Imagine: it’s late at night, you’re hunched over your desk trying to finish your last assignments. Your hands are cramped and you’re falling asleep, but you push through and finally click ‘submit’.
But… it’s 12:01.
You’re one minute late.
Was all that for nothing?
Well, maybe not, because you can still submit it as late work.
In previous years, the late work policy permitted students to turn in late assignments up until the unit summative.
In certain cases there was no time limit at all, meaning work from first quarter could be turned in during third quarter.
This granted students flexibility with uncompleted work, but there is a drawback that many disregard: what about the teachers that have to grade all of this?
French teacher Jacquelyn Costa is among the many teachers that have to deal with this issue.
“What we’ve noticed collectively as teachers is the tendency to turn in work from previous units, and usually it’s in bunches,” Costa said. “It’s not one student turning in work for one activity, it’s multiple students turning in work for several activities all at once, usually right before the end of grading periods.”
Students complain about not having their grade fixed even though they turn in their missing work, but they forget that teachers cannot set aside everything to grade an assignment that should have been done weeks ago.
It messes with their schedule and disrespects their time.
English teacher Stephanie Hanson also notes that it will be hard for teachers to give feedback on work submitted late.
“[Teachers] can’t give timely feedback if students aren’t doing the work that’s essential to our learning right now,” Hanson said. “If they wait until fourth quarter to do a first quarter assignment, it is honestly only hurting them.”
“The burden is placed on teachers to grade multiple assignments from multiple students right before the end of a grading period,” Costa said.
However, this policy has had a major update. Students will now receive a 10% deduction on assignments turned in late.
Additionally, two new terms have been coined: the “due date” and the “deadline”, with the former being when the assignment is due and the latter being two weeks from the established due date.
After the deadline passes, teachers no longer need to accept assignments and a zero will be put into the gradebook, though it is up to teachers on whether or not they choose to adhere to this.
The policy brings relief to teachers, as they will no longer have loads of submissions piling in at the end of a quarter.
For students, the opposite is true.
Now that there is a hard deadline after which work can no longer be submitted for credit, it has created stress for students to get work in on time.
IB candidate Aysha Ali has felt the effect of this short deadline period. The rigorous IB programme assumes that students are able to handle various assignments from all sorts of classes in a short window of time.
“As an IB student I do not like the two week policy,” Ali said. “I was already having a huge workload.”
Ali suggests that the deadline be pushed back a week to allow for some breathing room.
“If you think about it, two weeks to redo a summative can be out of the question because IB classes are giving new materials at a rapid pace,” said Ali. “Extending the deadline would help me balance my studies and other commitments.”
Others like junior Gina Chae have seen the silver lining of the updated policy and how it improves work ethic.
“As much as I don’t like the time crunch, it disciplines me to finish my assignments on time,” said Chae. “I do feel stressed but I think it would positively affect me later down the road.”
Another benefit of the policy is that students are encouraged to do work relevant to what they are currently studying. This will result in more meaningful assignments of higher quality.
“There will be higher quality work turned in at a more reasonable time, and that’s because with the work you’re doing right now, you have the content in your mind,” said Costa. “It’s fresh, so you’re more likely to do better work.”
Although there are varied reactions to the policy, it is still early in the year.
As time passes we will better see its effects and how students are truly impacted, and we can then assess if additional changes should be made.