Zack Rappleye

Whiting

English 12 Period 6

19 February 2019

Attendance Should Not Affect Your Academic Grade

Should grades in school be affected by attendance? Should grades be assessed based on

attendance or performance? Grades should be based on performance, attendance is a matter of

good citizenship, not your performance. Grades are a matter of whether or not you understand

the material. A grade is also how well you complete your work and whether or not you complete

it on time on the designated due date.

There are many teachers and schools that have attendance as part of their grade, their

main reasoning for doing this is creating good habits for future jobs. That is great, but attendance

does not always affect your performance. Your boss would not say you are a terrible worker if

you are five minutes late but still complete everything asked of you. How well you work and

how reliable you are on getting to work on time are two completely separate assessments.

Schools and teachers should grade you on performance, attendance is separate. Grades

should be based on quality of work, correctness of work, and the timely manner that the work is

completed in. Teachers should not be able to change your grade based on attendance because

grades are based on performance, it is inactivating, and it is unnecessary.

 Grades are based on how well you complete your work and how fast you get it done.

Completing quality work on a specific deadline is what a grade should represent. If you can miss

class and still complete all work by the deadline, then why does it matter? ​Sparks, Sara D.​ said,

“Attendance is nothing more than arriving and leaving at a prescribed time. What you do for

those minutes in between, is up to the student. You might be the type of student who attends and

pays attention. But what about that kid next to you? He’s sleeping and earning an equal number

of points.”. Imagine you finish your test with 100% and end up only getting a 75% because you

missed the day the test was taken. Even though you went through the proper procedure to make

up the test, you still missed class so you get marked 25%. If you're having a hard time getting to

class, then all of the sudden your grade drops that would be insanely frustrating. Grades should

not be changed based on your attendance.

Attendance is important for your grade, not a single person can argue it isn't. Coming to

class is a way of showing your teacher respect and it’s also a very important way to learn the

required information. Attendance is important for many different things, class lectures and class

discussions are not something you can make up easily. Coming to class is different than doing

work on your own time outside of class. Attendance is important for your grade, ”consistently

avoiding your classes will tend to be detrimental and will hurt your final grade.”​Schloskey,

Jessica​. Your attendance should not directly affect your grade, however, if you constantly skip

class, then what do you really expect. The best way to learn material is through repetition. Class

discussions, lectures, and asking questions are some of the best ways to learn information at

school. Those are not things easily made up outside of school, however, if you're not able to
make it to class on a particular day and you have to do it outside of class it is still doable. Your

grade is based on if you complete your work or not. If you are missing class but still completing

all the assignments and understanding the material, then there is no issue. School is about

learning, if you get just as much out of school as someone that rarely goes to school, then

congratulations that’s not easy.

Attendance is important in many different ways and in no way can anyone argue that it is

unimportant. School has become too much about “just getting the grade” ​Hobbs, Tawnell D.

School is about learning the information to help you later on in life. So many people in schools

nowadays copy, cheat and do whatever they can to just get that grade. Some students that do the

absolute bare minimum just to get by and pass, will end up learning more than those who have

better grades. School grades should be based more on how much you are learning. Getting a

grade based on how much you've learned could be done through assessments. Busy work does

not record if you've learned the information. It is just to record if you can complete a task given

to you. Attendance is just a grade of your responsibility, the academic grading system is flawed

and needs a renovation. The grading system should go through some major changes to make sure

students are actually learning. School is for learning, if you’re going to school with perfect

attendance and cheating on everything and have straight A’s and learn nothing, What do you

have to show for that? Your straight A’s that's about it. Those A’s don’t mean anything if you’re

not learning.
 Many like to argue the fact of having a future job that requires good attendance needs

these good habits. “That’s just life” every student hears that all the time. Yes, this is true that you

should create good habits for later in life. Your boss would not say you are terrible at doing your

job just because you are five minutes late. Your boss would acknowledge that your are still a

good worker but he would talk to you about your attendance. This is what a teacher should do,

the teacher should let you know if your attendance needs improvement. Your grade should not

tell you that. Just like your boss would acknowledge that you are still working very hard. It is

also important to do something about it if it starts to affect your performance. If a students poor

attendance is causing them to fail every quiz, then something should be done. A letter grade is a

grade on performance, if your attendance is affecting that, then something need to change.

Encouragement and advice are both requirements for an education and a workplace.

Attendance is a type of citizenship grade, if teachers want a way to record the attendance

of a student and give feedback to the student about their attendance then they should create a

separate grade form to track their attendance. Teachers could have a separate grade on a number

grading scale, one through four. Teachers should have a citizenship grade on a number scale

rather than changing the letter grade that should be based on learning. The grade could include

grades for the students on their participation, attendance, respectfulness. All things of which

should not affect your letter grade unless it is directly affecting your quality of work.
 Works Cited

"SCHOOL ATTENDANCE." ​Arkansas Business​, 7 May 2018, p. 24A+. ​Student Resources in Context​,

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540332334/GPS?u=pioneer&sid=GPS&xid=f489524d. Accessed 30

Jan. 2019.

Sparks, Sarah D. "Student Attendance; 'Reducing Student Absenteeism in the Early Grades by Targeting Parental

Beliefs'." ​Education Week​, 13 June 2018, p. 4. ​Opposing Viewpoints in Context,​

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A544257772/GPS?u=pioneer&sid=GPS&xid=cd060223. Accessed 30

Jan. 2019.

"Graded By Attendance?" ​Arkansas Business​, 16 Jun 2018, p. 24A+. ​Student Resources in Context​,

https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540332334/GPS?u=pioneer&sid=GPS&xid=f489524d. Accessed 16

Jan. 2019.

Hobbs, Tawnell D. "Schools Crack Down as More Students Cut Class."​ Wall Street Journal Online,​ 30 Aug. 2018,

pp. n/a​. SIRS Issues Researcher​, ​https://sks.sirs.com​.

"SCHOOL ATTENDANCE." ​Arkansas Business​, 7 May 2018, p. 24A+. ​Student Resources in Context​, Accessed 10

Jan. 2019.

Schloskey, Jessica, and Peter Brosnan. "Wheel deal: should driver's licenses be linked to school attendance?"

Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication,​ 9 Apr. 2012, p. 7. G

​ lobal Issues in Context,​ Accessed 10 Jan.

2019.