Educators discuss the implications of late work and grade penalties.
With the fall semester concluding in December, educators discussed their perspectives on providing penalties for late work. The question of incorporating soft skills, such as timeliness, into performance-based grading continues to be a highly debated topic: while some educators highlighted equity implications and criticized the prioritization of grades over learning, others shared that accepting late work adds more to their plate.
- “Take off 10 points a day for late work if it makes you feel good, y’all! Do you! It makes more sense for me to set a reasonable deadline, remind my students that I can’t physically grade after that deadline, and don’t make assignments worth so much that one grade tanks them.” —High School English Teacher in Texas
- “Grades have value. Is late work/learning less valuable than learning on time? I’m saying be explicit with your boundaries, give reminders, and don’t allow one assignment to dictate whether students pass or fail. But also don’t take off points because you’re inconvenienced.” —High School English Teacher in Texas
- “And honestly, if you’re going to take points off, just admit it’s more about our convenience than any pedagogy. Late work is annoying as a teacher. I hate grading it and dealing with it. But my annoyance shouldn’t impact their grade.” —English Teacher, N/A
- “I keep all the missing work as a ‘missing=zero’ all year but as we move forward I start dropping the old stuff. When grades are due, I drop all the missing stuff except in cases where there isn’t any other evidence to base the grade. Then I leave a single zero in its place.” —Educator, N/A
- “Once we start taking points off for being late, we are no longer assessing learning; we may not even be teaching any more.” —ELA Teacher in Hawaii
- “Yes to all of this. My policy is [that] late work doesn’t get feedback and you can’t revise it because I don’t have the capacity to provide that accommodation (170 students). So turn it in late and make sure it’s your best work. If you think you need feedback, then plan for the deadline.” —English Teacher in New York
- “We don’t grade on habits and behaviors in my class. Just skills that have been taught and can be measured. (Doesn’t mean we don’t teach into these things or assess them, they just do not get a grade).” —English Teacher in New York
- “Most schools in my area require that we give credit for late work received even if the deadline is reasonable. I understand your point, but PLCs have to agree on a late work policy and students receive credit for work done up to a certain amount of days.” —English Educator in Virginia
- “I don’t have any single assignment that changes a grade to the point of ‘tanking.’ That said if a student plans on ignoring all of the six essays assigned this term, it will not go well.” —Educator in California
- “I agree, I wish that admin did. We are asked to accept & grade all late work (not just big grades) until the last day of the marking period. It hurts the kids. They overestimate their ability to do it all at once and put off a lot until the last day of class and they break down.” —High School Teacher, N/A
- “I stopped taking points off years ago because I felt that the acquisition of the skills of reading & writing was more important. Do I have students that abuse the system and is it annoying to grade late work? Yes! But at least they are writing.” —ELA Teacher in Missouri
- “I’m reasonably sure that most if not all digital gradebooks have the ability to mark that an assignment was late, as well as leaving a comment letting the student know what they need to do to get it turned in. That communicates more than a deduction IMHO.” —English Teacher, N/A
- “My only concern about late work is in classes where ideas are built on (like math). Chances are, if they don’t do the work, they don’t have the building blocks. Not sure what the solution is though.” —Educator, N/A
- “I teach math & while what you say is true, I spiral review & scaffold all the time because not all students have the same mastery of previous content. If I waited for mastery by all I’d never move on.” —Math Teacher in Montana
- “I would have a conversation with students to see what was going on and to develop an action plan for them to turn in their assignments. Students deal with various issues, mental and otherwise, and I was simply disinterested in being a source of anxiety and pressure for them.” —Educator in New York
- “Another thing: there were times when I was behind in my grading. Given the power dynamic in the classroom, students couldn’t hold me accountable for that in the same ways I could when they were late with their assignments. So I wouldn’t trip about late assignments.” —Educator in New York
- “I used to take off points for late work. And then I noticed the same kids getting points taken off. And then I realized that *maybe* I was perpetuating an underlying problem instead of teaching anyone a lesson.” —High School English Teacher
- “I allow make up work. For instance, if I assign a student an essay and they only turn in one sentence and their name, they have an opportunity to make that assignment up. But if they turn in nothing, they don’t get the opportunity.” —Educator in Florida
- “I’m also working on setting up my classroom using Agile/Scrum Master practices. Using the lingo and concepts. Approaching the classroom like project management.” —Educator in Florida
- “I feel like a lot of this depends on a variety of factors and there’s no universal answer to this question.” —High School History Teacher in New York
- “One year my high school made it mandatory that we took off points. It was uniform across the school. At some point the highest a kid could make was a 50. Soooo many kids failed. Lots of athletes and students with jobs. Needless to say, that mandate was removed.” —Educator, N/A
- “Same. Also, I used rubric grading and there is no place for behaviors in that grading. I want their grade to reflect their knowledge and skills. I give them a flex date it’s due to help with time management and then a final date—one that is because I have to turn in grades.” —English Teacher, N/A
- “We don’t take points off late work. We accept late work at any point in the term. But what does that mean in my middle school? My homework completion is significantly down because students think I’ll just get to it when I get to it and then they never do.” —Middle School Teacher in Minnesota
- “I allow make up work. For instance, if I assign a student an essay and they only turn in one sentence and their name, they have an opportunity to make that assignment up. But if they turn in nothing, they don’t get the opportunity.” —Educator in Florida
- “College professors AND high school teachers: If you’re going to accept late work, stop penalizing students for submitting work late.” —High School English Teacher in Texas
- “ IF you are going to accept late work, penalizing students with their grades for work you’re going to accept anyway is really just about control and convenience. And I’ve done it.” —High School English Teacher in Texas
- “Just had an honors kid say, ‘This isn’t done, but I want to get some credit.’ and I said, ‘can you finish it tonight at home? Then do that and get all the credit.’ He was so grateful. Like, I’m not trying to play games–show me what you can do and get that grade.” —Middle School ELA Teacher in Michigan
- “My official policy is I’ll take it late without penalty for about a week but in reality any kid that asks for an extension will get it. Chapter tests are drop dead dates for that chapter’s work.” —Math Teacher in Montana
- “If I had the choice, I would not accept late work. But the school district mandates that I have to, and yes, there is a 10% deduction.” —Teacher in Texas
- “I give full credit for full effort and work. No late points taken off but will not accept past a hard deadline that’s typically a week after the original due date.” —Middle School Teacher in Florida
- “You know the real reason why, as a middle school teacher and professor, I don’t take off points for late work? Because I’m not that organized! I taught over 130 students and collected work all the time. It took a herculean effort to simply grade and return the work.” —Educator in DC
- “The effort involved in taking off points based on submission dates was just too much to add to my plate, especially when I was accepting paper assignments. I didn’t have the bandwidth.” —Educator in DC
- “The[process of] returning work was why I cut points. In order for them to have their work back to study, I had to cut points when stuff came in weeks late.” —Former Teacher in DC
- “I recommend having a cutoff for when you stop accepting late work so that you don’t end up with a bunch of work at the end of semester. I learned the hard way one time when a student threatened to call the mom to school if I didn’t grade a late assignment. I was unbothered.” —School Leader, N/A