. Many creative jobs do not have rigid deadlines and not all work assignments have rigid deadlines in many workplaces. Most employers would work with an employee who seems less productive or is consistently behind and put them on some sort of support plan.
The same can be done with students-especially considering that that’s what we are doing: training them. Our job is not to tell them that they fail and that they fail as humans as well. They may as well drop out if they have an educator that doesn’t care about them and treats them this way. In an ideal world, adults would be in a position where they could do the same with an similarly minded employer. That speaks volumes of the educator or employer, not the student or employee.
And what about mental health? You are not accounting for how many children now have increased anxiety for so many reasons. This post seems to lack of empathy, understanding of mental health conditions, and varied life circumstances. I really hope that this is not something that most educators feel. If so, it’s time to move on.
Then why don’t we just close all schools and let parents home school their children? Let the parents do it the way they want. Let the parents raise and teach their children to be creative employees who never finish work in a timely manner. Let parents teach their kids it’s okay to be late and hold up the production of a company. Maybe it crazy for employers to expect their workers to show up on time. Maybe that cashier needs to chat with her co-worker for an extra 5 minutes while you stand there waiting. Maybe the mailman decides he doesn’t want to deliver those letters today….it’s okay, he will do it next week.
Look… we can’t give special treatment to every single kid we teach. Yes, there are special circumstances, but we have to set a standard or we will never get results. If we don’t set deadlines, we would have stacks of papers showing up at the end of the quarter when WE have to meet a deadline for grades. No teacher wants to face mountains of papers to grade when they need to be finalizing things. If you don’t set a deadline, kids will take advantage of that AND the work you get will be very poor quality because they will have rushed to try and get their 10 assignments done in 2 days.
Everybody wants Burger King….well you can “have it your way” when you home school.
I don’t see the connection between due dates and showing up on time. I think of April 15 as a due date for my taxes being done, so I have to think about when I should start and how my papers are organized. Showing up to a staff meeting on time is a completely separate skill, in my opinion.
As far as quality of work, setting a hard due date would seem to be a cause of students rushing to get their work done. Wouldn’t that affect the quality as well?
Also, if they miss your due date and get an automatic zero, then I would assume that they won’t do it and move on. If that is the case, then was the assignment critical to their learning in the first place?
The only reason I am commenting is not to call you out, it is to let you know that I have said the same things. As a result, I had lots of assignments in the gradebook and kids turning in garbage just to get it done. I was overworking myself and burning myself out as a result.
Now, the kids don’t move on until they show me that they can produce something of quality. That may take revision, but so be it. The day-to-day practice like vocab gets done using technology to give them practice. I don’t need to check vocab or calculations (I teach science.) If they don’t do them and they are not ready for the quiz, then they have to do even more to get a retake. I don’t have piles of work showing up at the end of the trimester because they are only working on what is in front of them.
Take care of yourself. Don’t work harder than the kids.
I totally agree, and I noticed that when deadlines are enforced, I get 98% compliance. This was last year even during remote learning. However, I’m a little confused about this last part where you mention extending deadlines. I absolutely hate extending deadlines. I briefly gave it a shot this year in an attempt to show “empathy”, but in just weeks, the results have been disastrous. It only makes more work for me because now I have to constantly check for turned in late work, unlike last year when I gave a due date, graded essays that night, and passed them back the next day. If students missed the deadline, it was a zero. Period. I also teach in an urban charter school. The whole “WiFi connections” issue conveniently seems to be an excuse. In truth, how do we ever know if they’re lying to get extra time?
In my situation, our district is pretty big on students getting work in when they can. Personally, my class is set up to work through the material at their own pace and the trimester deadline is a point to see how far they have gotten. I give them pacing guidelines and some students work faster while others work slower. (The slower ones are sometimes the learning the most because they are sometimes looking up related information and exploring more along the way.) I am also conferencing with them and pulling in students who have fallen behind for targeted intervention and to get some sort of plan in place for finishing their work. I am not saying this is the answer for everyone, but it is the answer I have found for me given the policy put forth by the district.
As far as the workplace, my wife works for a company that gives her team projects to finish. Every worker gets their own projects and they have deadlines. However, they are not given incremental checkpoints along the way in order to measure their progress. The project needs to be done by the final deadline. This model that her company uses suggests that deadlines are important, but she does not have lots and lots of deadlines that she has to worry about. I sometimes look at the student’s calendar on Schoology (especially during distance learning) and I feel sorry for them. Mostly because I compare the number of deadlines in my life with theirs and they have much more.
I think opportunity gaps or achievement gaps among diverse groups, especially in reading bring students to our classes who have been falling behind for many years, as described in Stanovich’s Matthew effect. All students deserve high expectations in preparation for real world experiences. I do think educators should carefully consider which equity supports to view as guise.
Totally agree with everything in this article, but what is the solution? How do we find a balance? Perhaps only allowing one or two late assignments a term? Perhaps only giving a certain percentage as a penalty as an incentive to be on time?
But, the question is, how do we not leave students behind? How does one even the playing field? I think this is a constant struggle.
Of course, a large part of the problem is the way we deliver education in general, teaching students by age group without regard to individualizing progress by ability.
I think deadlines or not – there will always be kids left behind. It is not always that they can’t do the work, it’s
also that they don’t want to do the work (online or in-class). If there is a pattern of not submitting work – late or not at all, then a conversation is in order – between teacher and student. If it continues, then parents need to be a part of the conversation. Deadlines are important – as we have read, for a variety of reasons. If our goal is to prepare them for life outside the classroom, we are doing them a huge disservice if we don’t have expectations from them – their post secondary schooling and/or bosses certainly will. Having deadlines doesn’t mean there is not dialoging going on – over the entire school year there should regularity in which teachers are checking in with students, especially those who are failing to demonstrate they are able to do the work.
Thank goodness for this article. I have always had a deadline and not accepted work past it. I have been more lenient during this pandemic but still have deadlines. I feel better for sticking by my decision.
My students (years 6-9) in a Melbourne context were learning online for almost 6 months this year. They had internet issues, mental health concerns due to being away from their friends and normality, tiredness and headaches from extended screen time. Many students surprisingly completed exemplary work, but some did minimal.
Back on site, I am following up with each student, asking the questions, listening and granting some extensions dependent on their individual circumstances. For late submissions their has been an adjustment to their overall mark with further comments in reports related to organisation, self-regulation and timely effort. If I said to these students it is past the deadline and you are excused, they would neither have done the work, learned the material, or understood their personal accountability to finish.
During a pandemic, when students and families are disrupted, I’m not sure I agree with a hard-line approach. My students have responded well whilst understanding that in normal circumstances, and as they move into the adult world and workforce, despite a pandemic, they must be responsible for their own actions.
This is a struggle for me during the pandemic. I teach 4 classes of senior government and 1 class of junior US History. During “normal” times, I am pretty strict with deadlines for the reason that at least half of my students are going to college soon and college professors are (generally speaking) not lenient with deadlines. Of course, like Michael said, I have exceptions: students with IEPs that specifically state they get extra time for assignment, English language learners who need more time to digest a lot of word-heavy content in English, etc. But now I also have many students who either had Covid or were made to quarantine because they were exposed to Covid missing two weeks at a time.
Our school is teaching on a somewhat unusual hybrid model. We have a cohort that comes M/Th and a cohort that comes T/F. No students on Wednesday. Theoretically, they are supposed to spend the three days a week they are not at school spending 6 hours per day doing assignments on Google Classroom. I say “theoretically” because this is a hard sell for all but the most dedicated of students and parents. And even many dedicated, good parents don’t have the ability to be home 3 days a week supervising their high schooler. As a natural consequence, we have fallen behind content-wise compared to where we usually are. Fortunately, our administration has told us that is OK. We are not being judged for being days or even weeks behind the usual brisk pace of the curriculum.
My feeling during this completely unusual time is that things cannot be strictly business as usual at school either. I almost never disagree with Michael and have used his SCM method for years with great success, but I may respectfully depart from his advice a little bit here. To me, the crucial thing is for the students to learn the material. I sincerely believe that what I teach is vital for students to develop into good citizens (and hopefully every teacher feels that way!) and it is way more important to take the time to understand why the constitution is the way it is and both the positive and negative effects of the rise of corporations than it is to “keep up” with the common core pace and demand a lot of work be done at home that would normally be done in the classroom.
SO, I guess what I am saying is…I am expecting less work to get done and for it to get done at a slower pace. However, I do still expect the quality of the work to be excellent. I have been pretty flexible with deadlines…to a point. We finished the quarter yesterday, so obviously anything not turned in to me gets a “0.” Beyond that, I’ve been pretty lenient. Once we are all back in school every day, I can go back to expecting the small amount of homework I give to be turned in on time, excepting for very unusual circumstances.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Michael!
Scanning the other comments, I think some may have missed this gem: “The powers that be are hiding a removal of standards by calling them ‘standards.'”
That’s exactly how things are progressing in educational trends–hiding what they’re really doing by calling them by well-accepted terms, then perhaps mentioning briefly that their definitions of those terms are different from the traditional ones. I’ve seen it firsthand.
Some policymakers are so ideology-driven that they don’t care about what works best for students–although of course they’ll say they do–but their evidence-opposing actions show otherwise.
Thanks for exposing this!
This rings true to how humans work; whether you are 5 or 50 years old. I sense deadlines encourage a better work ethic, internal responsibility to ones self, and respect for the greater world “out there.”
I come to this discussion from a slightly different angle (and mindset). I’m a driving instructor, so I have the advantage of one student at a time. Their goals are clear, to pass a test. My goals are clear too, to teach safe driving. Competence and confidence, among a range of other details, are high on my agenda. And so deadlines ARE important. I discussed deadlines with my wife, and in the context of one of our kids, (diagnosed level 1 ASD) I thought it might be the massive amount of assessment or pace of curriculum that is the problem (from the Australian perspective, that is). My wife pointed out the process of learning in the Suzuki music learning method, and it is this that some of you might find worth thinking about. In Suzuki, practice is vital, and the more you do, the faster you progress… so motivation to succeed comes from within. Maybe that’s not for everyone, but neither is a Montessori style, student led, philosophy.
And also, how does lowering standards make the ‘achievers’ feel or think? Surely, they would feel less inclined to make such an effort if they realise they don’t have to, and then, what happens to teamwork or class cohesion?
Some students feel it doesn’t matter when they hand in an assignment, it still will get marked just the same, there isn’t an urgency to complete it or complete it properly. They don’t get docked marks, so why should they bother to complete it when an assignment is due? For some, playing video games on the phone, going out with their friends or doing anything else is a better option than completing homework.
To make things more difficult, we’re also dealing with a movement that wishes to end grading altogether.
I always remind myself this: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
I want to cherish my students. I know if I can cherish it, students will cherish it too. There are many success skills. Meeting deadlines is just one of them. Having deadlines is practical, therefore, we like it. I do not think deadline motivates us to learn, but it teaches us time management and efficiency which are great skills to have. However, those skills do not necessarily lead to great achievement, creativity, or innovation. High school grades do not ruin your life, but I believe learned helplessness and believing one is not good enough can do great harm. No matter what ugly and contradicting things happen, no matter how grading system changes, I want to advocate for my students, get to know them individually as much as I can so I can give the help each kid needs. I personally love more to see kids who have unique ideas than who meet deadlines by doing the minimum to pass. Our system is entrenched in performance measurement and accountability. My goal is to be creative in teaching and teach creativity as much as I can in the world where we are required to demonstrate our competency knowing how we are measured and what we are expected to deliver. We are also required to meet ever-changing expectations and standards no matter where we go or what job we take. This is a fact of life. Kids need to know that, but kids also need to know school is not the only measurement; there will be many measurements in life after school. There is another quote I hold close: Live as if we die tomorrow, learn as if we live forever – Gandhi.
This couldn’t have come at a better time; such sage advice.
Yet, I’m also really struggling with parents going to my admin about extending the deadline, or about allowing their child’s work to 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 be accepted after it, and my admin then 𝐜𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 ~ leaving me to look like the “Deadline Ogre.”
If all it takes to get ad infinitum extensions is simply an email to the principal, how 𝒄𝒂𝒏 I set deadlines?
As a former journalist, I get the importance of deadlines. But what I see missing in many posts, including Michael’s, is what exactly “not accepting late work” means in the context of learning. An automatic zero? A certain percentage off per day? As some have pointed out, the assignment was presumably worth assigning (even better would be a student designing their own project) because it fits importantly in the learning process. Are we willing to accept zero evidence of learning and move on?
And doesn’t communication during the learning process count for something? In other words, if I can show my progress on a project and can explain what I plan to do with an extra day’s time, doesn’t that demonstrate a commitment to quality and deeper learning? (Granted, these tend to be reflective, motivated learners – but strong classroom culture that focuses on creative work rather than compliance-driven assignment completion can help cultivate exactly those types of learners.)
Whether to accept or not accept late work really needs to be part of a larger discussion of grading. A big problem with the use of traditional grading schemes is that lateness often gets tossed in with work quality in a grade’s calculation. This makes no sense. We need an ability to report behavioural progress separately, akin to what @Tracey describes and what @Ron Orsak reminds us of in arguing for knowing our students. If we don’t have that ability, we should be demanding it.
Accountability is a critical part of education. But if deep learning is our ultimate desire for our students, giving zeroes for late work is not a winning strategy.
Let’s not forget a few other reasons it’s a bad idea to let students turn in things whenever they want.
Teachers are a part of the classroom too. The following things eat up a teacher’s valuable time. Time that could be spent on planning more effective lessons or reaching out to parents.
1. Efficiency of grading drops.
When grading everything at once, the teacher can get into a groove and the time/per paper is low. If late work trickles in, the teacher will have to dig out the key/rubric every time and have to remind themselves of what the original questions/tasks were.
2. Equity of grading drops.
A teacher may find it difficult to grade assignments turned in months apart the same, even with a key/rubric in front of them.
3. Feedback is more difficult if possible at all.
How does a teacher give feedback in mathematics, for example, on an assignment for those that have turned it in on time when many in the class are still working on it? If I put an answer key out there, how is it fair to give those turning it in after the key has been released full credit? If I want to give full credit accurately to those yet to turn it in, then I must withhold the feedback for others.
The third point alone should be enough to dissuade the no late penalties policy.
There must be few pressure situations and deadlines which will make students feel challenged and motivated. But teaching and testing have to be as per rules and standards. A conducive environment in the class will help a great deal in bringing in order and discipline. A well organized, safe furniture will be a great asset for classrooms.
“They’re trying to pressure teachers to give grades students don’t deserve while insulating themselves from criticism by couching it all under the guise of standards and racial equality.”
This statement is made from a racist perspective. So it sounds like you are saying that it is only non white students who are allowed to turn in late assignments.
This post with comments is almost two years old, and the pandemic can no longer be an excuse. My district is going in this direction with assessments. If a student wants to retest, they can do so and earn the higher grade. As a math teacher, it’s difficult to help students move on with sequential learning when they haven’t mastered the current material. My experience shows that the majority of students are learning and mastering the material as it’s taught and practiced. Those who retest and score higher usually weren’t prepared for the rigor in the first place, mostly because they don’t practice on their own. I don’t give much homework but part of education is helping kids understand how to learn and prepare. If we take away all deadlines and allow personal choice in completing work, then how can a student complete a course of study during the school year? I completely agree that we are giving kids an “out” in order to avoid failure. Michael is right when he says that the grades are inflated and not reflective of true learning. I’m all for giving second chances, but I don’t get a second year with these students, and they won’t have the same material in the next grade. We must commit to teaching excellence and help kids achieve that with their learning.
I work as a paraprofessional for special ed students at a high school, that allows late work. It does not make sense to me at all. School should be about learning new skills. Each skill should build on previous work, if you did not bother to do the previous work you are not prepared for the next assignment or it was just busy work and not important. They do a lot of posters and art projects even for the non special ed students just so they do something. The principle just sent out an email that teachers should round up grades and that the administration will round up grades before they are released.
Great article! The flexible deadlines from COVID teaching had to come to an end for my students, who I get for 4 consecutive years, 9th – 12th. This November, it had gotten out of control. Flexible deadlines/regrades translated into behavior issues, not giving their best on their first attempt, tons more work for me, and an attitude that it was their choice on what to work on and when. It was maddening, although not their faults because they were just following the coddling rules we had put in place for them during the pandemic. They felt that all was well and that they were being responsible just by meeting end of term deadlines.
I wrote up a second semester syllabus that addressed grades specifically and then they took a quiz on it for understanding. Late work receives a zero. You have the opportunity to complete before the end of the nine weeks however, you will only receive 70% of the grade you scored. That is the consequence for missing the expected due date. This is enough of a score for students to still pass, but also is a firm consequence that they can see on their GPA. I also regrade all work during the same week, the last week of the grading period. That zero sits there for however many weeks that is, which means parents eventually see it and many kids continue to hear about it at home for quite some time.
This is my classroom policy now, I explained it to parents at our last conference night and all were THANKFUL. They are tired of their kids getting full credit for being procrastinators. This is not how the real world works.
My kids have caught on fast and I am so glad to have made them accountable to due dates. My paperwork kids still get whatever accommodations are needed. I held all kids to this standard – teacher’s kids, cool kids, A kids, kids that I am friends with their parents, etc. It was a little uncomfortable for me at first, but it has made a huge positive difference for all.