Grades and grade-point averages can be incredibly misleading. Perhaps a student had a bad day when they took the exam or they had challenges beyond the classroom when they needed to write that final paper. Perhaps a student did not have the support needed to write a compelling paper?
There are so many factors that shape grades and extend well beyond the classroom not just to social situations, but relate to deeply personal facets. Each of us learn in a wide range of ways, and it is our duty as teachers to explore those ways for our students – many of our students have no idea how they learn, because they have not had opportunities to explore this in any course.
I firmly believe that bad grades in no way reflect student achievement, but rather suggest the failure of teachers to cater to, recognize, or even to consider the different learning needs of students. Now I am not suggesting that every student should receive an “A” grade, but that the teacher is, in many ways, partly to blame for a student receiving a “D”. Perhaps the teacher was unapproachable? Did they explain a concept in a convoluted way? Perhaps they did not explain it, and some students learn better from a lecture than the lousy textbook assigned at the outset. I do not mean to suggest that teachers need to jump through all kinds of hoops for all of our students, but we should at least admit our own role in the delivery of content and for thinking about ways for our students to engage with materials in a meaningful way.
