Apr 27 2008
UP Absence Grades Take Two
[ETA: I posted this on Sunday, and though Wordpress says it's published, it's not showing up or sending my email alert, so here's my second try. Apologies if it double posts.]
I’ll be posting the absences grades tomorrow morning, but I wanted to post this explanation of how I calculated the grades.
Normally, my policy is to count each tardiness as .33 absences, but given how many of my 8 o’clock class had that problem, in sympathy I dropped it to .25.
I take the total number of absences, subtract the number of excused absences for which I received documented excuses, add the total number of tardies (times .25), and subtract four for acceptable absences. I’ve decided to also subtract 1 for a reasonable number of tardies (four). The number that remains is the number that I subtract from your total grade, per the syllabus. This number (times negative 1 to indicate that it will be subtracted) is what I’ll be releasing tomorrow morning.
A couple of you have had such good attendance that you will actually be getting extra credit for this. Your numbers will be positive. This is one of those rare cases where a 0 is an acceptable grade. 
I’ll post here again next week when Glossary and second exam grades are done.
Best – Prof. McS
