Jennings, Jefferson Davis Parish, May 2033. Florence, a young French teacher at Venomous Agendas High, is summoned to the principal's office after receiving a call from the principal about a request for a grade change in AP French. The parent and child are both seated in the office when Florence arrives with the entire written part of the portfolio of work submitted by the student during the school year.

Tabarnak! As much as I would have loved to believe in "the better of the AP test and the home final", and that I am not a perfect grader, I always feel a little nervous when I get a request for a regrade. They don't happen very often, but when they do happen, I am made to feel like I am a defendant in a criminal trial, Flo starts thinking when she puts the student's home final on the table. When the meeting starts in earnest:

"Ms. Finney, I trust you understand what's at stake for you if we can't resolve this regrade request to the student's satisfaction" Marianne, the principal of VA, warns Flo before the meeting proper begins.

"Yes, I know, tenure. I don't need to be reminded of how critical this year and the next are for my future as an educator" Flo deadpans the Black principal.

At the high school level, often teachers need to accumulate 3-4 years of experience before tenure can be given. The parent of the plaintiff starts speaking about the rationale for the regrade request:

"My child really needs to maintain a three point five for TOPS and I am wondering if the grade in AP French can be raised to at least an A minus" the parent explains why the request is even made, while the student for whom the request is made shows the school staff a sensitivity analysis of TOPS GPA based upon the final grade in AP French.

"Before I can determine whether the request can be honored, we need to review your attendance record in AP French, as well as ask extra questions" Flo starts the meeting, a little reluctant to grant the request.

Florence knew that attendance was not the issue. However, just because the appellant has faithfully attended class didn't mean a whole lot. Once that is done, the flurry of questions begins for the attendees:

"First of all, I know nothing about your life outside of school. Are there things going on at home, or in the outside world, that you believe could have affected your ability to perform in class?" Flo asks the student.

"What could qualify?" the clueless student asks her.

"Like a dysfunctional family, or even an abusive parent, or siblings, or extended illness in the family, long hours at work, undeclared problems of your own, that sort of stuff" the answer comes quickly from Flo.

"Yeah, if you have stuff like this going in your life, maybe the problem runs deeper than AP French alone" Marianne comments on the issues, almost as if pressuring either the student or the parent.

"What I really want hope for is a bump in AP French" the plaintiff realizes that even getting from B+ to A- in AP French would push them over the 3.50 threshold, knowing the plaintiff scored a 27 on the ACT. "I believe what you're asking for is private information; you're asking me to breach my privacy!"

"Private information? If stuff happened off-campus that could have affected your academic performance, and we don't know about it, it does not do anyone any favors, and certainly not you!" Florence retorts, her face about to turn red.

Marianne then brings up the disciplinary records of the student, just to make sure that any undisclosed extenuating circumstances, if any, would actually have an impact consistent with the claims made by either party. The parent starts complaining about the complexity of the appeals process.

"My child only needs one extra percent on the final grade to get to an A minus and hence to a three point five; why is it so complicated to get that extra percent?" the parent, frustrated by the need for information to get what they see as one more percent in the overall grade.

"I know the process to appeal a grade is complex, but this is an exceptional request and must be treated accordingly" Marianne explains to the frustrated parent.

"It might seem minor, but this late it's a last resort" Flo adds to this chorus.

At my old workplace, Wattpad High, very few people would even consider grubbing for grades and most people there were content to just graduate in good standing. Romance did land a good number of kids in trouble there, but my kids deserve better than Wattpad High, Marianne starts thinking about her past experiences with grade grubbers.

"Yeah, on individual assignments, when I feel like errors were made in grading, I didn't need to get through this gauntlet of questioning about life circumstances! They just went over the error claims!" the plaintiff whines about the complexity of the process.

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"Exactly, just go over the final!" the parent starts to lose patience.

Florence then turns to the plaintiff. "If you had serious problems in your life, then the extra points you seek could come from elsewhere, like participation points, depending on when these problems occurred. It's not that I don't want to give these extra points, it's just that I want to make sure these extra points are awarded fairly"

The best hope would be three extra percent or more on the final's long answer questions. Yet, if participation points count for ten percent of a seventy percent, obviously it will take a lot of extra participation points to offset one extra percent on the final, the plaintiff thinks about how they're going to get the extra points they feel they need, especially when extra TOPS (read: state merit-based financial aid) money is on the line.

"I have no undeclared problems to report. Happy now?" an angry plaintiff finally answers a much earlier question.

"Now we can go over the final, to see if I misused room for interpretation" Flo then lays down the plaintiff's final on the table, with both the plaintiff and their parent sighing in relief.

Multiple-choice questions are glossed over entirely, but all other questions are fair game to review for additional points. They start arguing about the substance of the answers, believing that it's the lowest hanging fruit to get to the extra 3% on the final the plaintiff believes is needed to get an A- in the course. However, they don't believe they would get a 5 on the AP French test.

"I understand that grading language arts is subjective. However, grade change requests must not be done lightly in the future. Maybe it would have been better to just ask for access to your copy, and not ask directly for a regrade" Florence warns the plaintiff about future grade grubbing.

After a thorough review of the plaintiff's short and long answer questions, Florence and the principal identified a few things that could be added to the plaintiff's score on the final, for a total of 3%.

"Do we agree on the following changes, and the extra points they give?" Flo asks both the principal and the student.

"Yes" all 3 people agree with the changes made to the final exam grading.

With the approval of the principal, as well as Flo's, the new grade is posted on the gradebook and, from there, the transcript. But before the parent-student pair leave the premises, Flo attempts to intercept them and discuss the importance of grades.

"It's ok not to have perfect grades all the time, and, while they may matter so long as you're still in school, because, you know, scholarship money, including but not limited to, TOPS, or college and, if applicable, graduate school admissions, in the long run, grades only matter when you practice a profession where access to continuing education is a prerequisite for advancement or even to just keep practicing it, or changing careers, and even then, it's for admission or enrollment purposes, or, if you're lucky, getting your employer to pay for your continuing education, in whole or in part, and when the career change requires getting additional education to effect, respectively" Flo explains to the pair.

"Even four hundred extra bucks per year can make a financial difference in the lives of so many prospective college students here" the parent explains the implications of TOPS tiers. More specifically, Performance vs Honors.

I hate that sort of grade grubber with a passion. However, I can't blame them; when, at this stage of their lives, what matters to them is more about grades than know-how, especially when their value is clear to them... Flo starts ruminating but must abstain from yelling at the student, much less the principal. Yet she has lingering feelings of anger towards that student as that student and their parent left the office. People in AP French are more likely to be concerned about the 3.50 threshold than the 3.25 one, and people on either side of either threshold would be the ones most likely to do what that student did. That said, while TOPS also have SAT/ACT thresholds, these tests are not something a student can haggle about with teachers in hopes of improvement. I sure hope that student won't ask me to write a letter of recommendation if and when that kid requests one... she then sighs.

"Something's not right: sometimes I feel like you might have emphasized TOPS money too much" Flo confides in Marianne, while she's about to scream. "I understand we don't want the students' futures to be screwed over"

"I feel like the amount of TOPS money earned by the student body would make VA look good outside of the extracurricular arena. However, something's not right: look at how quickly the student presented their analysis of how many points were needed, as well as the GPA given a certain AP French grade" Marianne then brings up the student evaluations. "I'm a little surprised that anyone would have brought up grading as an issue"

"Since I started teaching AP French, I was always told that, while the students' work load is high, they should be graded more leniently so that they'll be more inclined to put in the work. That sort of thing doesn't happen often to me, but when they do happen, it's a painful reminder of how grades don't reflect learning" Flo is clearly on the defense, especially when Marianne flashes Florence's course evaluations in front of her.

Comments range from her course feeling too much like taking AP World History in French, overemphasizing literature (and history along with it) over language, but it seems like the core complaints against the course are mostly confined to content.

"How do you explain these content-related complaints?" Marianne is a little tense.

"Ciboire! It's not my fault the content of the AP French test is heavy on the literature! Or more specifically, literature as a medium to evaluate fluency. It's much more manageable to study literature if you study the historical context in which literature is written, along with the works! Strong AP test scores will often give advanced standing, and I want our kids to get these!"

They keep discussing the implications of teaching to a test, on a variety of levels, before Flo leaves the principal's office.

After she left the principal's office and back into the faculty office area, Flo ruminates on the cluelessness of the principal regarding the teaching of AP courses, and the powerlessness of teachers to change much in the material coverage. And then her thoughts turn to her future as a teacher. I know what tenure means: no more stressing out on a yearly basis, but because French teachers are harder to hire for, normally tenure should be realistic for me to get. But I can tell the principal is not the most enthusiastic about me. However, perhaps there's another way to earn it...