Sorry everyone, I’m back now, it was a very busy week (doing 5-6 hours sleep)
Thank you all for your input. It was helpful to have a range of perspectives
I thought more about it & it ultimately came down to this: do I believe my daughter or the teacher?
It’s literally my daughter’s word (she thinks the grading wasn’t right) vs. that teacher’s, who verbally gave her the bad score, without showing us any documentation, even the auto-graded numerical score report
In this case, I’d like to give my daughter the benefit of the doubt.
Her reaction was more of surprise than anything, and given we’ve already been having this conversation many times in our family, it’s not like she’s embarrassed about it anymore. Like I’ve told her many times, even if she did get a C when we seek the records, I think she did the right thing in airing her concerns, when she really felt like something is amiss, instead of being passive and simply going along with someone in a position of authority/ taking “their word” for it just because.
The teacher, when asked, was unable/ did not want to show us the Canvas auto-graded score, which was strange to me.
The decision pathway for us is,
Option 1 - If we seek the records, really get to the bottom of things, and
(a) My daughter’s feelings were right, the bad score was inaccurate/ unjustified, then it would be corrected, and we find out what was the true score, have it be reflected on her records. My daughter would share with the few of her peers who were affected about what happened & they would get their scores changed back too. The teacher would also have pressure to act more fairly in the future given this time they had to show accuracy of reporting. Overall effect: ++
(b) My daughter’s true scores per the verified records match the verbally reported ones. We can rest easy knowing our fears were unfounded. Given that everyone acted honorably in this scenario, there’s nothing to be ashamed of anyway. Overall effect: +
Option 2 - If we ignore/ suppress our suspicions, just because it’s a potentially awkward situation and takes more work, then
(a) If our daughter’s scores were indeed pushed down, and so did the few others’, and no one did anything about it, because it was their word against the teacher’s, it’d be perpetuating the problem for no reason. Overall effect: –
(b) Even if our daughter’s scores were reported accurately anyway, because we haven’t verified, there would still be suspicion in my daughter’s mind, given that she would still doubt the teacher verbally reported to her the true score. It would probably affect her interactions/ learning in the environment, eg. if you suspect someone doesn’t like you or treated you bad, you’d probably not put in 100% either, even subconsciously. Overall effect: –
Thus on balance, we think it’s probably better we persist in getting to the bottom of this. Obviously this is the first time that (a) my daughter felt the grade was off to such an extent (having done so many years of school by now, she like many of her peers all seem well-versed in guesstimating the ‘range’ they should have scored in), and (b) the teacher verbally reported the score which my daughter questioned, without showing the graded exam, or even the score printout when we asked for it.
Thank you all for your input, there were some helpful points shared here.
We’ll try to escalate things now. I’m not sure how long the process would take, but I’ll try to update you all (might not post as frequently). At least, if someone here has a kid who faces a similar situation in the future, you’ll have more info at your fingertips on what to do.
If you think of other stuff, please feel free to post, I’ll check back every so often.