A student who was gone

Today a student comes into class who was gone yesterday. He sits down and copies the notes from his table partner (kudos to him for at least starting to figure out what he missed). I ask the class to get out the sheet we worked on yesterday and students write the answers on the board so we can go over them. At some point I realize that this kid had been gone yesterday and has yet to ask for this sheet that we are working on. By now, probably close to 10 minutes has passed in class. I then ask the students to complete the next part individually which we then go over on the board. We spent probably about 25 minutes on this worksheet and this kid never once asked me for the sheet nor did he go back to the basket where I keep extra handouts to get one. He just sat there.

And then later today I was looking at my gradebook. I have 4 students who have never passed ANY of the competency tests this year. That means they have a zero for 20% of their grade right now. These are tests that I let them take as many times as they need to as long as they get the required grade on them. They are essentially free points if you take the time to work with me and get them done. I have NEVER had a student who was trying fail one of these tests!

Many of these kids are the same ones that are all mad at me because they get a zero on them if they don't ever earn that required grade. If I had just taken the score they got on it and entered it in the gradebook, yes their grade would be higher. But they would still be failing because they wouldn't know the material any better and so they would still be getting 30% on the chapter tests (yes, all 4 of the ones who have never passed any competency tests got right around a 30%) on the chapter test. And so those kids would still be failing (along with tons of others who were happy with the first score they got on those competency tests regardless of whether they knew the material)!!!!