Extra Credit is not Classical

 At the beginning of the year when going over my classroom and grading policies, a student asked the question, “What kinds of extra credit opportunities do you give?” Many other students perked up visibly and were looking at me with intent and expectant looks. To tell the truth, I wasn’t quite expecting this question, which is framed in a way that assumes I will give extra credit in the first place. I answered that I do not give extra credit at all, in any class, to any student, for any reason.

An uproar erupted in the classroom after I told my students that I do not give extra credit. “Why?” asked several students at once. There was something shocking in realizing that this group of students clearly felt entitled to extra credit. I simply answered, “I do not give extra credit.” And that was that, although some grumbling has persisted for the remainder of the year about this topic and students are always trying to get me to change my mind.

I can’t help but think that extra credit has stopped being “extra” at some point. It has become commonplace to add an extra credit question (or two…) at the end of all or almost all assessments or to have “extra credit opportunities” a few times a year.  Bewilderingly, even the grading program used at my school has an assignment category for “extra credit.”

 These interactions with my students have made me think about this topic. What is the point of extra credit? Despite my dislike of extra credit, I can recognize the gracious seed of an idea there: rewarding a student for solving a challenging question or problem. I remember trying to solve riddles or math puzzles that were extra credit at the end of middle school math tests, and those were well enough. I don’t have too much of an issue with a math teacher sneaking in a difficult math riddle at the end of an exam for early finishers. I do think it can be done well on occasion and when used sparingly.

However, extra credit needs to be clearly understood by the students as “extra,” which includes understanding that extra credit isn’t something that anyone is entitled to or “deserves.” I sometimes grade tests for other teachers or administer make-up tests during study hall, and I have seen students immediately rush to the extra credit question at the end of the test before even attempting the actual test problems. Once, I graded a test where a student had put question marks next to almost every single problem but had attempted the extra credit question.

 In the mind of the middle school student, extra credit is a bonus cheat code; it’s a way to beat the “game” of the test. This view is able to take root when school and the entire endeavor of learning is actually just one big game, where a winning high score is a good grade. I’ve spent much of this year thinking about how students have come to think of school this way at shockingly young ages—13, 12, even 11 years old. I remember slipping into this mindset only well into high school, mostly because my concern started shifting to how my grades would look to colleges. I don’t recall even having access to my cumulative grades in middle school until report cards were sent out twice a year. Why would a twelve-year-old be so concerned with rounding an 89 to a 90?

Maybe the better question is why wouldn’t they be? The thrill of getting a high score must release more dopamine than reading St. Augustine’s Confessions or writing a chreia. “We should get our students to care about learning, not just getting good grades,” is the aphorism of the day. Of course, all teachers will agree with this, especially those of us in the classical world who have such a dear fondness for the fount of wisdom of the past and want more than anything to see our students drink deeply from it with relish and enthusiasm. I would like to be careful with this, though. I have no intention of villainizing a student who rejoices when he earns a good grade. There is no greater joy than praising a student who genuinely deserves it. As his teacher, I’ll rejoice alongside him, and all teachers know the happiness that comes with this victory. Ultimately, grades have their place and the duty of a just teacher is to make sure that these grades are meaningful and deserved.

But is extra credit meaningful and deserved? If a student earns a 77 percent on a test but gets an 80 percent after the extra credit is added to her grade, what is the meaning of this new grade? Does the grade after the extra credit mean that this student demonstrates a “B-level” understanding of the material as defined by the teacher? If so, the question should have just been a regular question. If not, then extra credit is unjust and useless. What about a student who receives 100 percent on the test but gets 105 percent when the extra credit is added on? What does a 105 percent test score even mean?

Much has been written about the use of letter grades, percentage scores, and GPAs in classical education. Along with many other classically-minded teachers, I’m wary of modern ways of evaluating student performance and comprehension. I don’t even think performance or comprehension are the preeminent things teachers should be evaluating in their students. These things should be emphasized only insofar as they help students attain and pursue the virtues. But you can’t exactly “grade” your students in how virtuous they are (how would you do right now if you were graded according to the virtues?).

This is precisely why teachers should tread with caution around any method or structure of evaluation that incentivizes the thrill of getting the high grade, like extra credit. This also includes talking extensively about grades in the classroom in general. The teacher is the curriculum, so if the teacher is all about the grades, her students will also be all about the grades. But as we know, there are things more beautiful than grades.

We should indeed be getting our students to care more about learning than getting good grades. One way of doing that is by completely purging our schools of “extra credit” and the love of the high score and instead orienting our students’ tastes to love St. Athanasius’s doctrine of the Incarnation, to love propositional logic, to love the virtues, to love righteous authority, to love John Donne’s sonnets and so on. Making extra credit a regular and expected part of grading practices only reinforces modern attitudes about grades and scores.